author: Kevin Whittingham

A reasonably early start saw the Band meet at Askim corps in grey, cloudy, misty conditions, with driving drizzly rain for our long trek up north to Røros. Probably a good day to be inside our coach for the 8 hour marathon trip!! Goodbyes were said to excellent & friendly hosts as our transport pulled away, and the chance was taken by some to catch up on much needed sleep.

The journey took us higher into the mountains, and the scenery with mist rolling over hilltops & enshrouding the gorges was eerie and very reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings. Watches were kept for any lurking forest trolls or angry vikings that might disrupt our otherwise peaceful passage! Garry held a couple of quizzes to pass the time, and we managed to work our way through nearly the complete series one Fawlty Towers box set. The German episode never fails to make everybody laugh !

Lunchtime gave us all three quarters of an hour to stretch our legs, and spend extortionate amounts of Norwegian Kroner for a basic roll & drink. Speaking of drinks, it must be noted on this blog that our previous Divisional Commander was caught attempting to purchase a suspect liquid refreshment of the Danish export variety….or maybe he was stitched up by members of the front row cornets!? (Photographic evidence to follow! [Ed:this was censored])

The area surrounding our destination of Røros has been suffering with terrible flooding over recent weeks, leading to road closures and much disruption. However, the welcome at the corps hall was less stormy with a lovely meat & two veg soup, and a local dressed in national costume entertaining us and providing history and song regarding the region we have arrived into. The town itself has obtained Unesco World Heritage status, but can also suffer winter temperatures of minus 30-40 degrees!

With slightly more time before the evening concert, the weary, but well fed group made our way to the local church to sound check. This was a beautiful historic wooden church built back in 1780 and recently refurbished back to its original state, complete with royal box and tiers above the organ and numerous balconies.

There was a small but select crowd that joined us in the church for our concert, with several changes to the running order. Albert Jakeway’s classic march Rosehill was used as the opener this evening, with the featured soloists Craig Snell (Glory to His Name) & Barney Lawrence (Demelza) getting to play their alternative numbers from the repertoire. Our bass section were on top form (great Bb pedal notes!) again during another debut item entitled Eg Veit I Himmerik Ei Borg (Castle in the Sky). The end of the first half saw Quintessence replaced by Ellacombe Chronicles (lovingly nicknamed by our Band as The Chronicles of Narnia!). This technically demanding piece is exciting but difficult, with Garry Lawrence (flugel) & Colin Lowe (baritone) excelling in their solo passages.

Lightwalk again opened the second half of the evening, before moving through the now familiar music & script read by Gilbert Ellis. It always amuses the Band to hear fluent Norwegian interspersed with English titles and composers! After a reasonably decent concert we were lucky enough to receive our second standing ovation in a row.

The Band was then whisked away up into the hills above Røros to stay together at the Copper Ore mine of Storwartz! The area is very desolate with old wooden mining buildings, lakes, and rolling tundra landscape and snow capped mountains in the distance. The scenery reminded some of Doctor Who, The Hills Have Eyes, or James Bond film sets & our accommodation block of four bed dormitories was reminiscent of music camps of the past!! Some of the behaviour was also of the Music School variety too! After supper some took the advantage to venture into the mines and hillside, getting caught in muddy bogs and jumping over streams to get back to sleep. Sadly, no reindeer or wildlife was located, but you can be sure that with 30 plus tired Bandsmen there will be several Walrusses sleeping tonight!!