25 Years of Exchange Visits with Hille!
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
Gillingham Imperial Silver Band celebrated its 25th year Anniversary of exchange visits with the Musikzug Viktoria Hille from the North of Germany last weekend.
A group of 40 people, players and friends from the band left Gillingham at 5pm on Thursday the 22nd of May by coach. The journey took over 24 hours and we arrived at 6.0pm on the Friday evening. We were greeted with Champaign by our friendly hosts and taken home for a meal.
In the evening there was a welcoming party at a Hotel in Frotheim close to Hille. The celebrations went on until the very late hours of the morning. On Saturday morning we got together for a practice for the big concert which was to be held that evening. I have to say we were a little concerned about the way we were playing at the practice; I think this was partially due to the amount of alcohol consumed the night and morning before?
After the short practice we went our separate ways with our hosts to make visits to various attractions around the area. For me it was a visit to Minden 20 minutes away by car, this was not my first visit to Minden but I still managed to see new things. It has a nice old part to the town cobbled streets with large old buildings with fancy wood work and decoration. There was a festival going on with many stalls selling the local Barre Brau beer and of course the Bratwhurst sausages being barbequed on big round swinging griddles. We walked in to the cathedral which had a very large picture display that looked like a carpet lay in the entrance made out of flowers. When inside we were taken away with the size and height of the building with its massive stain glass windows.
Minden is situated at the crossing of the river Weser and the Mittelland Canal (a man-made canal) which lies in a beautiful landscape of hills and plains.
We decided to go to the canal which has a very spectacular lock where we saw an 87M long barge being lowered down to the river a very dizzy height below. After this it was time to go back for another meal and prepare ourselves for the evening concert.
Over 300 people attended the concert which was opened with two pieces of music from a large group of young musicians from around the area; they were sponsored by the Hille band. This was followed by 30 minutes of speeches from the deputy mayor of Hille who came to Gillingham 25 years ago on the first exchange and the bands chairman Stefan Cruse from Hille as well as our band Chairman Robin Hussey. All echoing the fantastic friendship that exists between the two bands. Various gifts were exchanged before the playing began.
The Hille band started with the English national anthem for the beginning of there first half of their program, They played various types of music which included “Amazing Grace” which was sung by Antje Buhrmester, She sang the same piece 25 years before at the first concert in Gillingham, “what an amazing Voice”
We then replied by playing the German national anthem at the beginning of our program. The playing from both sides was fantastic with many different types of music being played, from old German folk music to modern pop and film music with the audience being very loud with the applause at the end of each piece. For Malcolm, Julie and I this concert was going to be a little tuff as we had been chosen to play solos. For Malcolm and Julie this was just a walk in the park, although they played very difficult pieces “Blaydon races” and “live and let die” for me it was my very first solo, I was just playing the simple piece “Wandering Star” from Paint your Wagon. Luckily I was first up and although I was very nervous I was determined to play my best. After the very loud applause I felt I had achieved something which I had being trying to do for 20 years. In the second half of the program both bands took it in turns to play and then at the end we played 4 pieces together. The first was Schwaben Gruß this was the very first piece played 25 years a go, Dancing Doll which was composed by Alan our conductor when he was studying music then Stelldichein in Oberkrain followed by Hootenanny the audience went wild after each piece shouting for more. But we had run out of music. So we offered to play one final piece which had got forgotten about earlier in the program. This piece was going to be our surprise piece at the end of our program but we went on to the joint pieces to quickly, so we were happy to play the piece at the end. The piece was called Caravan and it is very loud but we had a job to make ourselves heard over the clapping of the audience. What a concert! We then celebrated with many glasses of beer and schnapps’ before changing and going to a follow on party close by in a large marquee arranged by a sports club for us which finally ended at 5am in the morning.
