FORMER Leigh bandsman Harold Roberts was blown away by the response to his appeal for musicians to form a Remembrance Day parade band.

Twenty-two men of brass turned up to make Harold and musical colleague Phil Boardman's day.

For weeks before the big day they called on ex-members of the Bedford Band and Leigh Silver to accompany the town's war hero marchers in the annual procession to the Church Street memorial. With only an hour to go on Sunday they were still in the dark about whether enough would turn up.

Harold, who now lives in Cumbria, said: "We were absolutely thrilled. We got a first class band out, the best for quite a while."