The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Town’ s tribute to bandmaster Jim
The family of celebrated Montrose Town Band leader Jim Easton have installed a memorial to the musician overlooking the former site of the town’s bandstand.
“Inspirational” family man and bandmaster Jim Easton died aged 91 in 2019 only months after stepping down from his role at the head of the brass band.
Generations of local musicians fondly remember receiving lessons from the cornet player and retired joiner, who was at the heart of the community group for around 40 years.
The community more than £3,500 memory.
Granddaughter raised in his
Karen
Easton has been working with council officials and design firm David Ogilvie since the start of last year on the specially-designed bench.
The family recently installed the piece in Dean’s Park, overlooking the spot where the town’s bandstand once stood.
She said: “We are thrilled to see it there now. We requested for it to be there because that’s where the bandstand used to be and in years gone by he played there.
“The bench looks across to that. It was quite important to us, as a family, that the bench should be sited there.”
The bench features James Easton’s name, the silhouette of a conductor, brass instruments, musical notation and the epitaph “thank you for the music”.
“The first design had musical instruments on it, but it was more orchestral. My grandfather would have been furious with that. He was a brass man throughand-through,” Karen added.
She thanked all those who had donated and helped, including Montrose Town Band and independent councillor Tommy Stewart.
“The silhouette shape came from the designer, but we were taken with it because it looks like the silhouette of our Grandpa.
“It’s an image we hold of him, because we’ve all played in the band. It does look like him.”
Jim was one of the group of tradesmen and players who built the band’s rehearsal space in the 1940s in Queens Close, off High Street.
He said the annual band concert, in which they would play well-known soundtracks such as the theme from Indiana Jones, was the highlight of his musical year.
But what would the old band leader have made of the bench now dedicated to his memory?
Karen laughed: “My Grandpa’s words would have been: ‘A bench? Lassie, you could have got three cornets and a euphonium for that’.”