KEVIN CROCKFORD - SOPRANO CORNET
Born in 1961, Kevin started to play B flat Cornet when he was 10 with local Portsmouth band, Southsea Juniors, later to be known as Solent Youth Concert Band. After 2 years it was decided that because he appeared to be more comfortable in the upper register, he was given a Soprano Cornet.
At 13 he passed his grade 8 with honours and was accepted at the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, until the grand old age of 17 when he packed his bag and moved north to follow his dream of playing in the country's top brass bands.
First stop was City of Coventry Band and then in 1980 onto Leyland Vehicles Band with his good friend Richard Evans, who really showed Kevin what the higher echelons of banding was all about culminating with a 2nd place at the British Open of 1981 at the bands first attempt.
1982 saw a move over to the hallowed hunting grounds of Yorkshire with Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band.
A year later and his dream really came alive when he accepted the invitation to join the Black Dyke Mills Band.
Kevin spent 6 years here, winning all there was to win until tragedy struck with a broken front tooth which put his career on hold, But after many dentist visits, he bounced back and joined Desford Colliery Band and straight away won the 1989 National on Arthur Butterworth's Odin.
Travelling to Desford (near Leicester) from his home in Leeds took its toll though and Kevin was delighted to be invited to join the famous Grimethorpe Colliery Band for 2 years.
Because of work reasons, he left Grimethorpe and re-joined Black Dyke for a further 7 years service before a move over the Pennines to Faireys where he won back-to-back National titles in 2002 / 2003.
In January 2005, Kevin re-joined Grimethorpe and is currently enjoying more success still, including another back to back of National wins.
Kevin has won the National Championships Finals of Great Britain 8 times, The British Open Championship 5 times, The European Championship 4 times and the English National Championship twice. He has also won many solo awards, including winning the best soloist award at the 2008 English Nationals on Redheads ‘Infinity', the best instrumentalist award at the Yorkshire championships 2005 and won the Brian Evans memorial trophy at the British Open 2008 for the Best Soprano player award.
He is particularly proud of being the only person to have been in the Black Dyke Mills Band of 1985 and 1995 where the band achieved the "Grand Slam" of European, Open and National titles in the same year, the only 2 times this has ever been achieved. This is a record he holds to this date.
Kevin's very flexible styles of Soprano cornet playing has seen him tour the world with his bands and also as a guest Soloist and guest player with International bands. He has played in New York's Carnegie Hall, Australia's Sydney Opera house among hundreds of others, but, his favourite is still London's Royal Albert Hall.
Kevin earns his living outside the world of music as the Sales Manager for the Thomas Wright / Thorite Group Ltd, the UK's leading distributor of Pneumatic, Compressed air and process control equipment.
Kevin's other passion (when time permits) is supporting his beloved ‘Pompey', Portsmouth Football Club.