They have always urged him to write down his many anecdodotes and, after years of reluctance, he has bowed to their pressure
The result is Blowing My Own Trumpet – Memoirs of A Yorkshire Bandsman.
It begins with Colin's childhood memories growing up in a small cottage in the shadow of a textile mill before joining the famous Black Dyke Mills Band. It continues with Trooping the Colour with the Irish Guards, a debut with Geraldo, one of the most popular dance-band leaders of the 1930s and playing everywhere from Westminster Abbey to Australia and even the Hollywood of the 1950s.
Colin, now 73, has enjoyed a successful career as a cornetist with institutions such as the BBC Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham Orchestras – with whom he debuted Benjamin Britten's War Requiem.
He has encountered almost everyone from jazz legend Count Basie to boxer Jack Dempsey and Hollywood star Doris Day. He has even met the Queen.
It was the death of a musical colleague, "mentor and hero" William Arthur Lang, which prompted him to put pen to paper.
"People had often said I should set about a book but I was reluctant. I thought 'who's going to want to read it?' I've never considered my life any more interesting than anyone else's.
"Then after Willie's death I visited his widow Anne and she made me promise to sit down and write and so this is what I have done."
But Colin, who lives in Haworth, had a mission right from the beginning.
"If I was going to write my musical memories I was determined to avoid all the historical aspects of the organisations I have been involved with. I didn't want people to get bogged down and bored stiff," he says.
"So I've concentrated on events from a more personal viewpoint, some happy, some even tragic."
In Blowing my Own Trumpet Colin recalls how, while on tour with the Irish Guards band, he and his fellow musicians were playing at the Shrine Auditorium, Hollywood.
"Pitch black and deadly silent, it appeared to be empty until I walked a ramp leading to the stage to play my cornet solo. To my amazement there was an abundance of stars sitting in the audience only a few feet away.. Betty Hutton, Doris Day, Rick Hudson, Rory Calhoun and Jack Palance to name but a few."
Colin goes on to recall how during the interval the British actor Anthony Steele was trying to rescue new wife Anita Ekberg from the claws of several drummers.
"The following evening we were invited to the Blue Gardenia nightclub in Wiltshire Boulevard and there we spotted Louella Parsons the famous gossip columnist.
"The producer invited me and Pat Purcell, a close friend, to a screen test the following day but when we told them it would mean deserting the British Army, he told us 'Then desert, God damn it'."
Colin was 15 when he was invited to audition for Black Dyke Mills Band in Queensbury. He was told he was "too young really" but he impressed talent scout Alex Morton, who was on the lookout for a young cornetist.
"They wanted me to take over from Willie Lang, playing in the afternoon concerts and that's how it all started really."
Colin, who has taught at Leeds and Huddersfield Universities for more than 25 years, began work on the book four years ago. He was supported by his "tolerant and patient" wife, Suzie and Susan Caton of Bradford Libraries' history department.
"There were many others who never lost confidence in the book being published, even when I did," he says.
And, he adds, he is pleased that he did, finally, write down his stories. "If only so that my children and grandchildren can read them."
Blowing my Own Trumpet - Memoirs Of A Yorkshire Bandsman by Colin Casson, is published by The History Press and available at Fred Wade, Halifax.