Corps of Drums Society

Newsletter December 2012

2012 has seen us move to an excellent new location for our meetings.  A big thankyou to Society member Tom Packer for arranging for us to use West London Free School.  Details of our 2013 meetings there are set out below. Very best wishes for a Happy Christmas to you all and we look forward to seeing you at the meetings in 2013.

Programme of Society Meetings 2013

The following Music Meetings will take place at the West London Free School, Cambridge Grove, Hammersmith, London W6 0LB, from 1030 until 1630 hrs. There are no refreshment facilities at the school (other than drinking water) so you will need a packed lunch or use the local amenities (just five minutes walk from the school):

6 April 2013

1 June 2013

5 October 2013

27 October 2012 – this will be the Lord Mayor’s Show Rehearsal

Drummers Call

Those members who receive a paper copy of the Newsletter will receive it with Issue 77 of Drummers Call, which has taken longer to produce than we would have wished: this was partly due to the printers closing their business suddenly– this came as a surprise to the Editor of Drummmers Call, when he took the new issue for printing, but undaunted he managed to find another company .  The other reason for the delay was a shortage of copy: we want DC to be relevant, informative and interesting, so those of you out there with an article in you, please put something together – it could be biographical, technical, historical, or an enquiry which could be aired in a future issue.  If you know someone with a story to tell, please encourage them to tell it to us.  We can take the articles handwritten, typed, or emailed.  If you are including photos in an emailed article, please send them in a separate attachment.

Enquiry from Canada

We have received the following from Rick Allan, Director/Drum Instructor of the Niagara Militaires Alumni Drum Corps (The Pride of Niagara):

“Greetings from Canada! I am “attempting “ to restore two old side drums and was hoping some of your members could assist.

Drum 1 is an old 12 x 14 Boosey & Hawkes AJAX model that needs the top snares

Drum 2 is a 12 x 14 CARELTON model that needs the 2 snare tensioning “knobs” to tension the bottom snare as well as the top snares

Any assistance your members can offer would be MOST appreciated.”

Richard Allen

rallen_bandmaster@yahoo.com      905 388 8236

Please contact Rick direct if you are able to assist.  Please note also that there is an underscore (not a gap) between “rallen” and “bandmaster” in the above email address

AGM 28 October 2012; Committee Meeting 23 November 2012

Minutes of these meetings are on the Society website.  If you are unble to access them and would like a printed copy posted to you, please let me know.

Lord Mayors Show 2013

Assuming that we will be invited to participate again in 2013, please be ready to let me have names of those who wish to parade with the Society Corps when required.  We must carry an accurate list of participants on the day: we start with a blank sheet each year, so you need to ensure that your name is on the list for 2013 – please do not turn up unannounced aand assume it will be alright.

Corps of Drums with Bell Lyres

Some of our member Corps include bell lyre players.  It has been decided (see recent Minutes) to encourage these Corps to bring their bell lyre players to parade with us on the Lord Mayors Show.  In order for a common base of music to be established, would Corps please notify Peter Foss of their three foremost bell lyre pieces so that Peter can work on integrating the most familiar ones into the repertoire.  Please note, that there will be a mix of flute-only, bugle-only, bell-lyre-only and combined playing.