As I write this, on a bright sunny morning, we have just been subjected to Storm Bert, and played our first Christmas carolling gig at Turvey House for the Little Vintage Christmas Fayre. Mariah Carey has been let out of her box on radio 2 and Classic FM have sent me on the way this morning with King’s College Choir singing Deck the halls! It heralds the annual launch into our important money raising time of the year in order to keep the band afloat in 2025. It’s a packed schedule and sees us playing around the streets of Olney, outside super markets, nursing/care homes, Christmas Fayres and for the second year, at Red Bull in Milton Keynes. A full schedule is published here together with details of our annual concert in the Church. It is great that some duties can be shared with the Open Band who make a valuable contribution in their own right as well as helping out the senior band. Any readers wanting to join us, let us know, you can play, collect or just support in any way you can. Andy always has a set of bells that you can shake!
(Above)
The open band launch their Christmas Schedule by playing at the Tree Festival in Olney Church
First carolling gig of the season
for Olney Brass at
Turvey House
We continue to be proud and amazed at the dedication and commitment of David, Bob and Sara
who have moulded a new set of players into the Beginner Band. