Comments ~ 2007 November

12-Nov-2007

A Desperate Plea; Anyone enterprising and cashed-up?...

A Desperate Plea

Previous Discussions online here have mentioned the atrocities committed by bands at contest, or for contests.

Recently, a Sydney band made (brass band) headlines over falsifying medical certificates.

Today I receive my QBA minutes, to read about forgery of Sign-on sheets at this years Nambour contest.

What on earth goes through our head at contest that makes us do these things? I have met a lot of good people through banding, and while we all see where the line is a little differently, we all acknowledge there IS a line not to be crossed.

Then you read about the rubbish, or hear the stories.

What happened to honour? Doing your best, the fairest way possible, in a way to ensure your name was never besmirched?

To the people out there who have been involved in this sort of behavior, I beg you - please don't ruin everything for your own petty needs! We're all a decent bunch of people - if you need help, I am sure we will all find a way to help you without cheating!

A desperate plea from a desperate bandie.

Chris Allen

Anyone enterprising and cashed-up?

This has just been prompted by your Editorial comments regarding instruments etc. It has always been a problem getting hold of and trying instruments from some of the lesser known brands and also some of the top end manufacturers. This is due to our location, the relatively low number of annual sales and lack of local dealers.

I'd dearly love the opportunity to try some of the Eclipse range of instruments as well as Taylor, Wedgewood etc however unless I go to the UK (and beyond) it just won't happen (I don't think I'd be allowed to go on a "holiday" for those reasons either!).

Sure you can order direct and hope that you'll like it based on the opinions of others, but what if you don't?

Is anyone here going to stock the new range of cornets, euphos etc from York? They are getting some good reviews, however unless people can play them for themselves they'll never sell here.

Maybe some enterprising cashed-up individual or company could start a business which stocks some of these and hires them out for short terms to people who might want to buy one? If they could convince the manufacturers to give them exclusive agency rights they could ensure any orders are placed through them. Admittedly this is hard to do because it is so easy to order things from overseas via the internet. There is a very well known agent here who has exclusive rights to a certain make, however the same instruments can be purchased directly from other agents in places like the USA and shipped here for substantial savings on the local prices. The Yamaha Xeno instruments seem to be selling here for the same prices as overseas - why can't everything else?

Stephen Williams

About these comments

We will not print anonymous letters and we will not print your email address 4barsrest has a responsibility to inform our readers of our opinions concerning the many topics of the banding world we cover, and we are proud that we give the opportunity for people to comment with their thoughts about certain topics (including contest results). However, we are very clear that these comments are those of the individual who has written them, and in no way do they indicate that 4br agrees with the sentiments, observations or perceived injustices that are highlighted in them. We will continue to inform and report to our readers, and will give our own opinions and thoughts. We will also continue to give the opportunity to others to do the same, but by allowing people to air their opinions does not, and will not mean that they reflect in any way the responsible and informed opinion that we ourselves hold.