Essex Country Show

Last week, we played at the Essex Country Show, from 12 until 3 on Saturday and Sunday.

It’s not really the sort of event where people sit in their deckchairs and listen for three hours – a lot of the audience were on their way from A to B and paused for a few minutes as they were passing, and it was gratifying to see how many of them wanted to find out more about the band (judging by conversations during the breaks, and the amount of flyers that people took away with them).

I can’t help feeling we were really lucky with the weather. It had been due to rain on Saturday, but fortunately, this failed to materialise. Sunday was gorgeous  -dry and sunny. I could complain about the breeze, and the difficulty of managing sheet music, I suppose, but that would just be picky, and possibly even churlish. And anyway, we don’t like to moan in our band.

If anyone wants to submit captions for any of the above, please do!

Hello, goodbye

We’re saying goodbye to a couple of players tonight and in the next few weeks, and we welcome a few new members.

Glen on percussion had his last rehearsal with us tonight. Well, his last rehearsal with us for a while, anyway. Liam – our lower lower brass section -  is still with us, but only until early October. It’ll be all a bit quiet at the back without them…We wish them both all the best and they know they can drop back in on us any time. And we don’t say that to just anyone, you know*.

And we say a big hello to Hannah (clarinet), Rebecca (alto sax) and a huge welcome back to Alan (clarinet).

(*Actually, we do, really.We’re like that.)