Band of HM Royal Marines Plymouth

Director of Music Major AP Thornhill MMus LRSM Royal Marines

Bandmaster: GR Martin LRSM RM
Drum Major: Sgt Bug G Moxworthy

AUTUMN - SEASON OF MISTS AND MELLOW FRUITFULNESS. And divisions, and pass-out parades, and concerts, and Corps dinners, and foreign trips“, as Keats might have said had he been reincarnated as a double-hander in the Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines, Plymouth, where the pace of life never slackens with the passing of the seasons. The frenetic schedule can lead to slightly eccentric behaviour amongst the Band’s personnel; I caught our redoubtable Band Operations Coordinator, BdCSgt Robbie Steel, in earnest conversation with his fax machine just the other day, whilst Drum Major Moxworthy’s incessant fiddling with his radio controlled helicopter betrays the stress of constant parade work. More of which later…

The Kids Are All Right!

The start of July saw us shake the dust of Horseguards from our boots and head north for a school visit. A top night out in Chester, followed by an overnight stay in the kind of semi-derelict TA Barracks that we know and love so well, preceded a long but rewarding day with the students of Liverpool’s Notre Dame School. A day of interactive workshops, featuring the conducting/child minding skills of BdSgt Mick Roberts, produced startling results, culminating in a joint recording late in the afternoon to give the students a permanent record of their achievements. In the evening, our Band, under the direction of our new Bandmaster, WO1 Gav Martin, put on a showcase of our many and various combinations; jazz combo, brass quintet, big band, concert band… needless to say, parents and children were equally impressed and, judging by the gleam in the eye of Band Service recruitment guru WO2 Ian Davis, a satisfactory impact had been achieved.

Tri Service Treat

It is always an honour and a pleasure to perform for Royalty, and HRH The Prince of Wales was to be in attendance for our participation in a Tri-Service event at Windsor Castle. We travelled to RAF Uxbridge - again - to rehearse with the Queen’s Colour Squadron, the Royal Air Force’s premier drill team and a fine body of chaps whom we’d worked with in London on the Falklands 25 events.  

The engagement itself featured a quite spectacular false start; as we struck up Sir Vivian Dunn’s The Captain General, the drill team marched out through the gateway and into a blinding sheet of flame, as the fireworks exploded on cue but a little more enthusiastically than we would have wished. To protect the honour of the junior Service, I won’t suggest that the RAF retreated, but there was something of a strategic withdrawal in the air. However under the guidance of Drum Major Moxworthy, everything stabilized, and ‘take two’ was a flawless (and unsinged) seven-minute display. After the events of the day, there was a hint of anti-climax, but I believe His Royal Highness had a grand time.

Happy Campers

Our first engagement after summer leave was a gala concert for the Camping and Caravanners’ Association jamboree at West Point near Exeter. They were lovely people, but imagine the biggest caravan park in the world, ever - then multiply ad infinitum.

We played in a kind of cavernous aircraft hangar, with our concert featuring a lengthy break to allow the audience to enjoy Devon’s premier Tom Jones impersonator, who endeared himself to the Band no end by scattering our music across the stage and calling us ‘guardsmen’. The very idea!

However, our part of the evening was a roaring success. Musns Gareth Keachie and Iain Scullion played a splendid Post Horn Gallop and Musn Ali Ham wowed the campers with a mellow Evening Breeze on alto sax. In the Big Band segment, BdSgt Colin Hudson performed the trombone solo Time for Love with poise and aplomb, before Land of Hope and Glory brought the house/caravan down in a flurry of Union flags.

Monaco!

No boat extravaganza is complete without a Royal Marines Band, and this is no exception. They wanted martial music with a nautical twist; we were available - Torpoint Freedom Parade notwithstanding - and so leaving the fog and rain of Devon behind, late September found us touching down amongst the Lear jets that crowd Nice Airport.

The Riviera was not a disappointment; ultramarine waters, white sands, nodding palm trees and bronzed goddesses - and that was just Charlotte Stus! We were based at Beaulieu-sur-Mer, between Nice and Monaco, and after a recce of the marina’s bars and restaurants, the weary Band repaired to the hotel’s terrace bar, which we drank dry of wine in under four hours.

However, as David Brent might muse, there comes a time when the laughter has to stop, and our first engagement was a prestigious one indeed; the installation of the first ever UK Ambassador to Monaco. We performed a lengthy Beat Retreat in front of the Royal Palace, and in blistering heat concentration was at a premium as Per Mare Per Terram, Going Home (Richie Barriball’s shadow follows me everywhere!) and Royal Salute gave the bumper crowd a taste of British pomp with Prince Albert of Monaco and the Ambassador watching from the balcony above.

Plymouth band at the Monaco Boat Show

We then travelled to the Yacht Show to perform a Beat Retreat in front of another impressive crop of VIPs, who took the salute from Maj Thornhill after another precision display and a Sunset Ceremony that was timed perfectly as the sun dipped into the glowing waters of the Med.

By this stage of the tour, our very own chapter of Hell’s Angels had become well established. Otherwise known as Cpl Bugs Chaz Brown and Dan Johnson, Sgt Bug Andy Finn and BdCpl ‘Spud’ Edwards (the sensible one), these crazy fools covered many a mile on their hired Vespas, but it was their mastery of the horrendous Monaco traffic ‘system’ that really caught the eye. Also it was a new experience for Cpl Bug Johnson to be riding a motorbike that, albeit temporarily, actually belonged to him. It’s a long way from Swilly to the Riviera, eh Dan…

The Corps of Drums Monaco Grand Prix

We closed our visit with an open-air concert in the central square in Nice; logistics apart, it was a resounding success. From the drum static Drum Colosseum (Annett/Cooper) to Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, the huge audience loved every minute. Since most were standing already, it might be stretching it to use the term ‘standing ovation’; but to gauge the warmth of the applause, how often do you see our stern, ‘Pussers’ Corps of Drums ditch their helmets and stride to the front of the stage to take their own little bow? It happened; there are about three thousand witnesses. And I thought such paragons of military and rhythmical virtue could scarcely be capable of such fragile human emotion!

