One of the most popular Yorkshire brass banding personalities will be making a welcome return to the Regional Championships this weekend.

Gordon Eddison will be back in the bass section of City of Bradford Band after an enforced absence of nearly two years.

That has been due to him taking time to recover full fitness following his collapse with a cardiac arrest at the Diggle Whit Friday March Contest in 2022 while helping Hammonds Band.

Re-wiring

Thankfully the excellent medical response saw him taken to Manchester Royal Infirmary where after what he calls a 'bit of re-wiring' he has made a full recovery.

In fact, he has defied his consultant's view that the retirement age for tuba players should be 66 (Gordon's age at the time of the incident) as he is now 67 and stronger than ever.

Gordon didn't just want to concentrate on conducting and adjudication (which can be as equally as stressful!), so when his 'old' band York Railway Institute (whom he had previously conducted for five years (with four National Final qualifications and two Area wins) said they were short of an EEb bass for the 2023 Area Championships he decided to give playing a go once again.

Carry on

"I had a great time,"he said. "And coupled with an equally great result and a visit to the National Final at Cheltenham it persuaded me that I could carry on again and fully forget about playing retirement."

Now Gordon will play EEB bass (a bit easier he says than BBb after 58 years) and is really looking forward to stepping on the Huddersfield stage once again.

"It has been great to be back in this very special band again which such lovely folk and an excellent new MD.

I have a new partner on EEb in Simon Kerr who has just moved over from our sister band BD1, and we are starting to gel as a unit. 'Variations on an Enigma' is a cracking piece with plenty of work for us, so we haven't been taking it easy!"