In a mass break-out from catafalques, tombs and neglected graveyards throughout North Gloucestershire, representatives of an extinct social species, lured by familiar sounds, were drawn ethereally to the Pillar Room of the Town Hall, to join an enthusiastic (live) audience who were not at all put out by this strange manifestation. These spectral freeloaders - I didn't see one pay at the door - were, without exception, long dead village Squires, those defunct authoritarian figures of rural England who might, depending on individual whim, pat your child paternally on the head at a village concert and bestow an orange upon him, then order you out of your tied cottage at a fortnights' notice for any minor misdemeanour conceived to threaten the status quo.
To the living and the dead alike, the Mellstock Band spoke, sang and made music which they could all understand and enjoy. Hard grafting professional musicians, their programme permitted them not a minute of respite from entrance to exit - they marketed their CDs and books personally during the interval - and even threw in a marvellously costumed mummers play for good measure.
The floating audience of the departed must have relished, in particular, the carols and part-songs with which they were regaled by the village choirs and bands whom they graciously invited to share their hearths for a few hours at Christmastide - if at few other times of the year. The corporeal listeners certainly responded to every reading, anecdote and musical item with prolonged applause.
Band members Dave Townsend, Tim Hill, Philip Humphries and Charles Spicer are obviously graduates with honours from some University of Entertainment unspecified in the programme. The range of instruments played was alone notable, instruments with such wonderful names, too. If I'd ever heard a humstrum or a serpent before, I'd been unaware of it. I'll know better next time. I'll know a lot more, too, about traditional country merry-making, mostly from the Hardy/Dorset tradition, although the players launched periodic raids on rustic Devon, Sussex and Oxfordshire.
If you see the Mellstock Band advertised in your local paper, don't delay, pick up a phone and book to see them. Take both your living and dead relatives, but bear in mind that any of the latter who didn't carry Squire rank will be obliged to eat in the servants hall after the performance.
© PETER WYTON