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Ally Williams, Designated Press Co-ordinator Cardiff Canton Band
The World’s biggest floral parade, The Tournament of Roses is held annually on New Years day in Pasadena, California, USA. It was founded in 1890 and has been staged every year since. The Rose Parade has grown from a local Pasadena institution into an International ceremony equivalent to the New Year’s Eve ‘drop’ in Times Square. In the Los Angeles winter sunshine, at 8 a.m. local time (PST) on Thursday January 1st 2009, approximately one million people from all over the world will celebrate the New Year by attending the 120th Rose Parade. This massive, breathtaking and fascinating sight will also be broadcast to millions of viewers worldwide on multiple television networks including ABC and NBC. It will once again feature the tradition of magnificent floral floats, high-stepping equestrians and world-class marching bands all of which will complete a route of 5.5 miles long, taking approximately 2.5 hours to pass by.
Only 22 top marching bands from all over the world are invited each year to take part in this highly prestigious and unique event; the competition is high and the honour of being chosen to take part is unsurpassable. No British band had ever been included until 1996 when the Royal British Legion Youth Band Brentwood was called to participate. This year however, that importance has been bestowed upon a local Welsh band of only 33 members ranging in age from 17 to 70 from the Canton Salvation Army Corps in Cardiff, South Wales. For these non-professional musicians who come from all walks of life; this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, an entire world away from the weekly worship meetings, playing at rest homes, around the local streets of Canton, and the Salvation Army Band stereotype of playing carols in the city centre. But perhaps the biggest challenge facing them at this present time is the gulf of the journey that lies ahead as they attempt to raise enough funds for all members to be able to seize this opportunity.
The Canton Bandmaster Carl Saunders has a worldwide reputation as a cornet soloist and has performed in many countries including Germany, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Australia and the U.S., however, the entire band must be prepared in order for its members to ensure a united performance in L.A.. Many months of hard work, practice and fund-raising lies ahead. Can they rise to the challenge as they organise and follow through with ideas and events to raise funds, such as a sponsored bike ride along 58 miles of the Taff Trail in Brecon? Can they achieve success through their efforts to stage auctions, concerts and to produce a calendar featuring the band playing at famous Welsh landmarks; on the set of Dr. Who and Torchwood, and at a meeting with First Minister Rhodri Morgan in Wales and even Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger? How will the band’s profile rise as it attempts to achieve local and national press coverage both here and in the States to help them in their goal? Will they get to perform at Sea World, Disneyland, and amid the bright lights and glamour of Las Vegas before the main event in Pasadena? Can they shake off the public’s perception of simply being mild-mannered, conventional, church going, Salvationists and demonstrate the hard-nosed grit and determination that will be needed to broadcast their aims and achievements?
This feat has never been attempted by a small Welsh Salvation Army band before as it isn’t just the burden of their instruments that they will be carrying on this gruelling journey, but heavier still the awesome responsibility of representing not only brass bands and their own Corps, but of representing Cardiff, Wales, the U.K and, ultimately, The Salvation Army itself.
I invite you to follow the band and its members through twelve months of trials and tribulations they face in order to make this dream come true. The individual characters you will come to know include an elderly band member with only one-lung who is determined to help with the fund raising as much as is possible despite his limitations. He also plans to make the trip to L.A. complete with oxygen canisters AND to take part in the march in Pasadena, even if it means hiring a golf buggy.
How will the band cope with the switch from playing to the elderly and infirm at local rest homes in Cardiff to performing in the most glamorous and glitzy, gambling capital of the world, Las Vegas? How do their day jobs affect their dedication to the cause? Will they be physically fit enough to be able to march and play for over 5.5 miles? Will they rise to the challenge and will they be able to persuade celebrities to get involved with their calendar project?
This is a story of a group of ordinary local people seizing a chance to put themselves and Welsh brass banding on the map and to show the real people behind the stereotype of The Salvation Army uniform.
Band web page -- http://www.ourchurch.com/view/?pageID=80284
“I know not on the face of the earth a region more beautiful, more blissful,
and all in all more desirable than the land of Wales.”
Thomas Price (Carnhuanawc) 1787-1848; Hanes Cymru
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