Touring

The bands touring exploits have exploded in the past couple of years Visiting Japan and Australia in February/March 1999 playing to over 60,000 people and travelling over 60,000 miles

This was the first tour for the band organised by International Concert Attractions Pty Ltd and the schedule was gruelling. The tour started spending 5 days in Japan and performing on 14/02 with two concerts in the Orchard Hall – Tokyo, followed on 15/02 at Kouseinenkin Kalkin – Tokyo, 16/02 Hagoyashi Koukaido Nagoya, 17/02 Festival Hall – Osaka and 18/02 Meil Parque Hall – Kukupka. The next leg of the tour took the band to Australia starting on 21/02 at the Festival of Perth – Perth Concert Hall, 22/02 Thebarton Theatre – Adelaide, 23/02 Civic Theatre – Newcastle, 24/02 Sydney Town Hall, 25/02 City Hall – Brisbane, then a very well earned day off. After the day relaxing the band were straight back into it with two concerts on the 27/02, in the morning at Robert Blackwood Hall – Monach University, then completely stripping down and re-setting for an evening concert at Dallas Brooks Hall – Melbourne. 28/02 at Spray Farm Summer Festival – Bellarine Peninsula. The band performed at the end of a 3 month festival held at Spray Farm. The previous evening the Australia Symphony Orchestra were performing to an audience of 2,500, but the band were to play to an audience of 5,500 and a complete sell out. The tour continued on 01/03 at Llewellyn Hall – ANU Canberra, 02/03 & 03/03 at the magnificent Lyric Theatre – Star City, where we were on the same advertisement hoardings as Julio Iglesias and Englebert Humperdink. Finishing the tour on 04/03 at the Entertainment Centre – Perth returning back to Manchester Airport to a good few inches of snow.

In carrying out this tour, the band missed the area qualifying competition for the Nationals held in Bradford, while the band were on the Gold Coast of Australia. The best comment to come out of this situation was from a woman from another championship section band saying “Aren’t you worried about your Brass Band World Ranking Points?”!!!!!

The band returned to Japan in May/June 2000, carrying out 7 concerts in a 10 day period playing to capacity audiences.

On arriving in Japan the band were welcomed to an official reception provided by the Japanese Brass Band Association where there were representatives from 11 bands from around the Tokyo area. After a day off on the Sunday to get over the jet lag, it was down to work.

The first two concerts on 29 & 30/05 were in Orchard Hall, which is part of the Bunkamura complex and conveniently situated next to the hotel. On 31/05 it was a trip by the Bullet Train to perform at the Festival Hall in Osaka, Japans second city. 01/06 a train trip to Nagoya, 02/06 a flight to Niigata. The band travelled by coach on 03/06 to Sendai, where it was found that the world famous Eastman Wind Ensemble were performing on the same day and staying in the same hotel as the band. Luckily, this did not affect audience numbers with Grimethorpe getting twice the number of people they did.  On 04/06 it was the bands final concert of this tour at the newly rebuilt Kobe, after the earthquake of 1995, playing to a capacity 2300 audience in the new Kobe International Hall.

The band carried out a second overseas tour as part of the 14^th Niedersachsische Music Festival based in the Lower Saxony area around Hannover. The purpose of the festival was to bring internationally renowned musicians to the rural areas of Lower Saxony. The first concert was on 22^nd September in Emeden then the following day in Bassinghausen and finally on the 24^th at Rinteln. The band were told by the organisers that they don’t invite back any groups that have appeared in the festival, but due to the popularity of the band, they have been invited back. A first in the 14 year history of the Festival.

Due to the massive success of the Australia/Japan tour in 1999, International Concert Attractions booked the band again for a further tour of Australia in 2001 but this time including concerts on the North and South Island on New Zealand and a one off date in Hong Kong on the way home.

Because of the success 2 years ago, with the popularity of the band with audiences, this tour was more relaxed with the first week being spent in the Kings Cross area of Sydney. The tour didn’t start on a good footing with all the luggage being lost on the flight over, arriving a day late, with the bands music arriving on the morning of the first concert. Apparently it had made a small detour to America. The tour started on the 25/01 at Wollongong Entertainment Centre, then 26/03 Civic Theatre – Newcastle then the main concert of the tour on 27/01 at the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. This concert was a complete sell out including 200 people standing for the whole performance and we were informed that the concert could have been sold out another 2 times. Then the final concert in Australia on the 27/01 at The Hills Centre – Castle Hill before travelling onto New Zealand.

The first Concert in New Zealand on 30/01 was at Civic Theatre – Aotea Centre – Auckland, 31/01 Christchurch Town Hall, 01/02 Dunedin Town Hall, 3&4/02 Michael Fowler Centre – Wellington, 05/02 Regent Theatre – Palmerston North, 06/02 Municipal Theatre – Napier returning back to Auckland on the 07 & 08/02 for the final two concerts on this leg at the ASB Theatre – Aotea Centre. After being woken at 2:30 AM it was an overnight flight for the final concert of the tour on 10/02 at the Concert Hall – Hong Kong Cultural Centre. As soon as the concert finished it was straight onto a bus to the airport then to the flight home.