Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004
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Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004
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FCHS Band to march through LondonBy J. FRANK LYNCHjflynch@TheCitizenNews.com
Calvin Graves of Fayetteville was surprised Monday afternoon to find his route home blocked by a one-band parade moving up Tiger Trail. “I thought the band was supposed to be in London,” Graves declared with a laugh as he turned around in the parking lot of Fayette County High. They will be by the time Graves and the rest of Fayette County read this story. The Fayette County High Marching Tiger Band and an entourage of directors, parents, siblings and tag-alongs nearly 230 strong was scheduled to touch down at London’s Gatwick Airport about 7:30 this morning, Greenwich Standard Time. The band is one of several from the United States, including two others from Georgia, participating in Saturday’s New Year’s Day Parade down London’s most famous streets and squares. An estimated 2 million spectators will line the two-mile route in England, but only a couple of dozen, mainly parents, showed up for Monday’s final dress rehearsal in Fayetteville. The band wound its way along an impromptu route through both the new and old campuses, belting out the two songs it will play in endless rotation in London, “Eye of the Tiger” and “Georgia On My Mind.” The job of keeping the 140 marchers in step along the narrow, cobblestoned streets of London falls to snare player Jay Hand, drum captain. “I’m a little nervous about being in front of 2 million people,” said Hand, a senior. “If I mess up, it won’t be good.” Director Kenny Beard said the band didn’t start practicing for the parade until the end of football season in early November. The band hopes to come home from England with the top prize from the parade, which judges units based on music and marching ability. Junior Meagan Lee, a clarinet player, wasn’t worried about the performance, but she was a bit nervous about making her first overseas flight. “But my mom is more nervous than I am,” she said. Another snare player, junior Chris Clark, said he had been told the food in England wasn’t much to write home about, but he wasn’t too worried. His mother, Diane Clark, and aunt, Natosha Evans, are both along for the trip to look out for him. “We’re going to have a good time, regardless of what we have to eat,” Mrs. Clark reassured her son Monday night. After arriving on two planes overnight, the group was scheduled to immediately embark on a bus tour of London today, waiting for check-in time at their hotel at London Tower Bridge. They’ll return on three afternoon flights next Tuesday, excused from missing the first day back to class after the holiday break. Over the next week, they’ll visit Hampton Court, the Royal Palace and Gardens, Stonehenge and the Roman Baths, tour Westminster Abbey and take in a performance of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” Thursday night, the marching band will split into two concert bands to perform concerts in a London church, Beard said. The FCHS band was invited to London more than a year ago, and booster parents spent more than a year raising the $1,850 it cost to send each student. This isn’t the first trip overseas for the Marching Tigers, nor is it the biggest. In 2000, a group of more than 300 spent 16 days in Australia to perform in the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics. The freshman band members that year graduated in May, Beard pointed out. An invitation to participate in the London trip was extended to the class of 2004, but only a couple of them accepted, he said. Meanwhile, family and friends here at home are hoping to find a broadcast of the parade on Saturday, either on cable or by satellite. CNN, CNBC and Fox have all shown parts of it in the past, boosters said, and the BBC will broadcast it live from start to finish. It was unclear Monday if that will be shown to American viewers. |
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2004-Fayette Publishing, Inc.
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