Granville, Ohio – a New England-style community, located along the western edge of the Appalachian Plateau, population 3,500. Also the home of Denison University and our sixth concert. We were housed in the impressive Granville Inn, built in 1924, and offering a touch of luxury for our one and only free morning of the tour. Upon arrival we fielded the usual questions as to why we were in the States, and were delighted to hear that we were not the first travelling band of musicians to pass through the Inn; both Count Basie and the Dorsey brothers used to play at the Inn when on the road – exalted company indeed!

Today’s short trip

Exercise and sleep were the order of the morning, before hitting the road again at noon. A mere four hours in the battle bus to Detroit, Michigan was child’s play given the heavy schedule of the last few days. En route we stopped in a colossal Walmart to purchase a suitcase for our Denis Wick mutes, which gave us a chance to stock up on some necessities: mainly clean socks and boxers (having spent so much time in ‘the hole’, Huw decided that flight socks would substantially reduce the risk of DVT developing). Dan treated the group to a family sized container of Cheese Balls, and so we began the ten-hour-cheese-ball-challenge – could we finish the colossal serving by the time we returned the hire bus circa 11:30pm. Yes, with minutes to go, and some inspirational Motown tunes ringing around the bus (thanks Joey Atkins), we could!

Now you see them…

…now you don’t!

Our plea for entertainment on the long bus journeys had not gone unnoticed, and we had been emailed another quiz by an adoring fan (thanks Hannah from London): ‘Composer or pasta?’ Do you know your Puccini from your Piccinni? (Turns out we don’t – try it out at https://www.sporcle.com/games/sproutcm/pasta-or-italian-composer).

The dodgy roads of Detroit (or was it the driving?) tossed us through the final few miles to our venue for the night, Christ Church Cranbrook. Built in the ’20s to replicate a traditional English church, the venue offered us a wonderful acoustic, and one that we felt very at home in.

Christchurch, Cranbrook

The stunning venue

When arriving at a venue, the first half hour is always given to the players for individual practice and maintenance. The performances are so physically draining, each player has fine-tuned their own warm-up and warm-down to both facilitate maintaining the exceptional standard of the group, and also reduce the risk of injury to the chops. Players combine this with a combination of lip remedies – Chop Saver, Vaseline, Robinson’s Remedies Lip Renew (a new one endorsed that night by Hunter Eberly, Principal Trumpet of the Detroit Symphony) – there are of course other brands available. However, it is not just the face muscles which tire. Holding your trombone up for a two-hour gig (often with a mute in), plus rehearsals and practice, can be tough on your left arm and hand.

Left: discolouration of the hand from excessive trombone playing; Right: discolouration of the hand from excessive cheese ball eating

The short rehearsal continued yesterday’s work for our concert in Ilkley on February 14th, before we got stuck in to our seventh concert in as many days. The wonderfully appreciative audience were invited to meet us all at a reception after the concert, where the Gershwin continued, but this time via a remarkable 95-year-old lady tinkling the ivories – all by ear, apparently unable to read music! With the Canadian border a stone’s throw from the venue, Dan’s heartstrings were being pulled every which way as he sought out each and every one of his Canadian brothers in the room.

Westy’s almost home

Canapés and cranberry juice devoured, we left the church and managed to squeeze in a pint before last orders at the Griffen Claw Brewery Company. Half an hour later, Matt and Simon dropped off the hire bus while we all checked into the airport hotel, looking forward to a maximum of four hours sleep before the red-eye to Arkansas. It’s mornings like this when someone misses the bus…

Tour stats:

Concerts: 7

Standing ovations: 7

Distance travelled: 7148 miles

Time on the bus: 34 hrs 32 mins

Cheers balls eaten: a lot

Our route to Michigan

Almost half way through our tour, and things had been going a little too smoothly. Something had to give, and it turned out that something was our windscreen. Barely 5 minutes into our journey it cracked into a broad grin, stretching almost its entire width. With no replacement available within 500 miles, we had little choice but to push on through the ice and snow of Iowa towards our destination, Berrien Springs, Michigan.

Driving conditions at the outset…

…before this happened!

Morale was high, but the temperature low (-15 Celsius to be precise), and driving conditions exceedingly difficult. Entertainment was provided by one of Septura’s most ardent fans, Elise Campbell, who had emailed in a quiz. The front of the bus (where I was sitting with Alan and Pete) prevailed in the more cerebral early rounds. When it came to later popular culture rounds (and I think these questions may have been mostly devised by Elise’s 7-year-old niece) the back of the bus really came to the fore (let’s just say their knowledge of Disney is a little unsettling). They won 34 points to 30. (Any other entertainment suggestions please email them to admin@septura.org).

The frozen Mississippi River.

By the time we crossed the Mississippi into Illinois the snow was coming thick and fast, coating the road more quickly than it could be snow-ploughed, and reducing visibility to almost nothing. Several native drivers had come unstuck and were to be found facing the wrong way on the Interstate. Wary of this potential outcome we proceeded with caution.

Driving conditions deteriorated

The slow pace gave us a good opportunity to catch up on some admin. We now have the dates for our next US tour, in February 2020, and so we have just begun to contact promoters for that trip.

Having inched round Lake Michigan, we arrived late at our hotel with just time for a quick swim in the pool (eager to work off some calories from the Chinese we had for lunch) before heading off to the concert.

Rehearsing in Michigan

The Howard Performing Arts Center on the campus of Andrews University is a stunning venue, the acoustics of which would put most of the halls in London to shame. Our concert coincided almost exactly with a local sporting event known as the “Superbowl”, so we were expecting the audience to be select, but in fact we were pleasantly surprised: a great crowd full of enthusiasm (a particularly eager audient hailed our arrival with the greeting “play loud and prosper”). We received an incredibly warm welcome, with the second-half Gershwin going down particularly well. Meeting members of the audience to autograph programmes and CDs afterwards it was striking how knowledgeable they all were about music and brass instruments: so many of them seemed to have had formative experiences in bands at high school and beyond.

