Last updated 09:19, Saturday, 05 July 2008

Some of the older musicians could be very hard on new starters like myself and we used to get told off – quite harshly – if we got into bad habits, like playing new numbers by ear instead of learning from the sheet music.

Also at rehearsals, to stop me tapping my feet to the rhythm, George Park (alto sax) once put a nail through the toes of my boots nailing them to the floor so I couldn’t move.

It did the trick!

Village dances where everyone, young and old, enjoyed the same music may seem to the young folk of today as bizarre, but that’s the way it was in those days.

We were once booked to play at the village hall at Corney (situated between Broad Oak and Bootle). It was a very small village and so isolated, you couldn’t find it unless you were either a fell walker or a farmer,

It was the hunt ball and as it was our first time there, the band was really looking forward to playing, mainly because we’d been told you always got a home-made supper, made by the farmers wives.

Pedro suggested that as we had so many fans following the band by then, it would be a good idea to book a coach for them so he booked Mr Brownrigg’s coach from Egremont to take us all to Corney.

Everything was going well until we reached the bottom of Broad Oak Hill and the coach broke down.

It was another two miles to the gig but we had no choice but to start walking as it would have taken too long to wait on a replacement coach (although Mr Brownrigg arranged for one to pick us up at the end of the night).

We had all our equipment to carry up the hill (thankfully we had no heavy amplifiers or loud speakers in those days) but we still had our instruments including the big bass drum and music stands.

Our fans were great and helped us enormously. Fortunately after about a mile two cars pulled up and gave the band a lift so the dance could start on time.

It was not until we got our equipment on stage that Ray Bragg (our drummer) realised he’d left the side drum, symbols and his drum sticks on the coach.

Pedro said there was only one thing for it...we’d need more percussion so he told me I had to shake the maracas to most tunes to give a bit more body to the rhythm section.

Needless to say I wasn’t too happy as they were pretty heavy to shake. It was all worth it as the evening was a great success.

I vividly remember a dance we played at the Lutwidge Hotel Ravenglass, not because of our playing but what happened when the dancing was in full swing.

The dance room was above the main bar and the dancers were very energetic, especially at a dance call the Canadian three step.

Pedro commented on how much “spring” the floor had, only to discover that we’d literally “brought the roof down” on the bar below.

“All we saw were ghost-like figures coming upstairs, shouting at us to stop – they were covered in lime dust.

“Needless to say that put an end to the night and we made a quick exit via the back door. I’m not even sure if we got our expenses.