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The band led the Tyne & Wear TUC May Day parade in Newcastle on Saturday May 4th, the first time in many years that we have had this honour.

It was also the first outing for the band’s new flag banners. Now everyone will know who we are when we play at events! See the photos in Gallery.

Assembling at the Centre for Life at 11:00, we played Songs of the Tyne and The Great Escape before lining up at the head of the march which set off promptly at 11:30 heading up Clayton Street and Market Street to the Monument, playing a series of marches: 1914, Slaidburn (my favourite!), Death or Glory, Sons of the Brave, Ballerina, Colonel Bogey and Standard of St George, several of them twice!

Shoppers lined the streets stopping to watch us go past. It was quite a feat to keep playing and avoid tripping over the kerbs or bumping into street furniture! We’re pleased to report no accidents!

At the Monument the band formed up and the parade came to a halt as we played Gresford, The Miners Hymn (on You Tube - link in the Gallery photos). Very moving.

At Exhibition Park we formed up again to play Hootenanny as the rest of the parade came past. There were many Trade Union banners on display and a strong theme of stopping cuts to local services.

The band played well all morning. Nichola did a great job on the bass drum. We were joined by a few friends from Newbiggin band and Cathy’s Michael on Euphonium. Sam came back for the weekend to play bass trombone, and another ex-band member Jimmy made an unexpected and welcome visit to help out on cornet!

Some of us stayed on at the rally to listen to the speeches, catch up with friends, browse the stalls and have a well earned pint!

We very much hope to be invited back next year.

Backworth Colliery Band invites applications for the post of Musical Director.

We are a self-supporting, 3rd Section band with a busy schedule of engagements.

Please send expressions of interest by email to backworthcollieryband@hotmail.co.uk before the closing date of Monday 6th May 2013.

Congratulations to the Backworth Junior Band who won the W.S.Bond Cup for best under-16 Brass Band at the Wansbeck Music Festival today. They gave an accomplished and entertaining performance of 5 pieces of music: Pendine march, Singing in the Rain, Disney, Unchained Melody, and The Floral Dance. For a small band they had a very full sound, in tune and playing together throughout. Well done! Senior band members in the audience were genuinely impressed!

Georgia gave a very good solo performance on cornet of Buster Strikes Back, accompanied by our Musical Director Callum on piano. Callum gave his own solo performance on trumpet for the James Shepherd prize in the under-21 category but was pipped by an “Outstanding” performance by Philip Tait into second place.

Well done everyone including Teresa who conducted the junior band on the day, and the other band members and supporters who do such a great job encouraging and teaching the junior players.

GD

The junior band go to the Wansbeck contest on Sunday 24th March at Ashington YMCA from 9:30am. We wish them every success and hope they enjoy the day and play the best they can! Why not come along and support them and all the young players?

A great performance by the band at Darlington on Sunday (17th March 2013) but not the result we hoped for! The adjudicator placed us last out of the 8 bands competing in the 3rd Section, but all our friends in the audience said we played well and are astounded at the bitterly disappointing result. But there you go…4th section here we come. The only way is up!

A message from our young and very talented Musical Director Callum: “I would like to congratulate each player that was on stand today at the Area contest. As far as I am concerned the band as a whole played the best I have ever heard as an ensemble. I would like to thank players that came in last minute namely Nicole Peckett, Andy Griffiths, Josh Sanders and Colin Harris! Thank you all so much. I thought as a band we put a hell of a lot of hard work and dedication into the piece making it sound the best that it could be; and it did so WELL DONE! Everyone should be very proud of the performance they put today; and I am proud to have conducted you all. And a special mention to the front row today consisting of TWO members. Nicole Peckett and Stephen Bushby. You both put a huge amount of effort into playing 5 parts between 2 and for that I thank you.”

Stephen, our Band Manager adds: “All thanks to you Callum, there was a drive and excitement in the band today. If we can keep it going, it’s a good start to bouncing back again next year.”

Yes, we worked hard and put everything we had into it. Callum did a great job and we all learnt a lot getting to grips with the Test piece “Hollywood". I think we can all feed very proud of ourselves and the band. We look forward to a great concert season - we already have a busy calendar with hopefully more bookings to come…

GD

The band go into Sunday’s 3rd Section Regional Contest at The Dolphin Centre, Darlington, in good spirits with high hopes of putting on a good performance of the set test piece “Hollywood".

It’s a challenging but enjoyable arrangement with many contrasting sections evoking the various genres of the Hollywood Movie industry, from epics, high drama, slap stick, romance, westerns and more.

Please wish us good luck, and we’ll report on the outcome next week.

Contest starts at 10:00am Sunday 17th March 2013.

Backworth Colliery Band will appear in an episode of “Ade in Britain” with Adrian Edmondson on Monday 4th March 2013. The programme is scheduled to broadcast at 4pm on ITV.

From the ITV press release:
Actor and comedian Adrian Edmondson is back for a second series continuing his travels around Britain searching for foods and traditions that are uniquely British. He starts his journey in the North East where he heads out to sea to try his luck catching salmon and trout, learns the delicate art of glassblowing, and tries a true North East delicacy - Pease pudding and stotties. Before he sets off on his way, Adrian cooks up a local recipe out the back of his caravan for a colliery band

This was filmed at Woodhorn Colliery last May.

This report appeared in the Hexham Courant, 28th Dec:
“Carol singing in the market square proved a great success as usual, with the fantastic Backworth Colliery Band playing its socks off and a lovely turnout of local people, helped along by the stalwart Dale Singers.
Thanks go to Allendale Lions Club for funding the event and to Les Elliott at the Golden Lion for feeding and watering the band and some of the singers!” Glynn Galley

A very nice write up, and now I know why my feet were so cold! GD

It’s been a busy December. Following the carol concert with Cragside and Benton Park Primary schools on the 9th, we played at a community carol singing event on Fusilier Field, Forest Hall on the 12th, at a wedding at St Pauls Church, Whitley Bay on the 15th, then the Hope City Church’s Carols by Glowstick at the Centre For Life on Sunday 16th. On Tuesday 18th we were at Allendale for their annual Lions Carols in the Square, and the 20th at NCFE Xmas party in Newcastle! Our final event of 2012 will be at our home village of Backworth, outside the Village Hall on Saturday 22nd at 6pm, then onto Backworth Social Club for the quiz (apocolypse permitting)!

It’s been an excellent month, but there hasn’t been much time to get ready for Christmas! Christmas cards will be arriving late this year!

Let’s hope 2013 is another good year for everyone associated with the band and all our family and friends.

The sun shone on Paddy Freeman’s Park on Sunday afternoon, and the children from Cragside and Benton Park Primary schools were in good voice singing favourite carols and other Christmas Songs, including Winter Wonderland, A Starry Night, Jingle Bells, The Snowman (Walking in the Air), Celebrations (the Valerie Collinson version, not Cliff!), There Isn’t Any Room (aka Rat-a-Tat-Tat), Away in a Manger, etc. The band had to be on their toes to keep up with the children and the arrangements they had learnt, but Stephen did a fantastic job passing on instructions and keeping everyone together!

PS thanks to Julie for the photos from this and many recent events. Over the last 2 years, Julie and Jane have taken most of the photos and videos that appear in the Gallery. Great work and a wonderful record!

GD