Dinner Guests - Peter Meechan's ultimate brass band dinner guest list

31-Jan-2008

In the third part of a new feature Peter Meechan tells us who he would like to invite to come to dinner...dead or alive.

Meechan Given the opportunity, the wish list, the ability to mess about with the Space-Time Continuam like Doctor Who, and the skill to cook like Heston Blumenthal, who would you like to invite around to your place to enjoy a meal and chin wag with?

We've been fairly generous with our criteria too: The 10 people can come from any time in history, but must have some link, in however tenuous a form, to the brass band movement.

The budget for the meal and drinks comes out of their own pockets though...

4BR started it all off a few days before Christmas with our 10 dinner guests, so we thought we had better ask a few more brass band personalities who would be on their all time dinner list too...

This time its Peter Meechan, composer, adjudicator and passionate Liverpool Football Club fan...

1. Julie Backhouse
As I’m hosting the dinner party, it would be rude not to invite my housemate (also known as my fiancé). It does however, in the interests of people being able to enjoy their dinner, mean that I will be cooking!

2. Mark Bousie
Mark is a fantastic player, a true gent, and a great friend. Anyone who’s ever been to a contest with him will know that he literally knows everyone, and can talk about anything!

As he supports Manchester City if I think things are going bad I only have to think of his predicament.

3. Gareth Daniel
Gareth is a kind, warm person, as well as fine player with Black Dyke, who, like myself, enjoys a fine red - such as Ian Rush, or Kevin Keegan, or Ian St. John. Knows his banding stuff too.

4. Elgar Howarth
Mr. Howarth not only knows more about music than any of us could learn in a lifetime, he is also equally informed about two of my other passions – football (although he is a Manchester United fan) and cricket. Just picking his brains as we enjoy a nice bottle of wine and a well cooked meal would be a delight.

5. Jimmy Hill
As football is something, which I could, and usually do, talk about all day, who better than Jimmy Hill? Whilst I couldn’t tell you who he played for in his younger years (bandiogn wise - although he may have played cornet in his spare time from Match of the Day), by all accounts he was a pretty decent trumpet/cornetist.

6. Gilbert Vinter
Gilbert Vinter was a composer who didn’t fear boundaries, and whilst not looked on in the wider musical world as having too much importance, his significance to brass bands is possibly unrivalled.

What he and Elgar Howarth could do for the repertoire if they got together around the piano would be mind boggling.

7. Dave Thornton
For as long as I have lived in Manchester, Dave, like Gareth and Mark, has been a trusted friend. He is a fantasic musician, who I've worked with on several enjoyable projects with. He is also a passionate bandsman.

I was at the final day of the 2005 Old Trafford Ashes test with Dave, and whilst we drew the match with the Aussies, it was one of the most amazing sporting events you could ever wish to attend. There would be several of us around the table that would no doubt enjoy talking about and recollecting this day, and the series as a whole (Although we would have to skim over the return series at the beginning of last year!)

8. Wynton Marsalis
If you can type only a person’s first name into google, and they have the first page of results all to themselves, the person in question must be pretty special. Without doubt, Wynton Marsalis is one of the greatest musicians of our time – be it jazz, classical – in fact anything, he is truly amazing.

Okay, maybe we are going to have to explain a few rules of sport to him (and brass band contesting for that matter) – but surely he must have now heard of “soccer”!

9. Miles Davis
Whilst some of the other people listed have more obvious brass band roots, Miles Davis is not one of them. However, he is my greatest musical hero, and there was not many forms of music he did not, or still hasn’t, touched.

The language at the table may turn a little blue, but he is probably the greatest original creative voice of the 20th century.

10. Kenny Dalglish
Every band needs a good manager, and whilst he hasn’t turned his hand to brass bands yet, King Kenny is certainly one of the finest managers to ever grace the earth - especially in 1986 - when they had a band!