A long weekend

The band had been contracted to perform three concerts in the 14th Niedersächsische Music Festival based in the Lower Saxony area around Hannover. We flew from Manchester airport at lunchtime on Friday 22nd Septemeber and arrived in Hannover around one and a half hours later. After a further 3 hours on a coach with our driver for the weekend Freddie we arrived at Emden for the first concert.

The purpose of the festival, we were informed, was to bring internationally renowned musicians to the rural areas of Lower Saxony and the local people of Emden made us feel very welcome with their standing ovation (and the free bar after the concert!)

The following day we had a little free time in Emden, before making the journey to Barsinghausen for our second concert. The venue was a large converted building in a former mine - how appropriate! All day we were accompanied by a film crew from the NDR t.v. company and they recorded the concert along with a number of interviews with band members to be broadcast at a later date. The sight of Garry Cutt emerging from a pit whilst talking to a t.v. reporter is one that will stay with us for a while!

Our final concert was on Sunday at Rinteln, another quiet German town, but another full hall and another standing ovation (oh yes, and another free bar!) The members of the band were asked time after time if we were professional players, and indeed one trombone player in the audience was so impressed he vowed to throw his trombone in the nearby lake at the earliest opportunity! (at least I think he was impressed!)

After a little sight seeing in Hannover on the Monday we headed back to the airport for a flight home. We were told by the organisers that they don't invite back any groups that have appeared in the festival, but, you guessed it, we've been invited back, a first in 14 years of the festival!

Written by Andrew Snell