Last Friday evening’s weather was perfect for the Whit Friday Marches and it brought both the bands and the crowds out in great numbers. In fact, over 160 bands took part in the two districts, Saddleworth and Thameside. For anyone not familiar with the contests, the aim of a band is to try and play at as many villages as possible during the evening. The band arrives at a participating village and registers its entrance where hopefully there are not too many bands waiting ahead. When it’s the band’s turn, they march through the village to where the contest is being held, e.g. the village green or park, where they play a contest march. As soon as they’ve played, then they jump back on the coach and race to the next village. The rules state that a band has to compete in at least six contest to qualify for any prizes awarded.

This year, the GUS Band managed to compete in seven contests in the Saddleworth district and due to the number of competing bands, no band managed more than this in this area. As our MD Chris Bond was an adjudicator at one of the villages, this year we were directed by Richard Marshall, the world-renowned cornet player. It was a long but fantastic evening, with our last performance at Diggle at 11.30 under floodlights and torches and overall, we gained seventh place with some excellent results, including 6th place at Uppermill, 4th at Delph and 3rd place at Diggle.

Although producing a good performance, the GUS Band were awarded fifth place at the recent Grand Shield contest in Birmingham and sadly didn’t qualify for the British Open Championships. However, it’s fantastic to report that our soprano cornet player, Jack Wilson was awarded the Best Soloist prize for his outstanding playing. Well done Jack!