So, how did you get into banding?

Well I got into brass banding because… I got into trouble.

Like so many of us, my first exposure to brass instruments came through the Salvation Army. And, to be honest, it wasn’t because I had a burning desire to play. It was just what you did. My parents played, my grandparents had played, my great…well you get the idea. It was the way things were, and it was what I did. I didn’t start on cornet like the other kids in the Corps at the time, I wanted to play trombone because I admired the bass trombone player in the band - a larger than life second world war bomber command veteran with an anecdote for every occasion. I learned when I was seven and played in the small YP band, and senior band for a few years until, when I was eleven my parents left the Army. The trombone went back in its case and instead I played rugby, drums and video games.

My Dad didn’t stop playing though. He got involved in one of the local bands (which interestingly had a strong core of ex-Salvationist musicians), taking his bass with him. His decision proved to be very important in my life.

I can’t remember exactly why but one evening, I’d driven my mum to the point of not wanting around. I'm not certain exactly what I'd done (I'm assuming it's not just me who was in trouble fairly regularly at the age of fourteen), but it was two decades ago and the details are a little hazy. What I remember very clearly though was that, as punishment, after Dad had got home from work and also told me off, I got dragged along to band practice. I didn’t want to be there and I didn’t want to engage. Instead, I spent my night sitting behind the basses (with my back to the band) reading The Lord of The Rings.

For some reason though, I went back with him to the following rehearsal. Perhaps it was because the band valued the social aspect of rehearsal and had a coffee and cake break every week without fail (as well as a magnificent spread at every concert). Perhaps it was the lure of the music, or that I was getting to stay out late once a week. I don’t know. But I went back again, and again until, almost without realising it, I was in the trombone section, sitting seventh down in between the MD’s wife and the bass trombone player. Lovely people and exceptional conversationalists who shared my appreciation of the coffee breaks.

From there, brass banding became… well, my life. I don’t remember a moment of epiphany, no heart warming “I found myself” moment. It just became a habit and, I suspect, fuelled by a determination on the part of my parents to get me playing again, combined with the slow realisation that maybe, just maybe, I was enjoying myself. From the rather relaxed town band, I moved to a nearby fourth section band, getting my first exposure to contests and from there I didn’t really look back. Banding became an integral part of my life and has shaped so much of who I am.

All because one evening in 2005, I annoyed my Mum so much she didn’t want me in the house.