An Ode to the Area

'Twas 17th of March, that fateful day

When we turned up at the 'Dolphin' ready to play

The preparation had been simply a dream

With Maestro Graham's leadership, surely the cream

He gave us so much room in our musical quest

That all we had to do was to play to our best

With the shadow of Grimey' (Graham's old Band)

Being used to make us the best in the land

The rehearsals had all been approached with Zest

Everyone attended and gave it their best

The bandroom work had all been done

"Nothing left to Chance" "Don't give them a crumb!"

'Drawn number 1' in the Championship Section

The Band soon captured the audience's attention

From the start of the piece here was the evidence

That each and everyone were full of confidence

The contest piece chosen was 'Whitsun Wakes'

We played it with gusto (and very few mistakes!)

This Michael Ball piece was a pleasure to play

Surely this was going to be our day

From the start to the finish the Band sang out fine

Leaving the 'others' with a mountain to climb

The sound of each section being brought to the fore

Not a note out of place (just read the score!)

Each Soloist played their parts with lots of style

Jillian, Sue, Mal, Anthony, Clive & Co, We'll win by a mile!

With Mal on the Sop hitting his top notes with a glide

"No Bugles in this Band", we all thought with pride

From the rich sounding Basses, the sweet sounding Horns,

To the articulate Cornets and forthright Trombones

From the Euph's and Baritones to the Percussion and all

We filled with sound that difficult hall

So bring on the others, we said without fear

We listened with joy to what we could hear

'Big Boys music' is that what it was called?

And Bugley Blips and Blobs was what filled that hall

And so to the results, we waited with 'Hope'

But what 'resulted' was beyond our scope

"You were 3rd" said the judge, to our dismay

What had he been listening to? Was he there on the day?

For some in the Band it was too much to bear

And a pair of them marched up and let off 'hot air'

A peaceful demonstration, that's all that was meant

But some made a meal of that unfortunate event

Our so-called 'friends' soon jumped on the bandwagon

Making fun, sticking their large unwanted noses in

But we'll not forget those who stood by our side

And we'll all still represent FISHBURN with pride

They'll not grind us down, no matter what the judgement

And we'll all stick together in total agreement

That Fishburn's the Band we all love and adore

It'll make us determined to win next time all the more!

John Gill

April 2002

"I shall th'effect of this good lesson keep.

As watchman to my heart."

        William Shakespeare (1564-1616); English dramatist.

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