Peterlee Emeralds
Charles Sharp and Ernie Guest with unidentified boy.
Sisters Jacqueline and Carole Guest.
The Peterlee Emeralds Jazz Band started off in Fairburn Road on a Sunday afternoon in 1964. Mr William Fairless Davison rounded up all the kids in the street and started marching us around Peterlee. More and more kids joined us as we paraded through the streets on our way to the park on Eden Lane.
I was put in the front row with two other girls. Marie Cutler was one of them. Mr and Mrs Cutler became members of the first committee along with Doc and Doris Elwood. Our next door neighbour Mrs Rawlings made the band uniforms, which were an emerald green. Mr Philp Sharp created the original banner. My dad (Ernie Guest) and my uncle Charlie (Charles Sharp) taught us all how to play the drums and march in time. My uncle was a former PE instructor in the army and my dad had played drums in a dance band when he was younger. As a result of their tuition, we soon began winning local competitions. The Horden Melody Markers were winning everything before we came along.
Altogether, there were 40 to 50 members in the jazz band. Out in front was George Beryl, the mace thrower. We were the only band in the area led by a boy. Behind George came the four banner holders, and behind them was the majorette; a girl named Shirley, or Sheila. The main part of the band lined up in rows of four behind her, with Pat McCoy bringing up the rear playing the bass drum.
Carole Glendenning (nee. Guest)
I was in the Peterlee Emeralds in the early days. We used to have a double decker bus that we hired to take us to competitions. In the summer, this took us all over the North East most weekends. When I first joined the band, I was playing the gazoo, but then Ray Robinson taught me how to play the drums using a section of rubber conveyor belt that came from Horden pit.
The hats, believe it or not, were made from breakfast cereal packets. They would glue a few layers of cardboard together to form the tall round section, and then laminate the cardboard before cutting the peaks into shape and attaching them to the hat.
We had a lot of families like the Burrell’s and the Henry’s, who lived in and around the Royal Arms who joined the jazz band. It was a good discipline. You were taught to march to music, which was a big influence on me, because I joined the army in 1970 and was stationed in Germany.
Fred Felton
My sister Gayle Deller was in the Peterlee Emeralds for at least 4 years in the mid 1980’s. She loved every minute of it. Rehearsal or band practice was held in the big hall at The Whitehouse. The music was so loud l thought it would blow the roof off!
I helped out when they went on band competitions in other towns. It was great, as it got us out of Peterlee. I used to feel so sorry for the kids when they still had to march in the rain! They won some great trophies and medals. I would sew them on my sister’s sash. My sister often speaks of her time in the band, and we have a real good laugh. Great childhood memories.
Anita Sanderson
1 Comment
I started my Jazz band life in Horden Blue Stars until in disbanded in 1979 ish, then joined the Emeralds, I starred on the banner strings moving into the ranks then in to the drum core until I left the band in 1991. Best days if my life.