Throughout this time one of the things that has always made me proud to be a member of the Band is the fact that we put on successful concerts off our own back., whereas many brass bands in Lincolnshire and beyond rely solely on being booked for concerts.
Market Rasen RPC Band has always worked hard at putting on concerts of their own, and has always done an excellent job.
For many years I have looked forward to the concerts we have held at Market Rasen, knowing that we would have a packed audience and feeling like we were playing a "home match" which always brought out the best in the team.
However over the past few years this feeling has subsided and been replaced by a sense of fear – wondering just how many will be sitting there once we open the curtains and play our first number.
This year for our Proms to Poppies tour the band played three venues; the first two concerts at the Lincoln Drill Hall and Nettleham Village Hall were fantastic with well over 100 attending at each venue and Nettleham being a complete sell out.
When it came to the Festival Hall I found myself apologising in advance to a couple of guest players as the usual fears of audience size were resurrected once more.
The audience of 50 to 60 was a slight improvement on last time when there were only around 40 and I say a big thank you to each and every member of the audience from that night, you all did your best to create a rousing atmosphere fit for the proms concert.
As a more senior member of the band, I am now a committee member, and we have been discussing our concerts at Market Rasen and whether it is viable for the band to continue putting these on.
It costs the Band up to £10,000 per year to run with the upkeep and maintenance of the band room, replacement of instruments and purchase of music and in order to keep ourselves alive we have to look at what is best for us as an organisation.
We willl continue with the Christmas Concert on December 6, however if numbers do not improve we will not be looking to book anymore.
Writing this saddens me greatly. I want to continue playing my "Home Matches" as to me part of being in a brass band in representing a town that is proud of you. In this case maybe we should change our name to Nettleham Village Brass!!
I ask the people of Market Rasen to show their support for the band by voting with their feet on December 6 and when the curtain opens at 7.30pm with a full hall the band can once again feel proud of where they belong.

Heidi Bradley
Marcus Street, Grimsby