Easingwold Contest - I'm not sure how but this night sums up brass banding perfectly. The band simultaneously came 10th out of 17, came last, came 2nd and won. In doing so they beat several bands from much further up the food chain, although the band can't dress themselves and can't march around a square, which is why the results don't make sense.

The band played a really solid performance of Ravenswood, none of the rushing and panic that undermined previous performances, and if it wasn't for the fact that most of the bands at the contest were from the upper echelons of the brass banding world, we would have made a bit more of a splash than about half-way up. I enjoyed it so much, I paused at the end instead of just conducting the last 3 beats. Cheeky!

It's a real credit to the band to perform a hard contest march like Ravenswood to such a standard, and it was all our own band too - there were some bands at the contest (mentioning no names, but the reference is in the title...) for whom it was spot the registered player.

I went out on a high - that, pear cider and the wonderful tikka massala in a tray from the Indians round the corner, even Lisa going with me to a contest, a treat, made it more special.

So, sigh, that's the end of that. My reasons for leaving are my own - I hope the band get the right person in the middle to take them further and higher. And I make no apologises if my successor finds the bar is already set high - Backworth ain't any ordinary 4th section band.

What am I going to do? Well I shall take a break over the next few weeks and take stock. Having loved it at Backworth it will take something pretty special to get my juices flowing once more. I doubt I'll go back to playing, I packed in last year and haven't missed a note of it. I enjoy conducting and believe I have lots to offer to the right band.

My next contest with Backworth on Saturday will be the Easingwold Contest, and the itinery makes you wonder why us Brass Band types do it.

Lisa and I are getting picked up from Felton at 2.45, to get to Backworth for 3.30. The bus will then depart and get to Easingwold around 5.45.

Going off previous years, we should be warmed up, marched and played by 7.00. The one piece I am conducting is the 5-minute march, Ravenswood.

We will leave 4 hours later (after listening to lots of band, and more likely a pint or two) which should have us back at Felton around the 1.00 AM mark.

So that's a 10-hour day to play a 5-minute march. Mad isn't it?

Sorry it's been a while since I posted a nice wallpaper, hope this makes up for it.

I remember it well. It was a rubbish day in March 2004, and I went to Backworth Band's practice. For some reason they were rehearsing in a side room at Into Change and there was a smattering of band there - me on BBb Bass, Terry on Euph, Aubrey and Baritone and a few, but only a few others. I had been asked to help out the band after Gateshead Brass, my current band at the time, had pulled out of the Nationals that year. I had enough time to get my registration cancelled and re-sign with the band.

It was a picture of fourth-section-ness. The test piece was Partita by Gregson, a piece that seems to be on a rotation basis at most 4th-section contests with Malvern Suite. It's ok, simply scored and a little left-field, but done to death. It was to be the third time I would have contested on the piece, although by fortune on three different parts. I was asked to play BBb as Alex wasn't well and there were no other options.

I must say I wasn't very good that day - I hadn't played for a while, and hadn't played BBb for even longer, but Tony did his best, and the band managed to gather pace and did quite well - 4th in fact at the Area Contest, the best Backworth result for some time.

Tony resigned from the band later that year and I took over as MD, the rest as they say is history.

Fast forward five years and Backworth too came 4th at the 'Areas' this year. The piece this time a 'new' piece called Talisman something-or-another (they tend to all meld into one these pieces that you play once and never again). The band came off some good results at Peterlee and Skegness, and should have got very close to the prizes.

As was the sensible thing to do, the band used Duncan Beckley, a very successful 'pro' conductor and one we had worked with many times, to prepare and take the band. I did my work hacking away at the parts and Duncan did his job, tailoring the band to suit his vision of the piece. The piece had plenty of hidden gremlins, including how to conduct the 8/8 time signature of the first movement, and various stylistic obstacles.

The band played ok but we got hammered on tempos being wrong. I'm not bold enough to do the usual brass band thing of 'slagging anyone off'; in fact this is where Backworth differs from most other bands I have been part of. We took it on the shoulders, oh well, and looked forward to the challenges ahead.

We came 4th in 2004 and 4th in 2009. And yet I leave the band as a completely different unit to the one I rejoined. The band gets some wonderful rave reviews as a concert band - we perform music that the public seem to enjoy and in a style which doesn't offend nor dominate the audiences. We flirted with being in the 3rd section for a couple of years - a first for the band. The band now has a very promising junior band and younger players in the band and a couple of them really will be stars, if they aren't already.

Best of all the band aren't scared any more. I remember suggesting doing different things; concerts and contests; and the reaction was quite timid at first. We'll have a go, but... Now the band goes to Scotland, Skegness, Manchester, Preston, Kirkby Lonsdale and Harrogate to compete against other bands, and also travels right throughout the North East to entertain audiences. There is a pride to be part of the band, to be part of an ensemble that does good things and makes good music. And to sit next to your friend as well as your colleague in band.

What's the title of this post? Tanfield Railway is a museum with 6 miles of active track and runs some original locomotives, one of which is the "No. 49" which used to serve at Backworth Colliery. The Easingwold Contest on Saturday will be my last event as Musical Director with Backworth Colliery Band.

Memories? Well getting a first and promotion at the areas in 2005, Easingwold and the Dalston concert last year, a couple of good DCBBA contests and seeing the 'juniors' play at the Wansbeck Music Festival solos over the years are some of the high points. Working with some great people, from high-brow conductors and soloists to players who are learning or coming back to band after periods of inactivity.

Low points? Well there's only one I can (or choose to) remember - Alan Fernie telling me I was a 'silly old fool' when making his comments at the end of the open solos at the Wansbeck Festival a few years ago. Maybe he was right?

This blew my tits off when I was surfing the net the other night. The next generation of High Definition (HD) TV and Surround sound is mind blowing.

Current HD is 1920 x 1080 pixels, 4 times bigger than a standard picture. However the proposed new specification is 7680 x 4320 - which because of square mathematics, is 16 times bigger/more detailed than current than HD. That's going to be a nightmare in terms to delivery because of the sheer amount of data bandwidth required, but I supposed by 2015 we'll all have 100GB broadband speeds anyway.

Now that's impressive, but wait till you hear the proposed audio spec. Current 'surround sound' is 5.1 - that's 5 audio channels plus 1 sub-woofer channel. But the boffins have suggested a system that is 22.2 - yes 24 channels of audio!

Ok - how does it work? Well the speakers are split into three layers, 9 top, 10 middle and 5 bottom, spread across the front/center/back/left/right/middle.

The thing that caught my attention about this was quite simple: how on earth are you going to put 24 speakers in the right place in your average semi-detached front room? I got nowhere convincing the missus to put 5 up...