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At a time when some of us are still rather nervous about venturing overseas, Campbelltown Band decided to go for broke in our recent Fringe concert. After all, surely travel to Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, or even a day trip to the moon should be Covid safe for appropriately masked tourists.

It’s quite amazing how much music fits the space theme. Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra (better known as the opening theme of 2001 A Space Odyssey, immediately followed by music from E.T., had to be our opening fanfare. It has become a tradition at the Fringe concert that we include a more demanding piece (for players and audience) and this year we were challenged by Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s The Dark Side of the Moon. This was a fitting choice for a space odyssey since it moves from the rugged landscape we can see to a place that we can only imagine – standing in complete darkness looking at the night sky with countless stars and galaxies, planets and different solar systems glistening from the light of the sun beaming from the other side of the moon.

Steve Packer (Song to the Moon), Adam Little (Sweet Sunset), Julie Dorey (Clear Skies) and Andrew Parkinson (Stardust) were our talented soloists. How fortunate we are to have band members who can perform at this level.

Other numbers included ballads (When You Wish Upon a Star, Blue Moon, Fly me to the Moon) and ever popular marches (Mercury and Star Lake). And, of course, no space-themed programme would be complete without John Williams and Star Wars.

Covid restrictions meant we were slightly down on numbers this year, but the audience’s enthusiastic response to our Superman encore more than made up for the empty chairs.

Many thanks to Paul Murray (soprano), Ian Barton and Colin Smith (cornet) Andrew Parkinson and BJ O’Donovan (trombone) and Corrine Eustice (percussion) for filling in the inevitable gaps in our ranks.

We are also grateful to all the people who helped with setting-up, supplying tea and coffee, selling tickets, organising the raffle and all the other tasks involved in an event like this.

As usual, Sue Smith and Viv Little provided entertaining and informative introductions to each number.

Finally, many congratulations to our newest member, Aaron Maclean on his first band gig. Andrew is a member of what seems to be an endangered species – trombone players. If there are any others lurking out there we would love to welcome you to our ranks.