Charlie Farren talks to the BBC about missing his banding

The recent retightening of the COVID-19 rules regarding public gatherings – cutting down the number of people who can meet in groups to just six from only two households – by the Scottish Government means that any return to normal banding would appear to be off the cards for some time to come.

Brass musicians up and down the country are champing at the bit to get back to playing together in rehearsals, public engagements and contests.

There was a real sadness when November’s Scottish Festival of Brass – featuring the Scottish Open for championship bands, the Scottish Challenge for lower section bands and the Scottish Youth Brass Band Festival – had to be postponed, meaning that 2020 will probably come to an end without any live organised brass banding activities in Scotland since the Scottish Championships in March.

In this 125th anniversary year of the Scottish Brass Band Association, the planned calendar of events to mark the milestone has been decimated, along with highly anticipated fixtures like the Easter and summer courses for the National Youth Brass Bands of Scotland (NYBBS) young players.

Bands, too, have achieved anniversaries in 2020 – Whitburn is 150 years old and Kilmarnock Concert Brass has reached half a century – but they have been hampered in their celebrations to mark what should have been happy occasions with their friends and fellow musicians.

Charlie Farren, chairman of Whitburn Band, sums up the feelings of the majority of brass players when he talks passionately on the BBC website about what the lack of banding has been like during the Coronavirus lockdown.

“You are as close to the people at band as you are to your family,” he says. “To not be with them is incredibly difficult.

“We had a massive schedule planned for the entire year. Overnight, it was all gone and it has cost the band thousands of pounds.”

You can hear what he has to say in full at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-54225613