Flying Sticks
Its time that my "funny moments" anecdotes included something from the percussion section. I have certainly had my fair share of flying stick moments and an assortment of other mishaps. I suspect that there are a couple of songsters at Cardiff who are still having nightmares about the close thing they had with the bouncing bomb that was my double headed bass drum mallet 
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This story though is the one that for me holds the record for "furthest distance" an item of percussion equipment has travelled (accidentally) during a live performance.
The Band were performing the arrangement of Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral in our own hall and had reached the crescendo to the big climax - as the loose cymbal player increased velocity on the cymbal roll the head of one of their sticks decided it had had enough and detached from the handle. Those of you familiar with Boscombe Hall will know that it is quite a big building. The missile flew past the head of the soprano player - bounced several times on its way down the aisle and out the back door!! - what was perhaps funnier was that most people didn't even notice! (I should say that a large percentage of the things that go awry in the percussion section pass without most people noticing!!)
The recording I have linked is from the Band's "Command Performance" CD which was produced for the tour of Sweden in 1990 - I have paired it with some pictures from the tour brochure and the album of Colin Lowe's photos that are on our website. I am sure folks will be interested in just how young everyone was then......
