Like many members
of the band, Sue
has been associated with the
'Windmill' band for sometime. She
has played cornet and flugelhorn, and more recently playing in the 'kitchen sink department'
(see left)..!!
Sue
was in the band when they adopted the 'Windmill'
name and after much begging
and pleading (not JUST Sue
-everyone else as well..!!!), she has provided me with a
'biog'....she writes (absolutely NO names HAVE been changed to protect the
innocent !!)....
"I
first joined the then
Rushden Temperance
Band
when I was 12 years old,
having been taught to play by
Fred Wiggins
(who used to play
Soprano, I
believe,
with the band). Our family had moved
opposite the Windmill Club and we kids
used to mess about out the back of where
the band hut was (and it WAS a hut then). I loved the sound of the band and went and asked if I could
join in !! (10 out of
10 for ingenuity !!) The band was conducted by
Bob Howard
at that time, with his son,
Steve,
on Principal cornet.
Jane Nichols
was also in the band then (yes I've known her that
long, and we've had some good times over the years
!!). I started playing
the tenor horn, sitting next to
Percy Long,
but moved across to play third
cornet alongside
John Higgins
(presumably NOT the snooker player).
I then worked my way up the back row until
I left the band in 1979 to join the Army.
Whilst stationed in Germany I played with the
RAF Volunteer
Band
and was able to link up with the
Windmill Band
when they visited
Paderborn
in 1980/81.
I left the Army in 1986 and
moved back to Rushden. I had my daughter,
Jodie, in 1988 and didn't play again until
around 1996 when I joined the
Rushden Town Band
on the back row. The M.D.,
Dave Twitchings,
asked me to play Flugelhorn
and I held that position until,
sadly,I had to give
up playing (albeit temporarily) in the Summer of 2003, due to some
dental work being done - including braces on my teeth.
For the
couple of years before that I had been helping out my old band,
Rushden
Windmill, on second
cornet - supposedly JUST
for their summer
engagements.....I'm still with them!!
These days, though, I attempt to
play
the 'timps',
although I'm sure somebody's going to 'suss' me out for the fraud
that I am and guess that I'm just a pretend percussionist and
that I really AM a cornet player!! I hope
to come back to playing (..blowing that is !!)
eventually, after an 'op' on my
lower jaw (not looking forward to that!) AND after the
braces are finally removed. Come and see me in the hospital....I can
promise
you it'll be quiet - I'll have my jaws wired together, and won't be able
to
talk - not that I talk much.....do I?"
....answers on a post card please.....!!!...
In May 2006, after doing a
really great job on the 'timps' (especially her damping
technique !!!),
Sue
has had finished her dental treatment and has returned to the cornet
bench - welcome back
Sue!
'Close' the window to go back to the
'Who's who'
list!!
