Germany Tour 2003 - Chairman's Diary

July 28th to August 1st

After eight months in the planning and rehearsals, and in celebration of ten years of music, Chippenham Town Band made a tour of the Rhineland area in Germany. Their first ever foreign tour!

In the preparation for this a touring band of about half of the members committed themselves to this, which provided a small but well balanced band. This was helped by the cooperation of some players who played two instruments during the tour notably in the percussion department.

As with everything in life, the more the preparation, the easier events flow, and so was the case in this tour. By the particularly detailed pack produced by the tour company (One Stage tours) and the excellent support of the Bands Tour sub-committee, the tour was almost guaranteed to be a success; the only dubious aspect was well beyond anyone’s control, the weather.

The tour started very early on the Monday morning, where for a first time in any tour history, everyone not only arrived, but by a concerted team effort had the coach fully loaded and off, a remarkable fifteen minutes early! This was further boosted by swift progress across the country resulting in an earlier than planned ferry crossing, and an earlier arrival time in our hotel in Boppard.

Having arrived to find our hotel overlooking the Rhine, and a beautiful summer evening, rooms were allocated only to find that those with a view of the Rhine also had trains passing every ten minutes, and those with a view of the kitchens had a clock tower that kept bonging every fifteen minutes! (An improvement on Cuckoos I suppose!) Having said that, for what we asked, it was clean and well presented.

On the Tuesday, we made a tour of the Altenahr and Ahrweiler areas, taking in the magnificent scenery and then we travelled to Bad Neuenahr, where we played our first concert. This was on a revolving stage, and having started playing to an empty hall, we turned through 180 degrees, to face our audience and the beautiful gardens and fountains. This was on a particularly warm evening, and the sun was setting as we completed the music.

Wednesday brought the prospect of wine tasting in the village of Cochem, and we had lunch here too, before moving on to see Burg Eltz, which is a traditional medieval castle, in a picturesque valley setting. From here we went to Oberwesel, where we were to play an evening concert in the town square. During the course of this day, we were plagued with poor weather, and some quite heavy showers, which gave us a few concerns as there was no wet weather option available on this day. Fortunately as we started to make our way from the castle, the clouds cleared and the sun shone down on us.

The concert at Oberwesel was probably the best in the sense of audience attendance and appreciation. The audience really got behind the band, giving strong applause to the music, and a respectful appreciation of our limited German speaking abilities. We closed this concert with two Strauss pieces, which with the benefit of hindsight we should have played more of, as this really got the audience participating. As the concert drew to a close, the dark storm clouds gathered above, and in a quite fitting finale, as we left the town, the heavens opened. This was further enhanced by the local tourist office presenting us with a collection of local wines (hic), in appreciation of our efforts.

On our arrival back at our hotel, about an hour later, I was staggered to receive a phone call from One stage, in which the gist of the conversation was that Oberwesel tourism office had just called, stating how impressed they were with our program and music, inviting the band to return at any time, ideally next year! This was particularly well received and appreciated.

On we went into Thursday, our last day in Germany, and in the morning we cruised along the Rhine to St Goar, where we spent a leisurely time, viewing the Lorelei Rock, and visiting one of the most spectacular Cuckoo Clock shops in the area. Some of the younger and more adventurous of our group chose to climb the famous rock, and I am told that a spectacular view was “great”!

In the afternoon we played at the Boppard Bandstand, which is right up next to the river. This was by far one of the best bandstands we have played at with a terraced seating area for the players and an artistic backdrop of the town painted on the back of the stand. With its design and location the audience would be treated to a wonderful selection of music. (Chippenham Town Council please take note). This however fell on probably the hottest afternoon of the tour, and whilst a large audience did stand or sit to listen, they all sought the shade, which was slightly out of our general view.

On the Friday we sadly had to leave Germany, having left our little piece of England in the memories of the locals. We travelled back via the hypermarkets of Calais, arriving home, again slightly ahead of schedule.

The music we played in Germany was a selection of our traditional program. In it we deliberately included a number of solo and feature pieces, such as Basin Street Blues, Irish Washerwoman and Chanson D’Amour, which reflects the individual sectional abilities that Chippenham Band has available. The conductor, Alan Horner even took part in this playing the Post Horn in “Post Horn Gallop,” leaving the band to the relative inexperience of the Chairman conducting, but even this was a success (if not hilarious).

Most importantly the tour itself was a success. All of the concerts we played will forever remain happy memories for all involved, with the prospect of repeating this, a target to aim for. The sociability of the entire touring group was without a doubt, one of the most endearing aspects of this, with a huge thank you to all involved, particularly to One Stage, the sub-committee, and Alan without whom this would never have taken place.

As a variation of this, we took a video camera along with the band to record some parts of the tour, and with thanks to Alison Bisping, who was given a crash course in the cameras use only five minutes before the first concert, some excellent recording was achieved. Unfortunately the camera never lies, and in one particular piece the conductor can be heard to be shouting to the band about the pace of the piece - I knew it was a mistake to ask for a recording .This has been compiled onto a VHS video format, and is available should anyone want a copy.

Thank you to all who participated in the tour and offered their support.

Phil

Band Members

Who attended the tour

FLUTE
Dawn Salsbury, Lucy Bright,
Suze Bisping, Kate Cloke

PICCOLO
Dawn Salsbury

OBOE
Kate Cloke

CLARINET
Martin Duncombe, Dave Evans,
Phil Salsbury

SAXOPHONE ALTO
Morwenna Cross

SAXOPHONE TENOR
Mike Pearce, Matthew Potter

SAXOPHONE BARITONE
Jeff Penfold

CORNET/TRUMPET
Ben Penfold, Alan Potter

POST HORN
Alan Horner

HORN
Sheryl Wint, Carey Daniels

TROMBONE
Edward James

EUPHONIUM
Liz Logan

BARITONE
Howard Harding

BASS
Celia James

DRUM KIT / PERCUSSION
Suze Bisping, Martin Duncombe