2023 Events

We were very pleased to play to a full house at our Christmas Concert in St Mary's Church in Burghfield. The audience were treated to a first half that included 2 of our Gold Award winning Festival pieces, Hanover Festival and The Wishing Well. The second half was pure Christmas, including favourites Sleigh Ride and Christmas Festival, and fun pieces Turkey Talk and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

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On Sunday 5th November, the band took part in the National Concert Band Festival London and Home Counties regional event at Wellington College in Crowthorne, and were delighted to be given a Gold Award for our performance. We had a challenging programme of March from A Moorside Suite by Gustav Holst, The Wishing Well by Rossano Galante, and Hanover Festival by Philip Sparke.

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We finished off our season of summer events with a very popular performance at the prestigious Eastbourne Bandstand. We played a wide variety of music again, including One Moment in Time, The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Beatles: Echoes of an Era.
It was lovely sunny weather, which brought out the crowds and meant several of the band members had a paddle in the sea afterwards!

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On a sunny Saturday afternoon, the band set up for a performance next to the bandstand in Victoria Park, Newbury.
We played a few old favourites such as Bandology, Soundtrack Highlights from Brave, and the Pink Panther. We also played some of our newer pieces including the Coldplay piece, Viva la Vida, and Eighties Flashback, which features pop music including Thriller, Eye of the Tiger, and You Give Love a Bad Name.

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We were very pleased to be back in St John's Church in Mortimer to bring some "Song and Dance" to the community.
Our concert included some exciting new pieces for the band including Pustza: Four Gypsy Dances, Wedding Dance, which is a Jewish circle dance, and Khachaturian's Sabre Dance. We also included film music from the latest Disney movie, Encanto, and from Dances with Wolves. There were more song melodies in The Beatles: Echoes of an Era. The home-made cakes in the interval went down very well too!

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Bank Holiday Monday was a great day to be out in Henley - a lovely sunny day, lots of people enjoying being beside the river, ice creams on sale, and of course, music from the band! Children danced and sang along to our performances of Encanto and The Lion King, adults joined in with the Billy Joel selections, Eighties Flashback and the Beatles medley, and we even played an impromptu Happy Birthday for an unsuspecting band member.

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We were happy to be invited to help celebrate the coronation of King Charles III at the celebrations taking place on the Fairground in Mortimer.
Most of Mortimer came along to enjoy the festivities, in spite of it being a rather damp day.
We were part of an afternoon of musical acts, playing some old favourites, including Instant Concert and The Lion King, and some pieces that were new to us such as Eighties Flashback and One Moment in Time.

We started a busy summer season of outdoor events at Bradfield Mayfayre on the first bank holiday in May. As always, this is a popular afternoon out with many different attractions to keep people entertained. As well as seeing the band and other musicians in the Music Tent, there was maypole dancing, bouncy pig racing, sheep shearing, plenty of games to take part in, the craft tent to browse, and lots of food and drink on offer. Our music included some new pieces for us, with up to the minute film music from Encanto, music from earlier decades with Billy Joel in Concert, plus many regular favourites such as Moment for Morricone and Pirates of the Caribbean.

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Our first concert of 2023 took place on Saturday 25th March in Tadley. As our MD announced at the evening, our theme for the event was "no theme", so we played a wide range of different music, from a lilting flute solo from Ladies in Lavender, to a trip Into the Raging River, and ending the concert with a rock version of Bach's Toccata! We had a hint of Ireland in there to celebrate St Patrick's Day with Celtic Ritual and Lord Tullamore, and were delighted to welcome our clarinet ensemble "No Strings Attached", performing with us for the first time.

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