Finlay hopes his bespoke fanfares firm will flourish

in these budget-conscious times, it’s perhaps not your typical business start-up.

But for anyone with a little cash to spare on an extravagant gesture, then the world’s first bespoke fanfare writing service might be for you.

Trumpeter Finlay Hetherington set up Fanfare Finfare to create tailor-made fanfares for events from product launches to weddings and birthdays.

It might not be cheap – costing as much as £390 for a top-notch musical flourish – but Mr Hetherington, from Dalry, hopes it will catch the imagination of people looking for something a little bit different.

He said: “I’ve been interested in fanfares ever since I was a music student and I got the opportunity to study quite intensely the subject of fanfares.

“Being a trumpet player lends itself naturally to that side of things and so I got to research fanfares from bygone days.

“At the Fringe my friend was doing a musical variety show and decided to do some calls and fanfares with comedic value, but in the last little while I wanted to take that to the next stage and provide something a bit different and unique.

“I thought it would be quite a nice idea, for example, instead of the bagpipes playing at the opening of something, having a fanfare.”

The idea received a boost when he was asked to write a fanfare to mark Prince William’s wedding.

He said: “I got asked by the headteacher of Royal Mile Primary, where I teach some of the children, to write a fanfare for the royal wedding because they were doing a street party.”

Since then he has written and performed fanfares for the opening of a portrait exhibition and for a birthday party in the Signet Library, Parliament Square, where he held a “fanfare-off” in which he and another trumpet player tried to outplay one another.

The cheapest price tag for a fanfare of your own, lasting around a minute to a minute and a half, is £170. Packages on offer also include a costumed performer, a framed version of the written music and a CD.

Finlay’s manager, Jonathan Hartley, said: “There should be a market for it certainly.”

[email protected]