THE Mail published a feature about Flookburgh Band in 1991 just before it headed to London to compete in the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.

‘The band was founded 84 years ago and there are several descendants of original band members playing today,’ stated the feature.

One of features of the band was the strong family connections which helped unite the players. 

Band publicity officer Paul Winters explained: “We have Mitchell Rowlandson (trombone) and son Neil (percussionist), who at 12 is the youngest player in the band, while Mitchell’s brother Tony plays cornet.

“Mitchell’s uncle Jack Manning, a local fisherman, plays flugel horn and his son Stephen Manning plays cornet.

“Then we also have Mike Garnett on bass trombone and his son Trevor and his fiancée Hannah playing cornet and horn respectively, while Hannah’s sister also plays horn with the band.”

The longest-serving bandsman was euphonium player Bill Dickinson, who had been with the band for 60 years.

The band members came from all walks of life, said Paul, a maths teacher.

Other players worked for Glaxo, or worked as fishermen, builders and electricians and some were employed with a firm of undertakers.

Paul explained the band received no sponsorship and much of its income was needed to buy sheet music, renew instruments and generally maintain the band.

The band would be stepping up practice at the band hall in Flookburgh Square, putting the finishing touches to their test piece for the national finals.

A few weeks earlier the band had played at a concert in Grange on behalf of the children's charity Barnardo's. The weekend before that they gave a concert at Flookburgh Parish Church to raise money to help cover the costs of sending the band to London for the finals.

Meanwhile in 1993 The Mail was at Flookburgh Primary School to take photographs at the annual sports day.