Northwood Headquarters Volunteer Band

Blue Band Article Winter 2006

So that was that, the Festival over for yet another year. Congratulations to everyone who took part, the winners and the losers!

After the Festival we were straight back into things here in Northwood performing outside the Officers Mess for their Summer Ball. The weather wasn’t exactly balmy but we were kept nice and warm by the Hot Air Balloon being fired up not 20 yards away. Needless to say the band played well and a good evening was had by all.

On return from a well earned summer break a local church approached the band for help. St Thomas of West Hyde, the church in question, had recently been subject to urgent roof repairs and these had been paid for with money the church really didn’t have. We agreed to perform a concert in the church with the proceeds going towards the cost of the repairs; arrangements were made and rehearsals started in earnest.The concert is worthy of special note as we believe that the band that performed that night was the biggest that Northwood have ever produced, 30 players in total. The concert went extremely well and we received many compliments; one punter actually said they had preferred our concert to one they had recently attended by the RAF Central Band, praise indeed.A total of £635 was raised towards the repairs and we have been invited back to perform again soon!

During the concert the Elizabeth Gething Trophy was presented. This is a Silver Salver that was given to the band by the family of the late Elizabeth Gething who was a member of SSAFA and a great supporter of the band. The trophy is awarded annually to the player that has made most improvement and this year it was awarded to Penny Flanagan. The trophy was presented by Colonel Ian Brazier, the Commanding Officer of the Joint Support Unit and Penny by her own admission was speechless, something that does not happen very often..!

In the past we have been extremely grateful to a number of people who have helped us out on gigs, so it was nice to be able to help out another band in a similar situation. The help was offered to HMS Heron Band who were struggling for players to perform at a Trafalgar Night Dinner at HMS Flying Fox. Bd CSgt Dave Wright was being faced with having to cancel the engagement but thankfully a dozen or so members of the Northwood Band made themselves available and came to their rescue. It was a tough gig for the Northwood players as most of the music was sight reading but as usual they raised their game and no-one was the wiser..!

We have finally managed to enter the 21^st century here in Northwood by having our very own web site. I say finally because trying to get permission for something like a web site here at the Headquarters is like trying to get that last Jammy Dodger off Bd CSgt Adge Cutler..! Despite repeated requests and answering all the questions posed, our web site kept getting put into the ‘too difficult’ pile, you know the one, right next to the ‘more than my jobs worth’ pile! Anyway with the CO’s endorsement we finally went ‘live’ in September and now anybody can come and have a look at what we are up to at www.northwood-band.org.uk . The site is a fantastic recruiting aid and also a great means of communication for band members. Thanks must go to Greg Wiley, our resident IT boffin, who created the site and continues to maintain it.

Regular readers of this fine publication will no doubt remember the predicament the band found themselves in last Remembrance Sunday, after the bugler tasked to play Last Post and Reveille fell ill and Bandy, a clarinet player, ended up playing the calls on cornet!To ensure this did not happen again this year a request for a RM Bugler to be in attendance was made early and Cpl Bug Benny Hill from RM Band Portsmouth was tasked. Everything was in order until two buglers were sent to Afghanistan, Benny being one of them. Getting a definite feeling of déjà vu, out came the cornet from the store and once again lip flexibilities were the order of the day!Anyway, to cut a long story short, after the Corps Bugle Major re-jigged the Buglers for Remembrance Weekend we were fortunate to be joined by Cpl Bug Phil Hawkins and Bug Stu Vyse from RM Band Plymouth. Needless to say they performed to the very high standards you would expect and nobody was more grateful to see them than Bandy…!

This period has seen a significant change in band personnel. Firstly we had to say a fond farewell to our Band Officer, Lt Cdr Chris Hurley who left us to join HMS Collingwood in September. Chris has been a great supporter of the band and our loss is HMS Collingwood’s gain! James Dunlop also left the band this term and is now midway through phase one training at the Royal Marines School of Music. We get regular updates from James and it seems that he is enjoying training, especially the PT! We also had to say goodbye to George Harding and Laura Burns as they embark on three years of drinking and partying, I mean university. Both are enjoying their courses but both are also making every effort to get back and play with the band whenever they can.On the plus side we welcomed back Sqn Ldr Richard Aldhous from a six month deployment in Afghanistan. Richard has also taken over the mantle of Band Officer so I’m sure it won’t be long before he wishes he was back there! Two more new members who have joined in recent weeks are Graham Turner (percussion) and Peter Laszlo (clarinet). 

Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year from all at Northwood Headquarters.