Jazz bands

[Trickyvee]

Can anybody remember jazz bands? Probably most popular in Northern towns in the 70s and 80s. Kids would join a jazz band and play the drum, xylophone or gazoo or learn how to twirl batons, then once or twice a year, all the jazz bands from a town or district would have a marching parade through the streets. These were big events where each jazz band would be dressed in a proper uniform and would march with a big banner saying who they were and where they were from, then they would have a competition to see who had the best routine.

I was never in a jazz band, but baton twirling became a popular off-shoot. The real batons (black stick with a big silver thing on the end) were out of reach so we used broom handles. We used to buy coloured sticky electrician's tape to decorate the broom handles and would spend hours bruising our knuckles trying to perfect our twirls.

[stuckinthe80's]

Re: Jazz bands

Our local Jazz Band was called The Blue Birds I think. I remember them doing there rehersals in the local junior school while we all watched through the window. The local town Gala always has a large turn out of Jazz Bands from all over the area. I always wanted to play the bass drum and march round with it like they did when I was a kid!!!