You have to be of a certain age to remember Fred Roberts and those of us who do, will recall those days with a mixture of emotions.
Fred, or Mr Roberts, as he was always known in the band room, commanded respect. He was one of the giants of Cornish banding, along with, at the same time, the wonderful Eddie Williams.
St Austell Band appointed him as their musical director in 1970, after tempting him away from Camborne Town Band. We already knew of his reputation; a tough taskmaster, hard to please and always demanding perfection. If you were not good enough you did not last long.
I was, at that time, a cornet player. Whilst I considered myself to be quite capable it soon became obvious that Mr Roberts did not share that view. For over twelve months I continued to delude myself that things would get better, but the reality was that I was never going to reach the standards demanded by him.
One Friday night in late 1971, I was leaving the band room after yet another ‘difficult’ rehearsal when Fred called me over. He was a man of very few words and always straight to the point – to put it mildly. He asked, “How long have you played cornet?”
“Since I was five Mr Roberts”.
“Do you practice?” he asked.
“Yes Mr Roberts, one hour every night”.
“Well,” he said, “You can practice every night for the rest of your life but you will never be a cornet player”.
I thought, oh dear, I can hear the sound of the exit door being opened.
Fred then said, “You are finding it too hard; you need to change your instrument, I suggest you try tenor horn”.
I was horrified. “I am not playing that, it’s an old man’s instrument”, conveniently forgetting that our solo horn player was the brilliant Andre Helleur and he was the same age as me.
Fred just looked me straight in the face and said, “It’s up to you now, I suggest you think very carefully about tenor horn”.
That sounded like an offer I could not refuse. My plan was to take this dreadful instrument home and make such an awful racket with it that Mr Roberts would soon forget the silly idea.
I took the tenor horn out of its case in my bedroom the following Saturday afternoon. I actually shocked myself with the sound that came out of the bell, it sounded quite acceptable. After about five minutes I was enjoying myself. My father came up the stairs and into my bedroom. He just said, “You have found your instrument”.
I very soon settled into my position on first horn and although I tried to give Mr Roberts the impression that I was doing it under duress and “only for the good of the band”, I loved playing tenor horn.
As I said earlier, Fred was very hard to please and this drove me even more, in the vain hope that I would receive some praise from him. That was not Fred’s way though. He actively encouraged me to enter solo contests and while still on first horn I entered the Air Variations section of the Carharrack and St Day Solo Contest where I found myself up against all the top players of the Cornish bands. The adjudicator was Lyndon Baglin, the former star euphonium player of the CWS Manchester and Stanshawe (Sun Life) bands. He awarded me first prize.
By March 1974 I was playing solo horn for the area finals at the Colston Hall, Bristol. The test piece was “Variations On A Ninth”.
In October 1974 I walked out onto the stage of the Royal Albert Hall to take my place as solo horn of St Austell Band. Since going to the National Finals from the age of nine I had sat in the audience with my father, looking up at the stage and dreaming about being good enough to play there. Thanks to a Friday night encounter with Mr Fred Roberts in 1971, I had made it.
