Information:
The Marching Band and some of the Senior Band Members will travel to Europe to perform in the Besana International Music Festival (Italy), Villers Bretonneux and Bullecout (France) and their Commonwealth War Cemetries (The Historical Somme area where Australian Troops helped protect this area in WWI) and also perferm in Paris. See itinerary at
European Tour 2003 Itinerary
Review:
The Marching Band competed in the World Marching Band Championships in Chiba, Japan and an International Music Festival in Uozu.
Championship Schedule:
Thursday,July 25: Bands arrive, event begins
Friday, July 26: Orientation, rehearsals, opening performance
Saturday, July 27: Preliminaries and semi-finals
Sunday, July 28: Finals and award presentations
Monday, July 29: Band travels to Uozu for billeting and festival
The Band won 2 x second places and 1 x 3rd place.
Information on the WAMSB World Championship can be visited here:
http://www.wamsb.org/wamsb/events/asia/japan/wamsb2002/ebrochure.html
Review:
England was our first stop. We survived on Pub meals and warm English beer. Our first concert and marching performance was in guildhall square with the Right Honourable Lord Mayor of Portsmouth in attendance. After the performance we had refreshments with the Lord Mayor and exchanged gifts. He invited us to meet him on his visit to Sydney for the Olympics, unfortunately we were unable to. Our accommodation was in the historic Fort Purbrook where one of the staff invited us one night to rehearse with the community band he was in. This was great fun and amazingly they had many of the pieces we had in our music folder. Free time in Portsmouth was generally used by members to stroll the streets of Portsmouth, go relax in a pub, visit the flagships (Mary Rose, HMS Victory, HMS Warrior).
Our next stop was London, we stayed at the University of London, Royal Holloway Campus, in Surry. I was blown away by the building. It looked like a huge castle. While in London we performed at the Commonwealth Institute and St. Paul's Cathedral. Some of us took the opportunity to pay half price and go inside St. Paul's in the short amount of time we has left. Free time / sight seeing included Windsor Castle, Chichester Cathedral (Holst's Grave), Winchester (this is where you can see King Arthur's Round Table) and a bus tour around London.
We then took the ferry (the not so white cliffs of...) Dover - Calais. We drove straight to Belgium where we performed at the Menin Gate, Ypres that evening. We were all very tired, but performed well. There was also a Canadian choir performing there. We only had a few days in Belgium, but we had a free day in Brussels where we all went to see the fountain of the little boy urinating "Manikin Piss" and visited Waterloo. We then left for Issenhagen, Germany (near Hannover). We went via Cologne Cathedral. We finally arrived in Issenhagen, greeted by Ria. It took us longer than we thought as there were additional delays as there was a major chemical spill on the autobarrn. In Germany we were billeted for 3 nights, it seems much longer. In Germany we performed at Hannover - EXPO 2000, Parade in Hannover and a combined concert with our host band (they are now coming to Sydney to stay with us in September). Sight seeing: Royal Gardens Hannover, the Red Line took us around the history of Hannover (rained half way around). I also think the person who painted the line had a few drinks as the line seems to take detours and unnecessary routes.
After our partying in Issenhagen we left for Bullecourt. Bullecourt is a small town in Northern France where during WW 1 the Australians protected the town. We played at a memorial service and a concert in the local church. We were also billeted here. After Bullecourt we traveled to Villers Bretonneux (my favorite). Here we played at the Commonwealth War Memorial and another French Memorial on request from the Mayor. We also played at the world's biggest Picnic which was televised back on ABC news. we played in Amiens. The Picnic was all over France. We visited Arras where unfortunately the tunnels were closed and Amiens Cathedral for the night light show. I stayed in Amiens that night with my host family to experience some French culture. I had the same host family I had 7 years ago. This is what I like about the band and its tours, the people you stay with become your friends and if you ever go there again, whether it is for a visit or another tour, they will always welcome you. And if they ever come to Sydney they will often visit or stay with you as well.
Off to Vimoutiers where there is a statue of a cow in the middle of the city. Vimoutiers right next to the small town of Camembert. Yes, you guessed it, this is where the Camembert cheese was made first. We performed in Vimoutiers 3 times a day and had cold showers at night (the boiler was broken apparently). I think we were fed the best here with Camembert cheese topping off every meal and if you liked alcoholic apple cider, this was available too. Unfortunately I don't have the pallet for the cider, the vision of French peasants sloshing the apples in bare feet to make the cider makes my stomach turn.
On the way to Paris we visited Normandy Beach (nudist beach - but aren't all beaches in Europe nudist?) and some other romantic village. When in Paris we played at EuroDisney, this was actually our last performance, so it was a great way to finish the tour. We did all our sight seeing and had a night ride down the Seine.
Report by Braden Hamilton (Tour Manager)Photos at Villers Brettoneux and "Burning of the Gum Leaves". During WWI wives of soldiers used to send a gum leaf to their husband at war in France. The soldiers used to gather all the leaves and burn them. The smell of burning gum leaves reminded them of home, Australia.
