BdCSgt M Flintoft RM

A Happy New Year to all from HMS Neptune here in Faslane. At long last we are delighted to greet you all from our new band room within the new Super Mess. It is situated adjacent to the conference facilities, which allow us to spill over into the conference area to enable the Band to rehearse with elbow room to spare. We are grateful to have our own dedicated home after many years in a nomadic state and many thanks to those who have enabled us to get to where we are now, namely Cdr David Carpenter, and CPO Spike Albans.

The conference centre is a very large area and can be utilised for marching practice; which means of course… NO MORE MIDGES! We are so excited and anticipate that more people than normal will turn up for marching practice (we hope). The band room also has the advantage of having a kitchen nearby for tea breaks, something that we’ve been denied of late, and is situated very conveniently next door to the junior rates bar! Most of all it’s warm and we can enjoy playing without layers and scarves! HMS Neptune Band can now look forward to settling in without the fear of being moved around again as it’s been a long time in coming.

Gigs

We’ve been fairly quiet as far as gigs go since prior to Christmas when the Big Band braved a stormy evening on winding country roads in the pitch black of night to attend a charity gig on the banks of Loch Fyne. Many thanks go to ‘Pidge’ for braving the elements after a long shift to play bass guitar for us. The quiet spell has given us time to prepare for the festival though. Our programme has been chosen and rehearsals have been under way since the beginning of January. I can say that both our marching and concert programme will be up to the usual high standard that we’ve brought to the festival and this year of course we have our title to defend.
There is also the Cologne Festival that four of our band members attended only last week with other members of the Volunteer Bands. I hope that is was warmer over there than it has been across the UK. I am aware that this gig is very hard work and not for the faint-hearted, hence I’ve never been myself. As always, we hope that all went well and a good time was had by all. We look forward to hearing about it this week.

Socials

Socially, the Band has been active with a cheese and wine night hosted by Kathryn and Len followed by a Burns Supper at Di and Steve’s, with Di doing the honour of murdering the haggis as she does so professionally! You would imagine that after any late night that we would all be looking forward to a long lie-in the next day. As it happens, Bandy, in his eagerness to rehearse for the festival, had us all in the next day (Sunday), and what a rehearsal it was. Our small band room was jam-packed and so much was achieved in two hours. Bandy concluded that we should do this more often after a good night out! Both nights were superb and our thanks go out to the hosts.

Parish Notices

Congratulations to Claire (1st cornet) and Gareth on the birth of their son Joe who arrived early in January. Claire was suffering withdrawal symptoms since being out of action, and was back in her seat 2 weeks after giving birth, with strong advice not to play anything above a middle C! We also found her the softest seat in the band room… bless! Anyway, it’s good to have you back Claire and can’t wait for wee Joe to be trained up.
We also welcome some new blood to the Band in the form of a Ben Attion serving with the Royal Marines and Eric Woodburn (civvy), both on cornet. On E flat bass we welcome Gary Millard (civvy) and all three players are looking forward to their first Festival.

Last but not least it is with much sadness that we prepare to bid farewell to our bandy, Mark (Flinty) Flintoft who is being drafted to RM Scotland Band in May. Flinty has brought new ideas and has motivated and developed both the wind and the big band beyond recognition with his ongoing enthusiasm to try out new things. This can be seen with the amazing results gained at last year’s Festival, and all achieved in such a short space of time. Although he will be sadly missed, we hope to keep in touch as we may need him for some of our gigs!
His replacement is a first, not only for HMS Neptune, but for the Volunteer Band Association as a whole. We look forward to welcoming our first female bandy, Ann Miller who will be joining us from the school of music in Portsmouth. I can imagine that taking over from Flinty may seem to be a daunting task, especially with the Festival looming around the corner. With this in mind, the Band has been rehearsing hard so that the Festival preparations will be in hand and the transition should be smooth, with much of the hard work being completed before May. One thing that we can promise Ann is that she can look forward to a very warm welcome, guaranteed support and teamwork that Flinty has enjoyed. We look forward to welcoming Ann in April.

On that note, I bid you farewell until next time. Hopefully the permafrost will have lifted by then!

Karen

Last updated 10 August 2010