Welcome to our series of Meet The Council articles. Throughout these entries we will try to give you a chance to get to know the people working behind the scenes at BYBA.
This week we are meeting the BYBA Contesting Chair, Clive Burd. Clive started marching with Magic DBC on bass drum and drum staff between 2000-2003 (they were short-lived, but he likes to think they were amazing!). Between 2004 and 2009 he drifted from band to band, but didn't really find anywhere that felt like home. 2009 saw him join an indoor percussion ensemble called Percussion X, where he met up with some old faces and made new friends. One of these new friends was Gill Harrison, who was then the percussion instructor at Revolution. He went down to help out in 2010 and became caption head in 2011, a position he held until 2015.
In 2015, Clive started to judge with DCUK/DCE. After a year of judging on their circuits, he decided that he wanted more exposure so also started judging for BYBA too. Being involved with BYBA led to him being forced co-opted onto BYBA Council.
We sat down with Clive to ask him a few questions:
What instrument do you play? Bass Drum
What is the first show you marched in? Magic DCB, 2000 - Hunchback of Notre Dame
Proudest banding accomplishment? 2015 DCE finals - seeing my drumline absolutely owning their performance and making it to Finals. This line were amazing, dedicated, and did I say amazing?
Most embarrassing banding moment? Welll....... OK, here goes.... BYBA Finals 2000 - I slipped on a flag (NIA floor which is slippery already, add in a silk flag underfoot and it's game over) - I tried to push my bass drum off my harness before I floored it. I forgot that I was wearing a shako and didn't fit through the harness. Instead of throwing the drum off, I managed to get my harness caught on my head, decked it, knocked myself out for a few seconds. All caught on tape (yay). But...I only missed one set :D
If you could talk to your younger self when they started banding, what advice would you give them? Practice more. Time at band is to put everything together not to learn the parts (this is what I always preached to my lines in the end!)
What is one surprising fact about you? I'm a massive introvert!
If you could invite any 5 people (dead or alive) to a dinner party, who would you invite? I'm an introvert - I don't want parties...
What are you most looking forward to over the next season? Getting out judging again. Seeing the performances from the best seats in the house!
Check back next week, when we will be meeting another member of the BYBA Council!