View source for Well Travelled

[[Category:Courtney Bosanko]]
First campaign 'under new management' took the band to Paignton, for the weekend of 31st March/1st April, 1951, and later that year they travelled to Wolverhampton. The Saturday evening festival was in fact held in the Friend's Institute, Sparkbrook and consisted of a <font class="historytitle">Symphony of Brass</font> shared with Sparkhill band and songsters, plus Tottenham band. Boscombe contributions included <font class="historytitle">The Valiant Heart</font>, <font class="historytitle">King of Kings</font>, <font class="historytitle">The Great Physician</font> and Reg Tubbs' soprano solo <font class="historytitle">An Irish Melody</font>. Rita Green and Deputy Bandmaster James Williams also rendered solos.

Weekend campaigns were plentiful in the next 3 years, with visits being made to Staple Hill, Catford, Bargoed (twice), Maidstone, Nottingham Memorial Halls, Canton and Blackheath, the latter visit being marked by

<div class="historyquote">

not only the outstanding musical abilities of the bandsmen but also by their spiritual deportment

</div>

<div class="historyauthor">

Musician 23rd October 1954

</div> 

Later campaigns took the band to Reading, Gloucester, Maidstone, Salisbury, Leighton Buzzard, Cheltenham, Hendon, Worthing, Watford, Cambridge, Luton Temple, Newton Abbot, Trowbridge and Bargoed (for the third time). The regular visits to Bargoed - the bandmaster's home corps, immortalised in his march of that name - coincided with the Annual Rhymney Valley Festival, and the band was always well received. Most of these campaigns were memorable not only for the quality of the playing but also for the spiritual impact which regularly resulted in seekers, with 15 being recorded at Canton alone.

Following his retirement to Boscombe in July, 1954, General Albert Orsborn readily accepted invitations to special with the band, and in the next few years accompanied them to Exeter, Ipswich, Regent Hall, Croydon and Bristol Easton. Referring to Boscombe as 'My Band', he not only proved to be inspirational in his leadership of meetings and band spirituals but also a tremendous source of encouragement to each bandsman.

Festivals were regularly held at Boscombe, often in partnership with other local bands such as Poole, Winton, Sholing and Portland. On occasion festivals were given at surrounding corps, sometimes by the full band, sometimes by a dozen or so of its members. Among the unusual engagements, the band was called upon to accompany the singing on Monday, 23rd May, 1955 for the dedication of the site of the Punshon Memorial Church, and also to participate in the <font class="historytitle">Ringing Bournemouth</font> evangelistic campaign held in a tent in Iford, July, 1958.

<div class="wikilinks">
<pre> </pre>
</div>
<div class="wikilinks">
[[File:Bm bosanko thumb.jpg|50px|link=Courtney Bosanko|middle|Bandmaster Courtney Bosanko]]
</div>