On Friday 11th April, at some ungodly hour of the morning, Pemberton Old Wigan JJB Band began their journey to Mechelen, Belgium for the Flemish Open Championships.

They set off to travel down to Folkstone, across the channel to Calais, and then up to Belgium on what will be one hell of a long coach journey, but hopefully will be well worth it by the time the results are announced on Saturday evening.

Being the only UK band to ever take part in the contest is an honour and we all hope that we can wave our flags proudly with a winMD, Mark Peacock

Fly the flag

The programme chosen for the 25 minute performance will hopefully see them fly the flag for the UK against some pretty tough European opposition and they report that all of the band have worked extremely hard over the past few weeks.

Succesful

This is the first tour Mark Peacock (MD) has done with the band and he is hoping for it to be successful and the first of many.

He told 4BR: "Being the only UK band to ever take part in the contest is an honour and we all hope that we can wave our flags proudly with a win."