THE death last month of Father Michael McGovern brought back fond musical memories for Joan Foster of Jubilee House, Moor Lane, Bolton.

Father McGovern, who was 82, spent 34 years making Thornleigh College brass band the most respected in the area in the 1950s and 80s.

Joan tells me that when she lived in Pleasant Street -- in St Mary's RC parish -- she enjoyed the band's concerts in the Albert Hall and the Victoria Hall. She remembers the choir being led by the late Robert McManus and says: "We had lovely sopranos and contraltos as well as fine tenors and bass voices to entertain us.

"I can see Alan Roscoe now as he sang The Road to Mandalay and The Song of the Flea, also Margaret Axford singing Softly Awakes My Heart and Peaceful England."

Joan, who is nearly 75, says: "Young folk would not know what on earth I was on about. But the joy derived remains ever in my mind.

"No one who saw Father's boundless energy as he led his boys in his Glenn Miller section could forget him"

She also remembers his sermons as "so witty and at the same time very compassionate."

Father McGovern was buried in Astley Bridge cemetery on August 28.