The small village of Llanbedr in North Wales became home to Cambridge University Brass Band for four days this year, as they embarked on a short tour of four concerts in North Wales and North-West England.

Below is a day by day account of the 1998 CUBB Tour.

10am - The band meet outside Churchill College, where they wait patiently for their transport to arrive. Harvest, the band mascot has a lucky escape from the merky waters of Churchill's pond, during tom-foolery between Timms and Sanger.

10.30am - The coach arrives. Arnold and Leach meet Dave the driver for the first time. All instruments, bags and 300 cans of beer are loaded onto the coach, and in no time at all, the band are on their way.

3.00pm - Arrive in Llanbedr. Surprisingly, it's raining. Offload all baggage and equipment from coach into Hostel. Rooms and beds are immediately claimed. Leach claims control of the upper floor, designating the free bedroom as his administrative headquaters.

5pm - Rehearsal in dining room. Bushers is having severe tuning difficulties. It is agreed not to wear tour t-shirts at the concert, for health reasons.

6.30pm - Band veteran Mr. Morris arrives.

7pm - Fantastic meal of spaghetti bolognaese cooked up by Stock, Muscles, Barlow etc. Needless to say Muscles goes back for fourths.

8.30pm - First concert of tour in the village pub. The band play a short concert of popular favourites and go down fantastically. Sambrook performs a fabulous rendition of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow', despite being more than slightly under the influence of the local very cheap and good bitter.

11.30pm - Return to Youth Hostel to begin drinking the beer reservoir that has ammassed in the dining room.

12.00am - Much beer is being consumed, in true band tradition, and the singing of 'The Floral Dance' begins.

12.03am - Singing of every piece in the concert programme, every player singing their own parts. Conducting prowess of Hopkin and Morris demonstrated to its full potential.

1.30am - Arnold makes his way to bed.

1.31am - Arnold trips over chair in pitch darkness of bedroom, much to the hilarity of McDonald, Tildesley and Martin.

1.39am - Important medical discovery made that no matter how much noise is made, Bushby will continue to sleep soundly.

8am - Those who have insider knowledge on the water system stagger out of bed to head for the showers, only to find a queue of those with a similar idea. Those who don't know anything about the water miss out on the solitary hour of the day when the water is hot.

8.30am - Breakfast. Discover that Stock and Peck have been up for hours, and have come up trumps again with tea and toast. Arnold makes a trip to the village shop, where he has to plead with the shopkeeper to take the money for the milk he wants to buy.

9am - Those who chose to lie in, make it down to breakfast, cursing the fact that they've just showered in water of an equivalent temperature to that in the river.

10am - Leave for Chester for day out and concert at the King's School. Stock and her caterers once again do the business with cheese sandwiches for packed lunches for the whole band.

1pm - Arrive in Chester much to the delight of Leach and his fellow Chestrians.

2pm - Leach coaxes some of the band into his favourite pub, where they remain until leaving for the concert, blatently contravining Her Majesty's pre-concert no alcohol rule.

4pm - Feeling a little peckish, Arnold, Tildesley, Martin, McDonald and Murrills seek refreshment. They stumble upon the 'Jacobian Tea Room', a small, cosy establishment offering light snacks and drinks. Cream teas enjoyed all round.

6pm - Arrive at King's School, Chester for concert. Morris is re-united with his old Headmaster, neither choosing to mention the occasion when Morris threw up on him.

7.30pm - Concert. Although they play well, the band knows that it wasn't their best performance. The audience, however enjoyed it greatly.

9pm - The drive back to Llanbedr is made all the more enjoyable by the purchase of 'The Full Monty' by Peck.

12am - More drinking back at the Hostel, accompanied by watching of cricket highlights. Arnold enjoys Rampratrash scoring a century. Tildesley and Bushers make a clean sweep on the pool table, retiring unbeaten.

12.30am - The band's very own A-Team of Timms, Tildesley and Martin storm the stronghold of Mungall and Stock's 'anti-social' behaviour using water pistols.

2am - After last night's escapades, a deliberate assault course is set for Arnold's return to the room in the dark. He copes surprisingly well, overcoming the onslaught of Bushby's socks, and Martin's band t-shirt. He does come a cropper by tripping over his own cornet case, falling flat on his face. Bushby sleeps soundly throughout.

9am - Most people sacrifice hot water for a lie-in. Barlow, Stock etc. have hair driers in full action.

