The Band is currently celebrating a very generous donation from one of its former members. Ian Macdonald played 1st Trombone with the Band for many years and during that time became increasingly frustrated with the poor state of repair of the Band's music stands. In a wonderful gesture he has recently equipped the Band with modern, state-of-the-art, music stands for use in its city centre rehearsal room. The Band is extremely grateful for Ian's gift, which will serve it for years to come. Incidentally, despite his retirement from playing, Ian's connection with the Band is as strong as ever; his son Robert is the Band's Principal Cornet, his wife Sylvia plays Tenor Horn, daughter-in-law Mandy is on Flugel Horn, and granddaughters Emily and Elizabeth are in the Training Band! See Ian presenting the stands to Derek here===> http://www.chesterbrass.co.uk/?grp=9&pg=2&gallery=61

No, Brian M hasn’t adorned his body with a tasteless decoration! Last Saturday however, with colleagues from his other band, he took part in a Grand Military Tattoo at Fort Nelson in Hampshire. The RAF Voluntary Band, made up of amateur musicians (a mixture of Service personnel and civilians) from around the RAF, took its place alongside 2 professional bands, the Band of the Army Air Corps and the Band of the 6th Fleet United States Navy. A matinee performance in blazing sunshine was followed by an evening show which culminated in all 3 bands joining together to play, amongst other items, an arrangement of the 1812 Overture, accompanied by a spectacular fireworks display. Brian reports that he lost about 3 stone in weight just due to sweating (not a bad thing I hear you say), and that the day was a lot of hard work but extremely enjoyable. He has also stated that he will never again complain about the Chester Band uniform, as it is infinitely more comfortable to wear on a hot day than his military finery!

Yep they've been at it again. As regular readers will know our band is full of talented youngsters for whom one instrument isn't enough - here are 2 more! Congrats to Kirsty Blain (Horn) for Grade 4 with merit on the Saxophone, and to Leanne Wiltshire (TB cornet) for her grade 1 on flute :)

Hello All, As there isn't a band practice this Friday, I thought I'd better give you all an update on plans for the Germany tour. I've had a definite offer now from my contact in Weeze, which is that the Band would be guest of honour at the Kirmes festival in the nearby (small) town of Wemb, the festival taking place from 26-30 August 2005. The Kirmes festival is Wemb's version of the one that the Band played at in Weeze back in 1992. The proposed itinerary would include playing once or twice in Wemb, and a couple of concerts back in Weeze. This should still leave us some time for sightseeing (maybe another trip to Cologne?). My proposal is that we would set off from Chester on or about Wednesday August 24th, returning home on Thursday September 1st. Now the bad news! Accommodation is a major issue and it is likely that we would be accommodated in hotels in either Goch or Kevelaer (I know one or two nice pubs in both towns!). This would obviously come at a cost, estimated at between 35 and 50 Euros per person per night (£23-£33 at current exchange rates). I anticipate that the cost for children would be considerably less, particularly if 'Family Rooms' are used, but I would suggest that individuals plan for a worst-case scenario. So far then, we are looking at a possible cost for the tour of £13200 (8 nights x 50 people @ £33 per night). Still to be added on is a figure for the coach hire (it was £1500 back in 1992, so I reckon £5000 is probably about right, although I'm waiting for some quotes to come back). We are looking at a considerable figure if we are to achieve the tour, so I would ask you all to consider whether or not you think it's a viable proposition and, if so, what personal contribution individuals might have to make, thereby determining how much money we have to raise through sponsorship and donations. I really need to be able to give my contact an answer by mid-September, so get thinking! Thanks. Brian M PS The next practice I'll be attending will be on Monday September 6th, so if you can make the effort to get there that night we'll discuss the tour in more detail.

No main band until September 3rd. Reminder training band restarts on 6th September. For those who've missed rehearsals we're doing Music For a Festival in the November contest so get practicing!!

Thanks once again to Signplus. They've now supplied 2 additional banners for the band, with the band name and the famous clock logo. Look out for them at the solo competition and our concert at Kelsall.

Congratulations to Ruth Knight (TB cornet - contest percussion) on passing her A-levels. She's off to Bangor Uni in the Autumn.

A trusty band equipped with rubber gloves and strong bleach tackled the band room last Sunday! Many thanks to them all: I hope I've not missed out anyone - Rob MacDonald, Sylvia MacDonald, Rob Fletcher, Andrew Leach, Brian Meeks (who fixed Sylvia's drawers - in the kitchen that is!) plus Les Platt. Brian also repaired the lock on the store-room doors, and repaired the door on the Gents' thunder box. There are still a few jobs left for those that missed the chance.... :)

Who knows, in a universe this big there may be distant suns with planets similar to ours orbiting them. Those planets may have intelligent life on them and that life may have mastered the super technology of the "Brass Band". Members of the "Brass Bands Internet Group" have been searching for alien bandsmen for over 5 years now and have committed over 22 years of computer time to generate over 20,000 results for the Seti@home project. So far there has been no sign of "Brighouse & Zobb" or "Leyland Saucers", however we remain optimistic. You can help to find "T' Mortimer, T' Evans or even T' Newsome", just by joining the "Brass Bands Internet Group" follow this rather long link for more information- http://setiathome2.ssl.berkeley.edu/fcgi-bin/fcgi?cmd=team_lookup&name=Brass+Bands+Internet+Group The seti project uses a system called "distributed computing", to share the analysis workload from data collected from the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope with millions of computers spread across the world the data is analysed and the results sent back to the Seti site http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

Donna, City of Chester bands 2nd Trombone player, has been making the band take note of her startling progress. After only two years she has treated the band to a taste of the great things to come! She has been rehearsing the solo “Berceuse de Jocelyn†and with a tone not too dissimilar to Don Lushers had now had two run throughs with the band. Well done Donna!! However, Donna still needs a “friend†do you know a Trombone player who would like to take the challenge of Solo Trombone, or are you that person. Please give us a call, either telephone or e-mail us, (see our contact list). With a bit luck we might get to hear more Trombone Solos and possibly Duets and Trios!