Sunday 16 March 2008

Colonel Bogey March

Wikipedia tells us the Col. Bogey is the number one all-time top money-making march, and maybe only narrowly since the author had to slip out of the barracks on the sly and publish it nom-de-plume to keep his royalties. You can read all about it over there on the wiki page, fascinating story.


But I think the REAL story here is that here we have this one scratchy take by the famous Yorkshire Black Dyke Mills band, conducted by Arthur Pierce I'm not exactly sure when (it is similar in spirit and quality of sound to a Henri Miro I've heard from 1920) and the really wonderful thing to note for our opener-post here in the band-book is that here's that march then, and if you flip over to www.blackdykeband.co.uk you'll see that same band today, an unbroken tradition of over a 150 years.


And that, as they say, is what being a community bandsman is all about! It's a thread that weaves through time. From a small private corporation band (many corporations had concert bands back then) to an outfit fit to cut a disk for Paul McCartney and sit in sessions with Peter Gabriel!


Bet you a quid they still kick up a mean Col. Bogey too.


Amazon: Black Dyke Band - Colonel Bogey's March