The University of Lancaster Music Society (ULMS) Brass Band enjoyed a very special guest appearance on their recent Whit Friday outing.

It all came about after the band decided to pay homage to their local residents of 'Wallace and Gromit', who live just down the road from the band somewhere in a stop-go animation house in Preston.

Wallace meeting

However, what they didn't expect as they made their way to Dalcross to perform was that they were would end up meeting Wallace himself.

Speaking about the remarkable encounter, Scott Henderson here, Physics PhD student and soprano cornet player told 4BR: "We had decided on the theme as we all love the films and the music.

We had played at five venues and headed to Dobcross. When we were walking down to play we were approached by someone who wanted to chat who told us we had been just marched past Ben Whitehead, the voice actor of Wallace!

Even more strangely, we found out that our guest conductor for that village, Cathy Rutherford, had been sitting and chatting with a member of his family all day."

When we were walking down to play we were approached by someone who wanted to chat who told us we had been just marched past Ben Whitehead, the voice actor of Wallace!Scott Henderson

Say 'Cheese'!

Scott added: "Ben was so lovely, saying how well we had played and that he had enjoyed hearing us play 'Star Lake' — rather catching us off guard with his great brass band knowledge. We even got his to say 'Cheese!' for a picture together!

It was the perfect way to mark 'A Grand Day Out' organised by our brass reps Alex Bateman and Ethan Hilde and our conductors and guest conductor, Madeleine Hales, Charlie Wood and Cathy Rutherford."

The band later found out that they had also won the Friezland Whit Friday contest's 'Best University Band prize.