Catching the end of the Superbowl

Our work done, we managed to catch the very end of the football at a neighbouring hotel. Dan, our resident expert in all things American (especially food, beer and sports), talked us through the intricacies as the Eagles powered to a convincing victory. As night fell and the temperature plummeted yet further, the crack in our windscreen lengthened menacingly, and so we went to bed with the task of finding a new tour bus the first thing on the agenda for the next morning.

Tour stats:

Concerts: 5

Standing ovations: 5

Distance travelled: 6617 miles

Time on the bus: 25 hrs 12 mins

States driven through: 7

Windscreens cracked: 1

Day 3 took us from the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas, to the college town of Manhattan, Kansas, home of K-State University and affectionately nicknamed ‘The Little Apple’.

Today’s journey – the longest of the tour

The 494 mile drive seemed at times almost interminable, the sun-scorched prairies stretching as far as the eye could see, occasionally punctured by a roadside service station. ‘Des’ (or designated driver) for the morning session was Simon, who sought redemption for a dramatic misadventure early on by proceeding to put in a sterling 5-and-a-half hour shift behind the wheel.

Not the scenic route: this was basically our view for all 7 hours

As the only member of the group without a driving licence, I’ve been condemned to the ‘hole’ at the rear of the bus, where leg-room is at a premium (though still more comfortable than American Airlines economy!) It has meant a good vantage point for the ride, however, where I’ve been continually amazed by the size and quantity of pickup trucks speeding past us on the interstate.

Morale is high at the back of the bus

The downtime on board has also given many of us the chance to catch up on movies, reading, emails, spreadsheets, score learning or arrangements, the battle bus often resembling a mobile office, littered with laptops and iPads.

Reaching Manhattan only 30 minutes before the scheduled sound check, we proceeded to check into our hotel before heading out to the performance venue.

Setting up in Manhattan, Kansas

Most players’ pre-concert routines involve a gentle warm-up, some stretching or breathing drills, but the green room at the First Presbyterian Church afforded Matt Knight and Alan the opportunity to test their table tennis skills as 7:30 approached. Matt, our resident southpaw, dominated the early exchanges, before Alan’s guile and experience came to the fore, no doubt with a little help from his tour book, Matthew Syed’s Black Box Thinking. Final score: 11-9 to Alan, and the trumpets handed a well-timed morale boost before heading onto the platform.

Warming up Septura style

The concert itself was a real success, with yet another hearty welcome and standing ovation from our friendly audience, many of whom dazzled in their purple KSU Trumpet Studio jackets.

Welsh members Huw Morgan and Simon Cox with new Septura fan Henry Law

After several post-concert pictures and CD sales, we headed downtown to the local Irish pub, accompanied by Henry Law, an enthusiastic, sociable and ever-inquisitive bass trombone student who ensured that we were well looked-after by the charming bar staff. A round (or was it two?!) later and we headed home, ready to rest our limbs before another 6-hour journey to Iowa the following morning…

Tour stats:

Concerts: 3

Standing ovations: 3

Distance travelled: 5772 miles

Time on the bus: 12 hrs 15 mins

Time on planes: 11 hrs 31 mins

Road incident near-misses: 1

Our debut USA tour opened at Oklahoma State University (OSU), home of the Cowboys (Go Pokes!).

The group met up in Dallas Fort Worth Airport, with Matt Knight and I having flown down from San Francisco on the back of a 3-week tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. We squeezed onto a tiny plane bound for Stillwater, Oklahoma: getting the tuba on board shocked a few of the locals, but where there’s a will there’s a way, and 40 minutes later we were disembarking into the smallest arrivals ‘lounge’ I’ve ever seen.

Disembarking at Stillwater Regional Airport

Not too hi-tech baggage reclaim

Our wonderful hosts for the first concert, Paul and Lanette Compton, met us at the airport and transferred us to the Atherton Hotel, OSU’s flagship hotel – comfy beds, great bar and restaurant. We were well looked after. By this point Huw – flying from Switzerland to the USA – had been up for twenty-seven hours, so it was high time for some kip.

Jet-lag dealt with, the next morning was spent at leisure, with a surprising number of people hitting the gym, before rehearsal started at 3pm. On arrival we picked up a large shipment of mutes courtesy of Denis Wick USA who have very kindly provided them for the tour (if you’ve ever been to one of our concerts you’ll know that we use a lot of mutes).

All the trombone mutes we need for this programme

Can you guess which is the tuba mute? Thanks to Denis Wick USA

As yet, the second half of this programme – Gershwin Preludes, Songbook and An American in Paris – had never been performed, apart from an informal run-through for our Friends and Supporters at the Wigmore Hall earlier in the month. There were a number of corners which required attention, including the first outing for Simon doubling on taxi-horn – which, being so loud, is going to assist in getting any late, lazy members out of their slumber in the mornings.

The standing ovation reflected on a concert which went down extremely well, attended by people from Oklahoma City and as far as Texas. A strong cohort of students were keen to take pictures and chat with us post-concert, and as well as the usual brass chat, we discussed the building of OSU’s fantastic new performance centre and the possibility of us returning in a couple of years.

The evening was rounded off in true American style in Buffalo Wild Wings, with most of us ordering chicken wings which were both too hot and too large for our appetite. When we’d finished sweating we headed to bed. Tomorrow we pick up our tour bus and begin our road-trip in earnest, as we travel to our second concert at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth.

Tour stats:

Concerts: 1

Standing ovations: 1

Distance travelled: 5015 miles

Time on planes: 11 hrs 31 mins