AND THE BANDS PLAYED ON
CROWDS of people relived the glory days of carnival bands as they came to Derby to enjoy a nostalgic day of music and marching, organised by a local actor who is making a film about their heyday.
Carnival banders past and present came to Borrowash Victoria FC’s ground on Sunday for the Banding Together event put on by Derbyborn actor and musician David Chabeaux, who grew up in the Derby Serenaders and starred in the final scenes of TV’s Peaky Blinders.
With performances from the Ambassadors of Derby and the Melton Mowbray Toy Soldiers – two of the few bands from a once thriving carnival banding scene that are still active – it was a nostalgic occasion for hundreds of people. They were joined by members of many bands including the Heanor Lions, Spondon Legionnaires, Derby Serenaders, Eastwood Arcadians, Breaston Highlanders and more.
Some had not clapped eyes on each other in decades, and many got fully into the spirit of the occasion by rising to their feet and spontaneously marching together to music – as they once did at carnival parades every weekend.
Trumpet player Dean TurnerMoss, who joined Langley Mill Jubilee Band at the age of nine and stayed on until it disbanded in 1999, said: “I just have really good memories of it all. It wasn’t just the music. It was the travelling every weekend of every summer. You knew you were going to be in a different part of the country every weekend.”
Dean met up with fellow exbander Sarah Brown, whom he had not seen for 22 years. Sarah herself had been a member of no fewer than seven carnival bands, including the Eastwood Arcadians, the Breaston Highlanders, the Spondon Legionnaires and the Heanor Lions.
She said: “We wouldn’t have been able to afford to go away on holidays so the bands were our holiday…
especially when you got the ones on the coast, like going to Skeggy for the day. It was more than a hobby. It was a lifestyle, and I do miss it.”
Many said they loved coming to the Banding Together event to find somewhere they “belonged” once again.
The carnival banding movement, which lasted for much of the 20th century, once saw generations of the same families practising, playing and marching together several times a week.
Hollie Baker, bandmaster of the Ambassadors of Derby, of which she has been a member for the past 14 years, playing “a variety of saxophones,” said: “We just have fun. We’ve loved the Banding Together day. We had some of our past band members playing with us.”
Roger Tinsley, a member of the Melton Mowbray Toy Soldiers for the past 50 years, showed off his skills dressed in the soldiers’ military-inspired outfit complete with bearskin hat. Other members of the Toy Soldiers said the band was still going and would love to welcome new people, especially brass players, to practices on Monday nights.
Roger, 71, put in a dazzling display on the bass drum despite having broken both arms a few years ago, as well as cracking eight ribs and two vertebrae on his back.
He said: “On the bass drum I’m the heartbeat of the band. I’ve bounced back from my injuries. It’s great to be here and back with the other bands who are here as well.”
Visitors to the Banding Together day, which was supported by Barton Buses, East Midlands Chamber, Derby Museums with its Makory bus, plus Derbyshire companies Lubrizol, Smith Partnership, and Cosy Direct, also got the chance to admire a parade of uniforms from different bands, as well as spot familiar faces in a gallery of old photos.
The event was a fundraiser for David Chabeaux’s film project, Moz’s Band, which is celebrating the magic of carnival bands and is a particular tribute to his grandfather, Moz Ward, who lived and breathed music and led the Derby Serenaders to spectacular success over many
years, with 23 league titles and an appearance on BBC1’s Generation Game in front of 19 million viewers in 1979.
David said: “It was wonderful, and very moving for me to see so many people come and enjoy the music, marching and inter-generational bonding that brought so many of us together back in the day.
“I’ve never known a sense of belonging like I did when I was part of the Derby Serenaders, and I want to spark a new social movement that brings this sense of connection and belonging back to today’s younger generations.”
For more information about the Moz’s Band project, see www.mozs. band.