All banter apart, not one of our ‘gigs’ is less important than another, and in Torpoint the night we arrived back, we encountered some weary Bandy survivors from the Freedom Parade that morning- or rather from the Mayor’s Reception that afternoon. Judging by the condition of the (remarkably still upright) Assistant Drum Major Caleb Brown, those who kept the home fires burning may have imbibed more in that day than we did in a week! Helmets off also to Bd CSgt Robbie Steel who made like a musical Lazarus and strode back onto parade from his office-based sabbatical in the Band’s hour of need, although his request to borrow some Blanco to clean his gear did somewhat confuse the younger members of the Band.

September Songs

Elsewhere in this busy month, our first Globe Theatre concert of the season featured a solo performance by Musn Lyndsay Carter, which is a little like tripping over a four leafed clover and banging your head on another one. That is to say it’s unusual (as opposed to painful), for Lyndsay shuns the soloistic limelight, which is a shame as her rendition of Debussy’s Solo de Concours was a treat both for us and for her mum, who was in the audience. Another first was the premiere of a stunning drum display, Stonygate, from the pen of Scotland Band’s Cpl Bug Tom Charnley, at our Roebuck Theatre concert. The buglers did us and Tom proud with an immaculate performance that drew huge applause from a spellbound audience.

At the end of the month, we topped up our coach miles with a concert and overnight stay in Newark, before travelling to Exmouth the following day, replacing Lympstone’s boot-neck bandies (sorry, Daffers!) in their regular Pavilions Concert. We thought we’d steal one of their gigs as not only did they keep pinching our Boss but also press-ganged Musn Ellie ‘The Introvert’ Carter for their RFA Argus deployment. She is back in our bosom now, so all’s well and honour is satisfied.

Parish Sketches

Our new joiners have been almost exclusively ‘young things from the Wing’. From the School of Music; we welcome these starry-eyed recruits; Andy Hall, on piano and clarinet; Johnny King, whose passion for Wycombe Wanderers FC is actually one of his more acceptable traits; Rachel ‘Little B’ Botham on trombone (we would call her ‘Beefy’, but her Uncle might not like it and, he’s a Royal Marines RSM!); Phil Davies, surely the only male bass player to get his hair cut at Toni and Guy’s; and Andy Platt on French horn, guitar and surfboard. In the old corner is BdCpl Jase Walker, a comparative Methuselah of the French horn, who arrives from Dartmouth and has just successfully completed his M1 qualification. Well done indeed and welcome all.
We’ve lost BdCpl Andy Thompson to CTC Band, but his wife Cathy remains here, so we can look at her and think of him, as it were. BdCpl Mel Bocking has been on temporary draft at the School, thrashing the little ones through their Basic Training, but when the fields are white with daisies, she’ll return.

Big thanks to the trainees who have assisted us throughout the term at various points; Musns Wheway, Flew, Wilman and Egger, and lastly congratulations to Bug Chris ‘Bomber’ Harris, who married Musn Kathryn McKechnie in Derbyshire during August. It was a glorious day of sunshine, laughter and happy tears, (as far as I can remember).

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Plymouth Corps of Drums

I’m going to start this time by congratulating Cpl Bug Dan Johnson for finally receiving his Afghan Medal for participating in operation Herrick 5, and also congrats to Bug Chris Bray for passing his B2 exams.

Plymouth Band has been travelling again – this time to Nice and Monaco, where we found hoards of beautiful women, swam in the Mediterranean and raced scooters around to Monte Carlo Grand Prix circuit. We also had time to perform for Prince Albert of Monaco outside his Palace, and for the closing of the Monaco boat show.

Andy the Jetsetter Finn in Monaco

The Monaco five

At Stonehouse Barracks on the 12th October, we performed large ten-man mess beatings for around 100 screaming women, all in the aid of breast cancer. The display went down exceptionally well and afterwards we were asked to celebrate with them. Towards the end of the night Cpl Bug Russ Piner was nearly auctioned off!
Whilst we’re on the subject of getting rid of buglers, Bug Chris Bray leaves us for the Portsmouth Band. Chris, we wish you the best of luck and hope that the time you’ve spent in Plymouth Band will leave you with many happy memories, and we hope that the times you don’t remember (Hereford) have been caught on video and promptly put on Youtube. Also don’t forget your broom, mate.

Talking of Youtube, those of you who are adept enough to surf the web, might want to check out our latest achievement: a performance of Tom Charnley’s ‘Stonygate’. This is a technically demanding American drum-line style piece that required a lot of rehearsal and the height of teamwork, but was a huge success at the Roebuck Theatre at HMS Raleigh.

Back in Raleigh our illustrious leader, Sgt Bug Andy Finn, returned to his office after a well-earned break to find Bugle Major Kev Tullett had turned into a skeleton and a mass of cobwebs filled his office. He was shocked for a second, but then realised it had Piner/Vyse/Brown M/Johnson/Bray written all over it.

Lastly, I’d like to say goodbye to (soon to be sergeants) Si Chapman and Chas Brown, who are leaving us for Portsmouth and Dartmouth respectively. We welcome to the elite Plymouth Corps of Drums Cpl Bug Jessy James, Bugs Dave Birt and Matt Abbott. Good Luck to all in their new drafts!

Bugler ‘Bomber’ Harris.

Last updated May 2008