11am - The first boys v girls CUBB Football Match takes place. Mr Morris stands in his official capacity as FA referee. The pitch is a sports field behind the hostel with two sets of goalposts, and a few sheep. The pitch surface is a little muddy, not helped by the sheep dung. The girls field an impressive team, with a surprise selection of Dave the bus driver in goal. The boys go for a strong 4-4-2 formation, with depth and versatility in all positions. The girls start a somewhat feeble warm-up, while Tildesley takes the lads on a sprint up and down the pitch. The match sees an impressive amount of goal-mouth action (in the girl's goal). Dave has his work cut out, and ends as man of the match. 'Psycho' Sambrook is almost sent off for a two-footed tackle on Allen, who is brought down a number of times. The final score turns out as a close 9-0 to the Boys. Goals came from Mungall(3), Timms, Ralston(3), Tildesley, and Linington.

1pm - Leave for concert in Anglesey, travelling via Snowdonia. Dave demonstrates much driving skill through the narrow Welsh roads.

4pm - Stop off for short time in Betws-Y-Coed. The cream tea lads, accompanied by Bushers and Ferguson search out more refreshment. One of the town's hotels is visited for afternoon tea.

4.30pm - A race back to the coach proves to be in vain, as Stock, Mungall, Allen and Tighe turn up late.

5pm - Pick up Cosgrove in Bangor, when he tells of a disturbing event during his train journey involving a dirty old man's hand and his leg.

5.45pm - Arrive in Beaumaris for pub meal at 'The White Lion'. Leach dissapointingly has no time to demonstrate the unusual toilet facilities of Beaumaris Castle. Fox, Worland and Thompson go off wandering, ignoring pleas to go straight to the pub for food.

5.55pm - The offending 3 Stooges are spotted on the single street of shops in the town, and return for food.

7.35 - Arrive late for concert on Anglesey, with a fairly large audience waiting. There is much panic, and the stage is quickly set. The concert finally starts, and it turns out that the band play brilliantly. The venue is very good, and the audience are wonderful. Things seem to go well under pressure(!).

9pm - The band return to Llanbedr, on a high after one of the best concerts they have ever performed.

3am - Muscles retires to bed late, avoiding a planned water pistol attack by the occupants of his room due to their falling asleep.

4am - Peck and Ralston make a maverick decision to visit the beach(!). Mr Leach continues to drink, trying to set a good example, accompanied by Timms and Linington who attempt to drain the beer reservoir themsleves.

8am - Everyone, with few exceptions staggers out of bed to attempt to make the Hostel look presentable again.

9.50am - Fox, Worland and Thompson make an appearance, and are immediately escorted to the bus. Lansley makes a shocking discovery in the upper floor toilet that she fails to deal with after extensive flushing and addition of bleach. Sambrook is then dispatched to dispose of the offending problem. He returns victorious after a short struggle.

10am - By some sort of divine intervention, the hostel is cleared and everyone is on the bus ready to leave for Crewe. A sweepstake is set up on when during the journey Linnington will throw up following the previous night's extensive alcohol consumption.

1pm - Pub lunch in Crewe. Band t-shirts are dispalyed all round. The matter of who you're talking to becomes very confusing. There is a heated debate over who should be entitled to the only four jam roly-polies for desert.

2.30pm - Short rehearsal for the evening concert. Tuning difficulties once again become apparent.

4pm - Rehearsal with United Co-Op Band. Immediately notice that although Cambridge band significantly out-number Co-Op, Co-Op certainly have the weight advantage. CUBB experience a slightly more disciplined and lardy conducting style than that they're used to.

5.30pm - Lips worn out, a well earned rest is taken before the concert.

7.30pm - Nerves are frayed, and the whole band visits the loo before going on for the final and biggest concert of the tour. The concert goes well and sounds very impressive, especially during the massed bands numbers, and our very own Ferguson goes down as a big hit. The concert is compered by Roy Sparkes, who dazzles the audience with a superb series of fat bloke jokes and comments about Wright's backside. Davies, Solo Trombonist with Co-Op, gives an astonishing performance on the Alpine horn. Tildesley and Martin watch astounded. True to form, Timms comes up trumps in the raffle, winning a brand new band mascot - Dave the Duck (in honour of Dave the bus driver).

10pm - The band set off on the home trip back to Cambridge, satisfied with a great concert and successful tour. Martin falls asleep…CUBB Tour 1998 - North Wales North Wales