THE MOST historic brass band in the world is appealing for the public’s help and support to write a new chapter in its folklore.
Stalybridge Old Band dates back to 1809 and has been a fixture in the town ever since.
Now it has a chance to show its talents on a national stage, but funds are needed to make sure it can.
After qualifying from the North West Regional Fourth Section as champions, it can now head to the national finals in Cheltenham for the first time in 25 years.
However, the bills for travel and accommodation have brought them to issue a fundraising appeal.
Conductor and musical director Nigel Lawless said: “It’s an awful lot of money.
“Most bands need to raise between £7,000 and £9,000 depending on how long they’re down there.
“We’ve got a two-night overnight say to make it work for us, so there’s hotel bills for everyone in the band, some supporters will pay for themselves.
“We’re trying to raise it so the band doesn’t have to pay for its own hotel. On top of that, you’ve a coach and driver with you for three days, so there’s his accommodation and the cost of the coach. It addas up to a lot of money.
“We’ll do as much as we can to put things back in the community, we’ve had a couple of gigs at Street Fest plus anything else we can come up with.
“It’s a really big deal as it’s 40 years since Stalybridge Old Band last won the qualifying competition and it’s a very proud moment for me to be involved.
“It’s a bit like football – there’s a Premier League and at the moment we’re five leagues down.
“The top two will qualify and get an invitation to play against bands from across the UK, that’s basically the prize you win. You win less than the cost of your coach fare financially, but the real prize is to get the invite.”
Stalybridge Old Band is also receiving help from up above as Paul Greenwood is celebrating his 60th birthday by doing a parachute jump to add to the coffers.
It qualified by being voted the best performance of Music for Jock Tamson by Alan Fernie, they only needed to finish in the top two to make Cheltenham.
Now all eyes are on September 14 and 15, when they will compete against 17 others from across the country.
The upcoming Whit Friday contest has also taken on a different meaning for euphonium and trombone Nigel, who first played with Stalybridge Old in the 1980s.
He added: “I always tell the players it’s not me who does the playing, they just do what I’ve asked. If it goes well, I take the credit, but they do all the hard work on stage.
“Whit Friday is the lifeblood for a lot of brass bands and it has been for Stalybridge for some time.
“They tend to do quite well but obviously this year it’s about raising money to get the band to Cheltenham, not having a good time.
“I’d not done any conducting for many, many years but a very good friend of mine, Martin Evans, who was doing some conducting here, had been trying to persuade me to conduct for years.
“He thought I might do all right here. So I said, ‘I’ll have a go.’ We did a couple of contests and it was going OK, so they asked me to stay on and do it full-time.
“When the band asked me, I said, ‘We’ll need to work really hard because I’m going to be really busy.’
“A lot of my work is done away from the band, the preparation and eyes on what we’ve done before, so when I come here to tell these guys, it’s a case of, ‘You know you’ve got to do a lot of graft if you want to do well.’
“I basically challenged them with that. ‘We want to win stuff,’ and they took up the challenge.”
Stalybridge Old Band has also put together a range of sponsorship packages at £400 for a player, £250 for a hotel room and £100 for a seat on the coach.
Anyone interested in any of those can contact secretary Melanie Flynn by emailing staybridgeoldband@yahoo.com or you can donate by clicking www.gofundme.com/f/help-get-us-to-the-finals.