Description
Marion: In memoriam.
So the tale is a sad one. Marion’s son played in the Jnr. Band who I helped coach, we ran it like a real band and responsible jobs were given out and we told the kids that if you were not going to turn up they had to inform us and we were not interested why. We had a good bunch indeed and gave local concerts to put money in the biscuit tin. One week Marion and son didn’t turn up to rehearsal and no phone call, we knew this to be unusual. That weekend she had been taken into Hospital suffering with blinding headaches, and there she died at 37. Marion’s mother asked me to play The Last Post at her funeral. I composed this tune with two things in mind, The Last Post and a mnemonic of her name in a downward triplet.
The sad tale came again after we recorded it (2007) with the Fairey Band years later and the soloist was/here Rod Franks LSO (ex-Dyke). Rod and I were friends for many years. He recorded this on Flugel and I conducted. 7 years later (2014) he was to lose his life in a tragic car accident, so I now dedicate this to his memory also. https://youtu.be/7y7JIm15eH4
