Band of HM Royal Marines Commando Training Centre

Director of Music: Captain C Burns GCGI PG Dip LRSM RM
Bandmaster: WO1 Graham Holman LRSM CT ABRSM RM
Drum Major: Sgt Bug S BlairRM

After a well-earned summer leave it was back to work hitting the deck running, well for most of us. During the summer break the Boss decided it would be the perfect opportunity to go and have a total knee reconstruction after injuring his knee last year during a 5-aside football match. So with the Boss out of action, Bandy packed his hatbox in anticipation of two foreign trips in our first week. That’s right we were off to Wales! The first sojourn was a nice scenic bus journey through the Brecon Beacons to Sennybridge, where we performed a Beat Retreat in front of the local dignitaries in a gym no bigger than a couple of squash courts. Two days later we were back on the M5, this time making our way up to Monmouth for our first concert of the term. Of particular note during the concert were the performances of our soloists. BdCpl Paul Daff performed a rousing rendition of Phil Collins's Against All Odds and in total contrast Musn Sophie Maynard displayed her four stick skills with the beautiful Marimba solo Little Prayer. Now strange things have happened in my 18 years in the Band Service but nothing stranger than on the way home, when Paul Daff found Musn Snell’s pet tortoise on the lower deck of the coach. No, we don’t know why it was there either!

With the King’s Squad Pass Out Parades and Raleigh Divisions coming and going our next big engagement was the annual RMA weekend at Lympstone. The event is always a success with this year being no exception. Our next venture was a long coach trip up to Newark in Nottinghamshire.

A typical old style theatre was the venue and in attendance were many friends and families of the Band.
We learned here that the Boss’s jokes aren’t quite as funny up north as they are in Devon. To be honest they aren’t that funny in Devon either! (There goes my ‘A’ report again!)

Now all joking aside, we have had a foreign trip this term: Guernsey.

A 0530 start on the Friday meant we were in Weymouth in plenty of time for our Sea Cat crossing to Guernsey. To most salty sea dogs the crossing was at worst bumpy, but there were a few green looking members of the Band on the upper decks taking in some well needed fresh air. There was, however, one casualty and as he is our "seven-headed god", he will remain anonymous. After booking into our Hotel, the Orchestra and Corps of Drums were off to set up and rehearse for the evening gig. The First Sea Lord was in attendance and the evening was a huge success, with an intricate display on a rather small area by the Corps of Drums, and the orchestral performance rounded off in style with a rousing Post Horn Gallop from Musn Tim Fairweather.

The itinerary for the weekend had us down to Beat Retreat in the centre of St Peter Port, the Island’s capital town. We were told that if it rained, it would be just a Corps of Drums display, and if it started pouring down once we were performing then we would cut short the display and march off smartly. It started pouring down just after we marched on and after the full display a wet, bedraggled Band made its way back on to the bus. Now I don’t want this to come across as a drip, pardon the pun, because once again the First Sea Lord was taking the salute and he and his aides were out in the rain getting just as wet as the Band. Anyway, it certainly went down well with the locals.

On the Sunday the Band took part in a memorial service to commemorate the Sailors and Marines whose lives were lost when both HMS Limbourne and HMS Charybdis were sunk just off the coast of Guernsey in the Second World War. That evening we performed a concert in St Mary’s Hall and it was packed to the rafters. The Band received a standing ovation with promises of inviting us back next year. Despite the busy schedule throughout the weekend we did manage some time off to sample the local watering holes and I think that most took advantage of this. Bug Ginn found out the hard way not to take part in drinking competitions (especially with Corps rugby players). Bless him! There are a couple of public thank yous the Band would like to make. In particular to the Staff of the Grange Lodge Hotel who have been looking after the Bands now for many years. They made us feel extremely welcome and were very hospitable. Also a big thanks to Marge Dodsworth who organised the whole weekend and even before we had left, was on the phone booking things for next year’s event.

Corps Birthday at CTCRM

Rugby

On the 1st September this year the inaugural Band Service 7’s rugby tournament was held in HMS Raleigh. This will now take over from the Inter-Band 15’s format of the game and so the Holland Bowl will be played for annually with this tournament in Barry Holland’s memory. After two week's training and with five players who had never even touched a rugby ball before, we set off for the tournament with the intent of having a good time and the opinion that it was the taking part that mattered. We turned up with the smallest squad but with a good attitude. The whole tournament ran smoothly and was a massive success, and this was very much down to the efforts of Capt Richard Long and BdCSgt Andy Gregory. Surprisingly, after losing our first game, pride took over and that good old ‘Lympstone spirit’ kicked in and we made it to the final, narrowly losing out to Portsmouth Band. A rough diamond was uncovered in the form of Musn Olly ‘Forest Gump’ Hurrell. Give him the ball on the wing and just watch him go. The Player of the Tournament each year is awarded a trophy in memory of the late BdCpl Andy Thomson who was an avid rugby fan both watching and playing. This year it was awarded to our very own Musn Hurrell and was presented to him by Andy’s wife Cathy.

Six members of the Band (CSgt Bug Annett, BdCpl Long, BdCpl O’Connor, Bug Bartlett and Musns Badge and Hurrell) went on to represent the Band Service team in the victory against Deal & Betteshangar Wanderers for the Deal Memorial game in Portsmouth. This was, as ever, a great game played for the right reasons in the right spirit. However, most disturbing is the memory of Bug Bartlett being put on his backside by a 61yr old John Cullis (he will never live it down). Bug Bartlett and BdCpl O’Connor have also represented the Corps side in this year’s Inter Command Championships.

Hello and Goodbyes!

We said goodbye to a few old stalwarts of the Band at the beginning of the term. WO1 Sid Davis and BdCSgt Rich Fenwick both trundled off down the A38 to Plymouth, and BdCSgt Gaz Halsey signed out his commuting car and joined Portsmouth Band. We wish them all well and thank them for all their hard work. We welcome into the fray from Scotland BdSgt Martin ‘Sid’ Andrew and from the School of Music Musns Olly Hurrell, Simon Badge, Pete Wilson and Rosie Willoughby. We also welcome back to the Band Musn Tom Griffin after his time down under in New Zealand and myself, BdCpl Dom O’Connor after an enjoyable but pretty uneventful year in Italy! Yeah right!

Baby Boom

The East Devon Midwives have been kept busy lately thanks to members of the Band. We congratulate Rich and Becky Mackey on the birth of their daughter Charlotte and Stu and Verity Bartlett on producing a baby boy Bartlett, Charlie. Also incoming in December are babies for Jay and Cass Dent, Alan and Kerry Brisley, Billy and Nicole Ginn and finally Neil and Sarah Lowe. We wish them all the best and hope they enjoy their bout of sleepless paternity leave.

Well the British Legion were out once again in force selling poppies, which meant that our most important weekend of the year was upon us. This year we had the privilege of marching in a particularly wet Lord Mayor’s Show in London, before drying out our No.1’s and shooting down the A3 to Portsmouth for the Remembrance Parade on the Sunday morning.

And as the Christmas period looms, it is time for us to get into the festive mood, dust off Ray Woodfield’s Christmas Melodies and other favourites and get ready for the season of goodwill.
So on behalf of the Band I would like to wish all of our readers a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

BBD

Last updated April 2009