Gordon Evans, MBE, ARCM

First of all, it is great to be asked to write a short piece for the Campbeltown Brass new website and I wish the venture all the best.

A number of years ago someone wrote in the Courier that nobody ever earnt a living playing a trumpet - well sorry to disappoint them but I have been doing it for over 42 years and have enjoyed every minute of it. My 9 years in the Band of the Scots Guards included playing in some of the top Salvation Army Bands, brass bands orchestras in and around London, and a variety of music based jobs, including teaching and conducting Youth Bands and even working as an extra at the Covent Garden Opera House!

As a tuba player I was a regular soloist at Salvation Army festivals and recorded the Clare Grundman Tuba Rhapsody with the Scots Guards Band on Radio 3's Bandstand Programme. This experience was to be of great use when in 1978 Libby and I moved to Campbeltown, as the first full-time Instrumental Instructor in the area. I was able to start completely from scratch forming a wind band at the school, then five years later Campbeltown Brass was formed.

I suppose the rest is history but I think its worth mentioning that the talent I found in the local schools was amazing, and the attitude and willingness to practice has always put the Campbeltown youngsters ahead of others. Our first Area contest was in 1985, we came 2nd out of 23 bands, an incredible performance in the days when there were only 4 sections, yet 3 years later we were in Section 2, just one away from the Championships. Then the problem that has forever dogged the Band became real, everybody left town and I was left to form a conveyor belt system, using a large band that was to serve us well right up until I left.

The 25 years we spent in Campbeltown contained some very special moments, playing in front of The Queen at Oban, at concert and contest venues, including The Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Conference Centre, Cardiff and Glasgow Royal Concert Halls, Leeds Town Hall, Paisley Abbey, the Millennium Dome, Dunblane Cathedral and many others. There was the standing ovation received in Hadleigh, Essex following a stirring performance of "The Little Russian" and an amazing recording made for Radio 2 in the Queen Margaret Drive Studios.

I have deliberately not mentioned any individuals because so many people have been involved with the band and many more still are. However, I must mention how pleased I am to see Jamie McVicar, our first real "Superstar" now installed as conductor, already the successes shown in recent Youth Band and Solo Contests are showing the band is back on track and I am sure the future is a bright one.

As for me, well since we left, I've conducted a number of bands, including Flimby in Cumbria, Bon Accord, Buckhaven and currently Forfar Instrumental. I've also been able to resurrect my playing career, helping out whoever wants me playing anything from trombone downwards and I'm looking forward to playing the 1st Baritone part of Resurgum at the Scottish with City of Discovery Band, some 44 years after first playing it with Kettering Citadel Band. I am also still involved with NYBBS, a real love of my life for the past 26 years and my day job of teaching in the Dundee schools and conducting the Dundee Junior Brass is keeping me as busy as ever.

As for the future, well who knows! I've no intention of stopping, though teaching in schools is not the pleasure it once was. I can at least look back on an amazing musical career that has taken me to all parts of the world and introduced me to so many wonderful people: long may it continue!