PALATIANS

elcome to the first newsletter of 2008. There wasn’t a lot of news in January and not many fixtures in place so I have left writing a newsletter until now and as you can see by the list overleaf we have a number of concerts organised and we are busy rehearsing the music for them.

Our Gala Concert in December was successful once again. Alhough the audience numbers were a little down on last year we still managed to raise enough money to give a donation of £1,000 to St Christopher’s Hospice. This year this concert is not until 13^th December so hopefully people will be feeling a little more festive and audience numbers will go up again. It is always a fun concert with a great atmosphere and we raise money for a good cause, please put the date in your diaries.

Contest News

Crystal Palace didn’t enter the National contest in Stevenage this year we decided to concentrate on the Southern Counties contest instead. However the B band did make the effort. This was only the second time they have competed and they showed consistency by achieving the same result as last year.

I am pleased to say that at the SCABA contest at Hove on Sunday 6^th April Crystal Palace Played Castell Caerdydd by T.J Powell in the march contest and won 1st prize. We made what was perhaps an ambitious choice and played The Land of the Long White Cloud by Phillip Sparke as our test piece. The band can play all of it quite well but unfortunately we have never managed to play all of it well in one performance, it is after all a very challenging piece. We came 7^th. The adjudicator’s remarks were encouraging. Overall he seems to have enjoyed our performance and praised some of our playing but as he put it “there were too many slips”. You can’t afford too many slips in 1^st section.

o life in the band room goes on and we are now preparing for what looks to be a busy summer. We are starting early this year with an April bandstand appearance. So far the weather hasn’t been encouraging but we are ever optimistic and look forward to the summer season.

Adieu to Steve (soprano cornet) who is taking a break this summer. We wish him well with his new job and impending marriage. He should be back with us in the autumn all being well. In the meantime Tom Whittaker is preparing to take up the challenge of Soprano cornet for the summer season, not an easy task so we thank him in advance for his efforts.

Congratulations to Toby (Trombone) who has become a father for the second time only this time it’s twins. He now has three lovely daughters but still finds time to get to band rehearsals.

It just remains to say that we hope to see you at as many of our concerts as possible this summer your support will be much appreciated.

If you wish to contact the editor, please do so in one of the following ways:

e-mail Carol Maher at woal@btinternet.com OR phone 020 8699 7850 OR write 42,Winsford Road, Catford, London, SE^ 4LX

If you have a general band enquiry (e.g. you would like to join the band, or would like to book the band) please contact the Secretary, Rachel Bleach, on 020 8776 2520, OR mail@crystalpalaceband.co.uk OR visit our website www.crystalpalaceband.co.uk-.

The views expressed in this newsletter are the personal views of the Editor and are not necessarily those of the Crystal Palace Band.

No part of this newsletter may be reproduced in any way, including on websites, without the express permission of the Editor. © June 2005