On the Sunday we were told to be at the shooting club at 2pm where we would have to be prepared for a 
walk and a game. Information was very sparse to what exactly we would be doing but we understood it would involve drinking, a walk and throwing a ball. When we arrived we were given some beer and then told the rules of the game. We were split in to 8 teams with around 15 people in each team. Each team had a ball either yellow or red. We had to take it in turns bowling the ball down the narrow roads just outside the main part of Hille around a 4km route.
This game is played in the area during the winter months and apparently is very popular.
The idea of the game is the team to bowl the least amount of times around the route is the winner. Each team had a referee who counted the throws and decided whose ball was the closest and whose turn it was. The referee also decided on the punishments wish consisted of being forced to drink the worst schnapps’ for the worst offences such as hitting your opponent’s ball or loosing the ball for a while. A good or bad throw would incur drinking schnapps. There were also some rules such as not saying car or Auto as there is a very large German word you must say instead. We could not learn this word so of course we had to drink schnapps every time a car came. One person would carry a pole with a small metal basket on the end of it which was used for fishing out the ball from ditches, the odd hedge and crops growing in the small flat open fields.
Whilst we were playing this game we had regular deliveries of Beer and Schnapps brought to us by a 55 year 
old tractor with a Barre Brau cooler trailer attached to it. After visiting one team it would move on to the next and eventually back to the first and so on. It was compulsory to take another Beer and a few Schnapps on each visit of the tractor and trailer. There was also a person in each team who carried a rather large rucksack which would be emptied and refilled on every visit. I think some of our team did not understand fully the rules as bowling the ball at the components ball was not really the idea of the game and by the end of the game the punishments that was given was damaging there chance of winning as well as probably pickling there liver. On the return to the Shooting club we received a very good welcome meal which included some fantastic meat being spit roasted on a large barbeque outside.
My team came joint second; we had to decide the second place by nominating a person to compete in a strong man
contest: who can hold a stein beer glass full of beer up at arms length the longest. My team won this so we finished second. Bad luck Macker! The Germans were always going to win that one! Oh the prizes of coursewere a bottle of Hille Moorbrand (a local made Schnapps).
On Monday we went on the coach to Osnabruck. This town was only one hour away; we had a good look around and did some vital shopping to give to our families on our return home. I opted to purchase some colouring books for my daughters as well as some sweets the shop assistant not only understood my doggy German but also asked me if I wanted them wrapped as presents which were done so nicely and with out any fuss. We returned home to be greeted by a nice lady called Stephanie from the local newspaper she was keen to know all about our visits of the last 25 years. We then had another nice meal and then went to the final farewell party.
On arriving at the party I was greeted by many of my German friends wishing me a happy birthday after one or two drinks we were silenced for the normal thank you speeches given by Stefan Cruse and Robin Hussey, we of course gave them an invitation to return to Gillingham in 2010 which they were pleased to accept. Then I was totally embarrassed as Robin handed me a birthday card whilst every one sang me happy birthday. Little did I know that this was not the end of what they all had planned? The next thing was Friedelm Schutter there long time conductor who started the exchange along side Fred Tranter our long time conductor, got up and made a presentation to the band for the 25 years. He then presented me with a CD of 50 years music from the Volksmusikerbund which is an organisation for music in the north of Germany. This made me very proud to be part of this wonderful exchange which has been going for so long. Then the next thing to happen was members of the Hille band walked in and played happy birthday followed by a rather large cream cake with a firework going off in the middle of it. This was not the end, I then had to sit on a chair whilst four or five big German men lifted the chair with me on it up and down nearly hitting the ceiling they even then made me dance on the dance floor with everyone standing around clapping very loudly, luckily my friend Tracy saved me from total embarrassment by joining in with me. The party finished only a few hours before the coach left for home.
A few tears were shed by some on departure and we all left feeling rather happy with the great time we had but sad that we were leaving. The band has a fantastic relationship with the Hille band and many friendships have been made in the last 25 years. Long may it continue!
Nigel Perrin.
Band Manager.