Members Blogs
Craig Sherratt’s Weblog – “A different perspective”
Toynbee School & CGN Finals Weekend
Craig has been with Senators since the end of 1999 and is currently the Corps Visual Caption Head as well as being the Designer for the Indoor Percussion Ensemble.
I will try my up most to enlighten those who were not able to attend and to refresh the memories of those that did. Four full days is a lot to pack into this but I will try, it was a fantastic trip with a fantastic group of people. Hard Work – Long Days – Funny Times – Emotional Up’s and Downs, Tension, Relief, Happy, Sad but most of all TIREING, oh my god so tireing, however it was all well and truly worth every second.
Wednesday 22 March 2006
Our European adventure begins; we depart the sunny North around 6pm, car loaded with myself, John Mc, Christian Bradbury and Ben Harney along with thirty jackets, thirty t-shirts and enough baggage for the trip, the lucky two in the back looked like stowaways!! We arrive in Eastleigh 10pm and split off to do our first jobs, John Mc and Joe Fitzpatrick to have a curry while the majority of the Percussion and I head to the Litten Tree in Eastleigh to make sure everything is ok and have a drink to say Bon Voyage.
Thursday 23 March 2006
7.00am – We meet at the centre to pick up the mini buses and have a regroup and then head off to Toynbee High School for our first gig of the trip. A new experience on us, the school staff were very friendly and we were given the run of the gym to get set up for a 20 minute show during the schools morning assembly. We got everything ready, the Percussion in their new jackets, the arena set up, and a video being projected onto the gym wall showing a montage of the Gwen Stefani video and some shots from DCUK Finals night.
8.30am – The doors open and 200+ eager 11-14 year olds start to flood in, it was a weird experience and a little nerve racking performing to what could be a hard crowd. Ian Abbott takes centre stage to introduce us and briefly explain what we do. First up are the Brass line – Paul Brakewell, Helen Jefferies, Rob Fry and Adam Noyce, they play through there warm up exercise to introduce what the Brass instruments sound like.
After they had finished the Percussion ensemble followed doing a run through of “The Heist”. A decent performance straight of the bat and very loud, no really loud! In the ending set we managed to dislodge a couple of shuttlecocks from the roof through the vibrations, and the final shut down sounded like a small mortar bomb, by this point 200 kids sat open mouthed realising that this isn’t geeky marching band anymore, its kind of a new Rock and Roll.
We get the response we had hoped for and the kids understand they have seen something different and hopefully something they would want to try, Jim or Mr Vaughan as it was for the day does his closing speech and explains to the children how they can get involved. We pack up and breathe a sigh of relief that no one got heckled.
9.10am – First lesson’s are about to start and anyone who has music that morning is in for a treat, the canteen is used as the new music room so we can line up a selection of the Brass and Percussion instruments. The boys from the Battery and the Brass players then proceed to teach the youngster’s the very basics of the instruments, they move round in a clockwise motion every ten minutes so each child goes through playing Snare, Tenor, Bass drum, Trumpet, Mellophone, Baritone and Tuba.
At this point can I congratulate our new found music teachers, they just took it on themselves to organise the class and had the patience of saints to really try and put something across to these children.
12.30pm - The same scenario happened again for the second period and at lunch we took over the theatre and set up the instruments again for an open lesson during the break for any kids who didn’t have music that day. The results of the day were obvious that evening when the juniors had 13 new members walk through the door of the centre. I hope you agree a worthy exercise which will benefit the whole organisation over the coming years.
Around this time our favourite American turned up, Ben Collins had flown in to be with us for CGN and had been picked up in the morning by Nigel Brown. His luggage comprised of, one small back pack for him and three huge boxes of sticks and shoes for us, cheers Fluff Top, we hate paying shipping cost’s :-). We then broke for lunch, headed in our separate directions to get our last few jobs done before meeting later to rehearse.
2.00pm – We move to a Sports gym in Bishopstoke, Eastleigh to have a final tidy up of the show and let Ben get to grips with it. We finish at 5pm and during the last minute notice’s our resident chef Nick “Shaggy” Hale surprise’s both John Mc and Christian Bradbury with a birthday cake, we were told it was to be shared but it was never to be seen again!
Evening – We all do our separate things ready for an early start. Quite a number of us went for a curry in the evening, we just sat around and did the usual, told old stories and had a giggle, Ben has some very funny Cavaliers stories. All in all we had a wonderful day, from the school to practice was all good, you could feel already that this group had started to bond, people were chatting to people they had never spoken to before and it was looking like we had a good few days ahead.
Friday 24 March 2006
3.30am – Yes you did read it right, the same time we are usually coming in from a night out, we are heading off on the European leg of our mini tour. The rain was lashing down as we loaded up the mini buses, John and myself had one last look in the centre to see if anything had been missed and we were ready for the off. I am lucky enough to wangle myself into Joe’s car with John and Ben, lucky enough until John’s digestive system realises he’s awake and starts to remind us all of the two curry’s in two nights he had consumed! BMW or not, I started to consider pulling rank at the services and swap for a place on the mini bus. We make a couple of brew stops on are way to the tunnel and arrive there about 6.00am for our time slot. Breakfast was consumed while Ben was clicking away with his camera at anything slightly English.
Mid-Morning – We arrive in Eindhoven thanks to the help from the wonderful voice in Joe’s satellite navigation system. Prior to the trip we had wrongly let someone else try and source us a venue to rehearse, something we always do ourselves then we know its right, the night previous we finally got the dreaded call that we had no where so our first job was to find a spot. Our first port of call was the Indoor Sports Centrum where CGN finals would be held, we might as well start at the top.
They were just on with setting up the arena but they were more than willing to let us have it, jackpot, only problem was we could only have it right then for 3 hours, no Corps and no truck and us four not fancying a game of tennis we had to turn it down. The area was surrounded by open spaces so we knew we would be ok if the rain held off, we decide to meet the buses at the hotel, get all the check in sorted and gather our thoughts. While waiting we are offered a complimentary cup of tea which to my horror the other three turn down, leaving me to also say no out of not being awkward.
I cannot believe it, still think about it now, I was gutted. We then have half hour trying to work out the Dutch for “Hello” which when I asked I am told is “Hello”! The Corps arrives and we decide to buy sometime and take them to the stadium, give them a feel for it and maybe try and lift the spirits of a very tired group of people. The truck finally docks and we find a spot of land to run some sectional stuff. The Front Ensemble needed to work some parts and the Battery had time with Ben, Kev, Schumie and Bertie to go into sub sectionals. The moral is low at this point, everyone wanted and needed to sleep, some people manage to battle through others need to vet there frustration, one of those times when it feels like us and them and it is never intended too. Little Shannon who is just 12 years old is feeling the effects of the early morning start and the effects of a Willy Wonka size bag of sweets.
I nip of with Joe to get her some proper food, Hannah is on hand to make sure she eats it and within ten minutes she gets out of the mini bus ready to practice, I tell her to rest, only to be told “I want to rehearse” The two hour block goes well the things that needed tweaking being sorted, we finally pack up, head to McDonalds with the thought’s of shower, beer and bed.
Evening – People start to come down to the bar area after showering and eating, just a quiet drink turned into an “I needed that” drink, it was like we were home after a bad day, but it was really just a hard day. The hotel was really nice, the showers were world ranking and the whole atmosphere started to come back around, people realised it was nobody in particulars fault, some tension had eased away and everyone started to feel a whole lot better. Joe and myself set ourselves a 9pm curfew, but as the drinks flowed so did the time, hit the pillow at around midnight.
