Manor High School. Oadby

I started at Manor High in 1977 and had Clarinet lessons but wasn’t good enough to be in the Orchestra so was in the Military Band, 9th desk of Clarinets, 4th along!!! We didn’t get to play many tunes, just the ‘pah’ of ‘oom-pah’. Mr. Bottle, Science teacher, ran the Band and had a talent for losing his grip on his conducting stick/baton, and it would go flying back into the audience, much to everyone’s amusement. Cunning plan… he had a pack of them on his conducting stand and would just take another one out and carry on.

We played quite a few concerts, at local fetes and one hot Summer in Abbey Park, Leicester in 1976 when a sudden gust of wind below lots of the music across the grass (we forgot to use pegs).

I would say that the greatest achievement of the Military Band was to play a ‘European Tour’ of the four mental hospitals in Leicestershire: Stretton Hall, The Towers, Groby Road and one more I’ve forgotten. (I’ve added links so you can see if they’re still there or not.) Mr. Bottle knew that I played Scott Joplin’s Ragtime pieces on the Piano so every concert I would play a solo about halfway through the programme. What struck me was that, in spite of me and the Band not playing very well, the patients absolutely loved it, clapping and cheering, which made me realise the true power of music. In fact, what Mr. Bottle made us do was a really early form of music therapy, way ahead of its time. Thank you, Mr. Bottle!!