Solo Trombone
Malcolm Gill
Malcolm has been Fishburn Band's Principal Trombone for the since 1996, although his playing career spans some 30 years in brass and dance bands. He started contesting at the age of 13 with Amoco band and has since played with Consett Whitbread and Boldon Colliery. Malcolm's influences in playing have been the charismatic John Pollard and the great Tommy Dorsey. Malcolm is John Gill's management partner in the Fishburn Fantasy Football League running the 'Die Hards Trilogy' team with excellent success...well, as a silent financial partner anyway! Malcolm is always the 'life and soul' of any social gathering, with or without the influence of alcohol.
Second Trombone Wizz Bateman
Wizz (christened Elizabeth - but keeping the reason for 'Wizz' top secret) joined the band along with her Mam Jayne in August 2007. Wizz made her debut with the Band at our concert in Hexham Abbey and made an excellent start to her Fishburn Career sitting next to her new found hero, Mal Gill.
Wizz was sent via Stork from Middlesbrough General (or so she was told) on 18/11/91 and resides in a (rather charming) property in Guisborough – the land of the woolybacks! complete with a newly acquired 14ft trampoline - so she's used to having a few ups and downs. She was previously restrained (and educated) at Belmont primary and now frequents Laurence Jackson Secondary School studying for her GCSE's. Wizz was musically educated (tamed) by Trombone player Mr Steve Baxter and also benefits from the wise words of a Mr Mal Gill.
Wizz previously drank ‘ahem’ sorry, played with Langbaurgh Brass. She's also a member of the Yorkshire Youth Brass Band and has been lucky enough to share the stage with Black Dyke. She has, of times gone by, played various instruments, mainly cornet – the strangling of which lasted approximately 6 years and the racket eventually ceased 1 and ½ years ago when, with a slight nudge in the right direction from her music teacher (earlier mentioned), made the somewhat intriguing move onto trombone. She's also ‘experimented’ on a few other instruments over the years- tenor horn, baritone, euphonium and even percussion (solo triangle player – national finals 2005 with Langbaurgh, yes that was Wizz!).
Wizz was judged to be the ‘Laurence Jackson School Young Musician of the Year - Brass finalist 2005’ with her somewhat charming (yet she claims slightly shaky) rendition of Tony Christie’s ‘Is this the way to Amarillo?’ (It was all the rage at the time…) In the spring of 2005 she passed her grade 4 exam on cornet and then also passed her grade 5 on trombone (She tells us that she never knew examiners could be so easily bribed. - joking, of course…) Just to show how multi talented she is, she also passed her grade 4 piano! On top of all that - she can roll her tongue! (Must have got that from her mother)
Wizz's ambition is to contest as much as she can and most of all wants to have a good time. We're sure to give you that opportunity Wizz!
When asked about her interests, Wizz tells us "I bet everyone is just dying to know how many stamps I have in my stamp collection… (yes that was a joke)". Seriously though, she likes listening to music (all sorts of music, except classical) and hanging out with friends and having a good time. She doesn’t have a favourite brass band piece as such, but she does like ‘The Year of the Dragon’ and ‘Dark Eyes’
Wizz's best banding memory so far is at Durham Miners Gala 2005 when she played with Langbaurgh, just because it was the first march she’d ever played in and she had a really good day. Another time was when she dressed up as a Nun when she played at Blackpool Winter Gardens with the Tees Valley Youth Brass Band in 2007, which was "a good laugh" She loved it so much, she almost considered converting until she found out there would be no drinking to look forward to, ah well!
As you will now know, her Mam Jayne plays 2nd cornet with Fishburn (and for any who haven’t realised, then that is what the strange lady who sits to the right of Audrey is doing) Her Dad Trevor plays tuba for Easington and her little brother Elliot has been drawn towards the drums and spends his every spare minute tapping, much to everyone else’s annoyance.
Wizz does not claim to be 'sporty' but her main weakness is that she is a faithful Middlesbrough supporter (BORO till she dies!). She does however quite a bit of mountain biking in her spare time (in the woods of woolyback land).
Second Trombone Andy Hunter
Andy joined the Band in January 2008 and has settled in very quickly, having played his first contest with the Band at the Brass at the Guild Contest in Preston in February 2008. Andy is an Army musician based at Catterick, Yorkshire. His profile will appear here shortly.
Second Trombone Kay Smith
Kay is a former member of the Band who has recently returned to strengthen the Trombone Section. One of Kay's first contests was at the Area Contest in March 2006 at which we qualified for the Finals. Kays profile will appear here shortly.
Bass Trombone Paul Robinson
Paul started playing in 1980 taught by Maurice Walker at his first band, Shotton Colliery. He then came under the wing of Gordon Kitto when he joined Thornley. Ambitions for Paul are to win the Nationals, Open or Grand Shield contests and for the band to receive regular invitations to compete in the more 'high profile' contests which would hopefully mean that one day Fishburn would be one of the 'star names' in the banding world - a view shared by many band members.
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