After his performance which was featured on 4BR at the recent Yorkshire Regional Championships, the remarkable Frank Mathison will be gaining a legion of new fans today thanks to his appearance in the Daily Express newspaper.

The 90 year old former bass trombone player with the London Symphony Orchestra from 1963 to 1993 took to the stage in Huddersfield to play baritone with the Friendly Band (Sowerby Bridge) in the Fourth Section — and loved every minute of it.

Conductors and players

And given that there cannot be too many brass band players who can say they used to do a day job working with Andre Previn, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Monteux, Claudio Abbado, Herbert von Karajan and Bernard Haitink amongst others, no wonder he still enjoys himself.

All that of course and he used to turn up to work next to the likes of Denis Wick, John Fletcher, Howard Snell and the one and only Maurice Murphy, playing on everything from Mahler to 'Star Wars'.

As he said to 4BR on the weekend after he came off stage: "It's a bit tricky on baritone, but I can manage it. I still play my trombone though."

there cannot be too many brass band players who can say they used to do a day job working with Andre Previn, Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Monteux, Claudio Abbado, Herbert von Karajan and Bernard Haitink amongst others4BR

Debut

Frank made his brass band debut at the age of 12 on cornet, and took up the trombone when he was 19 during his Army National Service. His son plays with him in the Friendly Band.

Thanks to Lorne Campbell his story has now reached a much wider audience, with Frank saying in the article: "I had a ball playing with London Symphony Orchestra and I thought retirement would be boring — but I was wrong."

Picture: Copyright Lorne Campbell