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Christmas 2009
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20th November 2009 - Spalding
Christmas Lights
We got our carol books out early this year! We were invited by
South Holland District Council to entertain the crowds before Santa
arrived to switch on Spalding's Christmas lights. |
5 December 2009 - Christmas Bingo
Our fundraisers Les and Brenda ran their regular Christmas Bingo session to a full house! We went along to support them at the Womens Institute Hall in Holbeach and played festive music in the interval.
Les and Brenda run
monthly bingo sessions throughout the year, weekly bric-a-brac stalls outside the bandroom in Back Lane, Holbeach and table-top sales in the Holbeach Community Centre. They presented the band with a cheque for £3,100 representing the results of their fundraising throughout the year.
Musical Director, Mel Hopkin, draw the raffles and thanked Les and Brenda for all their hard work.
12 December 2009 - Christmas Concert
We had a good Christmas Concert at All Saints Church, Holbeach and were joined by the Chamber Choir of the George Farmer College, Holbeach.
We were welcomed to the Church by the vicar, the Revd John Wickstead.. We opened the concert with principal cornet, Steven Butter, playing a verse of Once in Royal David's City from the back of the Church and the audience joined to sing the first three verses.
We played a number of carols during the concert and the choir lead the singinig.
We played a concert of Christmas music, including the Dr Who Theme (because it's one of the leading programmes on TV over Christmas - and we discovered that our euphonium player, Brian Parker, was a BBC cameraman on the early Dr Who programmes in the 1960s). We also played the theme from Pirates of the Caribbean (on the basis that its bound to be shown on the TV sometime over Christmas!)
13 December 2009 - Christmas Fayre
As ususal, the main street in Holbeach was closed for the annual Christmas fayre. There were stalls and various entertianments in the street. The organisers had chosen a spot for us close to amplifiers blaring out heavy beat music - not helpful! We found our own spot in a quieter position and had a good afternoon.
It was good to have five members of our learner group joining us.
16 December 2009 - Carols at Springfields
Our first visit to Springfields Retail Outlet for a couple of years. It was cold and drizzly, but we were in the dry under a covered way. Springfields is open until 9.00pm so we played there from 7.00pm instead of band practice. Pity there were only a handful of shoppers!
19 December 2009 - Carols at Springfields
 Back at Springfields Retail Outlet for a Saturday morning's carol playing. It was -5 degrees when we started, but it soon warmed up to -2 degrees!! It was particularly quiet for the Saturday before Christmas, probably due to the adverse weather conditions. We had a good turnout and the band sounded good.
20 December 2009 - Hospital visit
We made our annual visit to the Holbeach Hospital and the Patchett Lodge Care Homes in Holbeach. In the hospital we played for 10-15 minutes in each of the three day rooms. At Patchett Lodge we played for 30 minutes
23 & 24 December 2009 - Carols at Tescos
We played carols at Tescos in Holbeach, instead of band practice. It was a pleasant evening on the 23rd - although it was very cold and wet outside, we were in the foyer where it was warm and dry. On the 24th it was busy so we had to play outside - it was cold but at least it was dry. There were a lot of people around.
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