Loughborough Concert Band

29th August 2020

Band activities during lockdown.

The lockdown that was imposed on 16th March 2020 has had a very profound effect on the band. Even now, in August and five months after the lockdown was called, we cannot rehearse as a whole band though are hopeful of starting to rehearse in small groups.

We decided to retain the Thursday night spot so that we kept in contact, and each week has included a quiz hosted by different members of the band. This has taken place using Zoom, largely thanks to Katherine Lee.  This has been lots of fun and a chance for people to use different IT packages to display the questions. Some people were really professional and included video footage!

We have also managed to keep playing. We played and recorded our individual parts to various pieces and sent them all to the long-suffering Chris Lee. He received them (sometimes late,) listened to them, mixed them and played them all back to us. He was unfailingly polite about the recordings, and full of helpful suggestions to ease the recording process. And finally, when anyone would have thought he’d done enough, he encouraged us do a video recording of ourselves playing The Thunderer.  Thank you, Chris. If we had a Bandsman of the Year, you’d get my vote!

The pieces we played are:

Belphegor

Over the Rainbow,

Amazing Grace, arranged by our own Zoe Felton

Magnificent Men,

The Thunderer.  The link to the band’s performance of The Thunderer is here: https://youtu.be/dFnfvA_IxDQ

 

We are also very sad to say Farewell to Katie Campsall, our drummer of nearly three years. She’s been an inspiration with her hard work, as she has done GCSEs and A levels whilst playing every week with the band. We’ll miss you Katie! Good luck in your next phase! Never forget The Floral Dance!!