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 Communications Chair, Luke Taylor. Luke has a diverse banding history, starting out performing with his local music service's brass bands before being invited to join the concert bands, orchestras, and jazz band. He then joined Besses Boys' brass band and has since gone on to play, and win contest with, bands between 2nd and Championship section. He also was a member of the Hallé Youth Orchestra from 2013 to 2015, and studied at the Junior school of the RNCM in 2015.
Luke didn't get into the world of marching bands until 2017, when he joined Revolution. He marched a season on tenors before leaving to march trumpet with The Company in 2018, however returned to Revolution to play drum kit in 2019. He has been joint-drumline arranger and instructor from 2020 onwards, and also became the corps director of Revo Juniors in 2021.
We sat down with Luke to ask him a few questions:
What instrument do you play? Too many!! I first started off as a drum kit player so that's what I would consider my "main" instrument. However, I am also well versed in "orchestral" percussion (xylophone, snare drum, timpani, etc) from my time playing with brass bands and orchestras. I got free music lessons as part of my GCSE Music course so decided to use these to learn french horn, and picked up a bit of trumpet from CO and Revo!
What is the first show you marched in? Revolution 2017 - Jekyll and Hyde (what a show!)
Proudest banding accomplishment? If you know me, you'll know I don't shut up about this one, so sorry in advance! In 2017 I performed at the BBC Proms at the Albert Hall (London) as part of Prom 44 (Bang on a Can AllStars). There were groups of brass and percussion players dotted around the hall and I was fortunate to be in one of the ones on the stage!
Most embarrassing banding moment? It's not really embarassing, but there was one brass band contest - I think it was Fleetwood? - where I had forgotten to pick up the triangle beater. I had to borrow the spoon from my Mum's lunch and use that!!
If you could talk to your younger self when they started banding, what advice would you give them? It's just band - you will love it, you will hate it, but don't let it stress you out so much!
What is one surprising fact about you? Despite most people thinking that I'm 35+ years old, I'm actually only 22!
If you could invite any 5 people (dead or alive) to a dinner party, who would you invite? Nicko McBrain (drummer from Iron Maiden), ScoJo (Blue Devils), Sir Alex Ferguson, John Williams and Paul Lovatt-Cooper.
What are you most looking forward to over the next season? I'm looking forward to a few "firsts" next season. From a BYBA point of view, I'm excited for my first "real" season as Comms Chair. I've had some ideas on different things we can try at show days, so am looking forwards to putting them in place! I also can't wait to see Revo bring my drum book to life - it's the first proper show I've written music for, and after 2 years of waiting it's finally getting played!
Check back next week, when we will be meeting another member of the BYBA Council!