Whit Friday Marches 2010
1st June 2010:
What a difference a year makes! The Boobs & Brass girls and their support crew arrived in Denton to glorious sunshine. Having treated some local schoolchildren to a preview of our road and contest marches we boarded the coach and set off for the villages of Saddleworth.
Our first contest was to be Lees where we joined the short queue of band coaches to start our 2010 Whit Friday experience. Although we were only the 5th band through the village we could already see that a huge variety of bands would be on the circuit as among others we were to follow Disney Brass and Smithill’s School Band down the High Street. When our turn came to set off, we gave a rousing rendition of Here Come the Girls and a passable impression of formation marching (though to be honest the watching crowds were probably slightly distracted by our side drummers Sam and Bex).
Once in front of the library we were hoping that the adjudicator Alan Fernie would find our first performance of the contest march ‘Irresistible’ true to its title. Our conductor Derek, (devilishly dapper in a smart suit with coordinating pink accessories, but not the bow tie – as that would apparently have been over the top!!) seemed reasonably pleased with our efforts and we hot footed it back to the bus in pursuit of our quest to get through 6 villages and appear in the rankings tables for the night.
Leaving Lees we headed to Greenacres where again queues were mercifully short and we lined up behind the Rossendale Scouts and Wantage Band to announce the arrival of the girls to the still sparse crowds (it was still just a little before 6pm by this point). Having made our way up the slight incline with associated hyperventilation to the dusty pub car park we gave our 2nd performance of Irresistible in front of the caravan.
A knowledgeable ‘man in the pub’ told us we had had ‘the best reception’ so far and even went so far as to say in the local understated fashion that we had indeed been ‘quite tidy’ – well done us!
It was back to the bus again for a sip or two of ‘orange juice’ as we headed for Delph. With the queues starting to build (a 7 band wait this time) the Boobies dispersed among the local hostelries to soak up the atmosphere. As we took our places a little later to start the road march we were all suffering a little from retinal damage from all the camera flashes – never have so many photos been taken of so many pink jacketed girls in such a short period of time! We descended the High Street to tumultuous applause – surely the best reception for any band that night – thank you Delph!
Bolstered by the support of the crowd we gave a strong third performance of the contest march and with the roars of approval from the audience echoing in our ears we once again boarded the coach for our next destination.
Ably guided by local man Graham we headed for Denshaw where we continued to follow the Uppermill Band around the locality. We impressed an initially dubious crowd of locals with another disciplined performance of Irresistible and before Peter Vine could add to his culinary tour of Saddleworth we were whisked away to our next destination. Thanks Denshaw – it was short but memorable!
At Grotton (where we had experienced our initial drenching and collected the deportment prize last year) we skirmished with pirates and just about managed to keep Sue from being held captive by Jack Sparrow before taking our place as band 33.
This somewhat fortuitously gave us an unexpected prize of £33 for the cause as the organisers were giving away this sum in celebration of Grotton’s 33rd year of hosting a Whit Friday contest.
Full of enthusiasm we headed for our sixth village of the night. We got to Greenfield at about 9.30 and had high hopes of getting through the village and on to another before the evening was over, even though we were 14th in line to play. We were excited to learn that the Briggus boys were next in line to play and so headed on to the contest field. As we approached the end of the march route we heard that there had been an accident and behind us Brighouse were halted mid flow as the emergency services fought their way through the crowds. Confusion reigned briefly as the organisers shortened the march route and used a side street to access the contest field and after a lengthy delay Brighouse were able to re-start the evening with a fine performance of Ravenswood (how do they make it sound so good but look so effortless?) Sadly with the delay our hopes of achieving 6 contests faded and we decided to call it a night and head back to our hotel.
Back at the hotel we changed out of the famous pink jackets and headed gratefully for the bar and the superb spread provided. Once we had all recharged our energy levels Mairi entertained us with some great accordion playing accompanying Peter Vine in a magnificent display of intricate footwork and great indigestion – perhaps the gastronomic tour of Saddleworth wasn’t the best ever plan!
By this point it was 1:30am and with the party still going strong the scribes of this drivel retired to bed so the rest of the evening will go undocumented.
We now await the results from the 5 villages we did manage to compete at and the total of funds raised on the night due to the efforts of the band but mainly through the efforts of the collecting team who proved very successful in diverting beer funds into our coffers. Thanks everyone for a great Whit Friday 2010 – we now can’t wait for the next one!
Gill English (Horn), Laura Hill (Horn), Sarah Kent (Cornet)
10th June 2010:
