Llangollen band forced to sit on instrument cases

Aug 15 2008 By David Simister

A LEGENDARY brass band from Llangollen have been left incensed after playing a concert earlier this month sat on their instrument cases, thanks to a shortage of seats.

The Llangollen Silver Band, which has been based in the town since 1904, performed for fans at Chester’s Groves Bandstand on Sunday, August 3 but nearly half of the musicians were left with nowhere to sit because the city council, who own the site, had not provided enough chairs.

"There were 17 chairs for 29 of us, and when we looked in the basement of the bandstand there was only one extra chair going spare to use" said Albert Hammands, the choir’s Musical Director.

"Presumably the rest of the chairs had been thrown in the river by youngsters or something like that, but it’s very disappointing."

Band conductor Trevor Williams shared his sentiments, and said that although the concert itself went well, he was disappointed by having to leave many of his musicians standing.

"Confusion reigned for a while as we searched high and low for someone to release some more chairs for our use. Even with words of caution two young tenor horn players managed to find themselves in a heap on the floor at the feet of the tuba players just before the start of the second half of the concert" he said.

"Come on Chester City Council, lets re-seat the bandstand for next year’s concerts please, we love playing there every year, and we really do put on a full programme of music, but we do like doing it in more comfort."

The band say that despite the seating difficulties they will not be making any formal complaint to the city council, and that the concert was well-received.

Chester City Council admitted that mistakes had been made in the run-up to the concert, and says it has apologised to the band.

"It had been arranged with Vale, one of our contractors, to provide the right number of seats for the event" said a spokesman for the city council.

"There seems to have been some confusion over the number of seats provided, and they and the band couldn’t contact each other on the day. It seems to have been a breakdown in communication."

The Llangollen Silver Band will be playing in their hometown this Sunday [August 17] and in Corwen on August 31. Visit their website at www.llangollensilverband.co.uk for more details.