Bedford (Leigh) Band

I became involved with the Bedford Church Band, as it was then called, in the Autumn of 1975. I was playing 3rd cornet at the time for the Leigh Silver Band when I decided to jump ship to the local rivals. Those of you who remember I was actually caught at the Sunday morning rehearsal of Bedford, by the secretary of Leigh Silver, who had popped out of their rehearsal to borrow some music. Ooops!

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Anyhow that's how I became a member of Bedford. I played 3rd cornet for a couple of months before moving onto baritone. The band was then full of enthusiastic youngsters around the age of 16 to 20. It was a great chance to get the band some silverware. Something that had been sadly missing for the first 100 years of its existence.

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I became an active member of the committee and instigated many fund raising and sometimes hair raising events. The band started to win a few local contests but I decided it was time to move on (like one does) so I joined the Greenhalls Band on 2nd baritone. They were based in Ashton (the old Haydock and Ashton youth band) and had been newly promoted to the 2nd section.

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In July 1979 I joined the East Lancashire Paper Group band at Ratcliffe. The band was top section conducted by Malcolm Brownbill. Within 2 weeks the solo baritone had quit and I found myself on the solo barit' chair. Over the next 18 months Malcolm had moved to Wingates and David Hirst took over the baton.

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