WHEN a couple of weeks ago I mentioned the Evans family, who at one time - before many of them moved to Coventry, starting in 1936 - made up the entire Daubhill Temperance Band.

It brought back memories to reader Albert Booth,who remembered John Evans, one of the founders of the band.

'Mr parents wanted me to play music,' writes Mr Booth, 'so when I was about nine my mother put me on a three months' violin course in a group of about 20 young people. If you completed the course, you got the violin free. I did finish the course, but had not taken to the violin, so I was put under a piano teacher, and for five years was taught by Mr Williams, who played the piano at the Mount Cinema.

'I had to practice a minimum of an hour and a quarter a day, and then learn the theory. I used to see the other children playing in the streets, but I couldn't go out until I had finished. I have had the benefit since. I am 88 now, and I have played in our Albert Hall.

'I left school at 14 and had two jobs before I went to Dobson and Barlows in Kay Street, starting as an apprentice fitter. When I was 17, one of the boys, called Fred Newton, said that they had a cornet to spare. He played with the Bolton Temperance Band, so I went down to listen to them to rehearse, and afterwards took the cornet home with me.

'I had no tuition, so I had to teach myself how to play it. The following week I went to rehearsals, and within a year and three months I was made the solo cornet. I had risen to the top.

'We played for Sermons Days, for Sunday Schools, the occasional concert, and the Whit Walks at Radcliffe. Then we entered a competition for the various brass bands, and we won it. I was 21 at the time.The following Wednesday there was a knock at the door, and it was the secretary of the Bolton Borough Band, who asked me to join them, so I did.

'At their next rehearsal I sat next to Jack Evans (most of the Johns were called Jack in those days) who was solo cornet. When Jack was asked to join Coventry Silver Band, I moved up to be solo cornet for Bolton Borough.

'The tragedy was that if Jack Evans had stayed in Bolton he would not have been killed in the war. He was a sidepiecer in the spinning mill, very moderate wages; when he went to Coventry he would have been getting four times more in wages, but would have been working perhaps only as a labourer. If he had stayed in Bolton, cotton was very important to the war effort, so he would have been in a reserved occupation and would not have been called up. I was an engineer and was not called up.

'Jack Evans was a wonderful person and a very good friend as well as being an very good cornet player. I was eventually invited to join Wingates Temperance Band - its name at that time - and I am certain that Jack would have joined me there.'

Mr Booth wonders, however, if any of the Evans family are still living in Bolton. 'If so, I would like to hear from them, and perhaps meet them.' You can contact him at 20, Wisbeck Road, Bolton, BL2 2TA (Tel. 531097).