ABOVE: Braving the Showers are the Colorful Beefeater Band
The Beefeaters, a junior brass band from Vancouver, marched off with the top awards Monday in the Calgary Stampede parade. They were judged the best over-all band, the best Canadian band and the best Canadian brass band.
The band was in Calgary in the summer of 1972 for one week as guests of the Calgary Stampede. The were able to visit all the highlights of the city as well. As part of their engagement they played a series of concerts for pre Stampede Grandstand entertainment and in-city concerts. A big part of their week in calgary were the two major parades which attracted outstanding bands from Canada and the USA.
Enroute they played concerts in Kelowna, Vernon and/or Revelstoke. The band was away from July 4 through 12 and stayed at Kanaski Hall.
ABOVE: Gloria Grassi with the T. Eaton Co. Ltd. trophy as best Canadian band. Dave Onions, Keith Woodward, Nancy Bryson and Enzo Grassi (Gloris’s dad) and Enzio Gassi with Sousophone who accompanied the band as a chaperone.
Jamie Croil
BACK STORY:
I started playing trumpet when I was in grade 5. Mrs. Kitty Carson at Kerrisdale Elementary said, “We are going to have a band this year. Does anyone want to play trumpet?” Five of us got up. My oldest brother had shown me how to make a sound on his trumpet. She liked my sound the best so I got to play trumpet. My brother took lessons from Gus Sheedle who played in the symphony. He used to come to our house and I would listen to his lessons. I played all through school. In high school, a classmate by the name of Bill Dudlets put together a swing band and I remember we played in the first Vancouver Stage Band Festival at David Thompson Secondary in 1972. We had a good stage band at Point Grey and a good concert band because all the stage band guys played in the concert band.
The Beefeaters:
I was 14 years old when I auditioned for the Beefeaters in 1970. My first trip was to the Calgary Stampede in 1972 where we played in the Stampede parade. We had a very competitive band that year and took the top 5 prizes out of 6 that were awarded (continued 1973, 1975 and 1977).
British Columbia Beefeater Band 