NEWS FROM THE CRICKLADE BANDThe band is all back in harness now and working on 2011’s repertoire. You can see where we are and what we’re doing either online at www.thecrickladeband.co.uk or at the Leisure Centre or call in for a list on Monday or Thursday evenings at The Club at Cricklade. We took the name of Cricklade to the City of Bath last year for the first time – they liked us so much they’ve booked us for two Parade Gardens bandstand concerts in 2011!
What an unusual Christmas period it was, plenty of snow and very cold indeed during our traditional carol playing in and around Cricklade. If you were among the many people in the High Street on the Saturday morning before Christmas it was quite a party in the snow, thanks must go to Chris Atkins, our Town Crier, for adding to the festive atmosphere and publicising Christmas Show 2010. If you saw the band out on Christmas morning and thought our tuba players were pouring hot toddy on their instruments – it wasn’t (we’d already had that!), it was hot water to de-ice the valves in the -11C temperatures. Thank you all for your kind donations to our collecting boxes – because we didn’t cancel a single event we can still make our usual sizeable donation to the Prospect Foundation as well as paying for some of the band’s annual running costs. We did have one Crew casualty, Lance Allen, who slipped and fell while on collecting duty, breaking his arm in three places – best wishes to Lance for his recovery and the lengthy physio that follows.
Staying with Christmas, thank you to the 140 hardy souls who managed to get to our annual Christmas Show at the Leisure Centre, this time it was -14C and the car park was deep in snow. De-icing was again on the agenda with band Crew members taking apart the heating oil filter to remove the ice! Once again we turned the sports hall into a rather grand theatre for the evening and there are pictures on the website. We had lusty singing, mulled wine, refreshments, a popular redesigned mammoth raffle supported by Cricklade businesses, more mulled wine and as usual there was mayhem during the ‘drama’ spot, Tally-Ho at Downton Abbey!
Going on – our BandAcademy offers tuition to people of all ages to play brass instruments and percussion. Also included is some manageable music theory (not compulsory!) and certificated attainment of the stages of learning – all in a friendly, welcoming environment and still at the unbelievable fee of just £1 a week.
Just turn up at The Club at Cricklade any Monday evening at 6.30 or have a look at the details on the website. Of course, if you’re already a proficient musician we welcome your interest too – our performance and repertoire is geared towards entertaining dance music, anything but staid or boring and we have a varied social programme too.
For those who aren’t interested in taking a musician’s role in the band, you could still play your part as a non-playing member of our envied ‘Crew’, that’s our uniformed support team.
You’re welcome to get involved with Cricklade’s own band – come and see us at the Club or contact us through the details on the website – you’ll wonder why you waited so long.
Cricklade Bugle 