Less than six months on their last soirée at The World Famous Boarshurst Band Club, Diggle Band delivered another great concert. Last night’s well attended concert included two great solos, a satisfying horn feature, a couple of traditional marches, and another piece by Eric Ball.
Continue reading “Diggle Band: Sunday Brass at the Boarshurst Band Club, 25 June 2017”
Following on from previous one-day strikes since the 13 March, the RMT union have announced details of more industrial action next month. Whereas previous strikes have fallen on Mondays and Fridays, the latest dispute will cover three days in July.
Continue reading “Northern Rail Strike: Three Days of Industrial Action Next Month”
If you travel by train in the peak hours, there are two inevitabilities. One is the fact you’ll need a mortgage for the rail fare or the season ticket. The other, are the chances of getting a seat. Which is pretty rare at ten to six on the 1757 to Huddersfield. Continue reading “Train Seats in All Parts: The Not So Perfect Ten”
To meet up for a hymn and march contest, perform in conditions more Mediterranean than Mytholmroyd, and fulfil a concert engagement on the same day takes some doing. It would test the very best of us. Milnrow Band proved how possible it was to do just that. Within twelve hours of setting off for Hebden Bridge, they closed one of the finest concerts to grace the Boarshurst Band Club stage this year.
Continue reading “Milnrow Band: Sunday Brass at the Boarshurst Band Club, 18 June 2017”
At the start of April, any talk of a General Election would have filled many voters with dread. It was expected that Theresa May’s Conservative Party would have a landslide victory. Instead, what happened on the 08 June flew in the face of many predictions. This was scuppered by Jeremy Corbyn’s campaigning in the month up to the election. Not least the crowds and how the agenda switched from Brexit to the state of our public services.
Continue reading “It’s Up the Poll! 2017: Tameside’s General Election Results”
With traffic in and around the Saddleworth villages, some brass bands choose to compete in the Tameside area Whit Friday contests. There is almost an equal number of venues in Tameside to the Saddleworth area’s agglomeration of contests. Whereas Saddleworth’s streets are narrow, this is less so at the Tameside venues. Some have off-street parking for the coaches. Most of them have smaller streets that are close to main roads.
Continue reading “Whit Friday 2017: Dukinfield’s Second Contest”
In their second visit to Boarshurst Band Club over the last nine months, Flixton Band gave us a tight performance at yesterday’s concert [11 June 2017]. At the top end of Section Two, Flixton Band will be following Delph Band and Boarshurst Silver Band to Cheltenham in the National Championship Finals (16 September 2017). With excellent dynamic range, their performance was clinical and a real joy for the ears.
Continue reading “Flixton Brass Band: Sunday Brass at the Boarshurst Band Club, 11 June 2017”
The Saddleworth contests proved to be a good Whit Friday for the Brighouse and Rastrick, and Fairey bands. If we were allegorical about the Saddleworth villages’ first prize winners, in political terms, a Hung Parliament compared with the Foden’s Band’s landslide victory in Tameside.
Continue reading “Whit Friday 2017 Results: Saddleworth Contests”
In the last two days, there was two things we learned about. Firstly, Theresa May didn’t get the landslide victory she thought she would have got, thanks to a strong showing by Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party. Secondly, the only landslide victory, recorded on our shores, belonged to Foden’s Band. In Tameside, they won nine out of twelve Whit Friday Brass Band Contests. Continue reading “Whit Friday 2017 Results: Tameside Contests”
