We are now into the third month of 2019 and the band are looking forward to a busy few weeks leading up to Easter. As always the first couple of months of the year have been a time to look at new repertoire and prepare for the year ahead.

It is also a time to recover a bit from what is always a very busy time leading up to Christmas.  This year either the full Band or a smaller group took part in forty six engagements during the month of December - almost half of them on Christmas Eve when once again we took the Christmas message to the hotels around Bournemouth and Poole.

Those events included, of course, our Corps activities including our Corps Carol Service as well as Christmas events alongside a local Dramatic Society, supporting the Rotary Club in their annual Carol Concert and our own visit to Christchurch Priory.  Full details of the music used can be found on our repertoire page.

The first few rehearsals of the year have been busy and varied as we prepare a whole range of different music for the weeks ahead. One Thursday evening was also used to record some backing music for an upcoming recording. It was good to meet up with our old friends from World Of Sound again - this time using our own hall as the recording studio. The first focus is on music by Ray Steadman-Allen for our open rehearsal this Thursday - we welcome Bournemouth Concert Brass for this event for a short programme including The Scarlet Jersey, Lord of the Sea, Seascapes and Evening Hymn.

At the end of the month we are raising money to help fund the Salvation Army's anti-trafficking work - our Deputy Bandmaster, Kevin, is going to run the London Marathon in April in aid of this as well. This concert will be with the Epiphany school choir - they have been regular performers at the Rotary Carol Concert for several years. That is followed at the start of April by a joint concert with The Cory Band in our own hall. This concert is being organised by the Cory Band and all details are on their website.

Perhaps most importantly, we have already also started preparing for Easter. This year the Saturday Festival will feature the Band with support from our Timbrels and guest soloists, Dudley Bright (Trombone) and Gemma Hinchliffe (Vocal). You can keep up to date with news on our Facebook Page where most of these events are already advertised and all of the music we perform is detailed on the repertoire page each week.

The intention is that these notes will from now be published monthly to keep you all up to date with what our Band has been doing and will be doing in the following weeks.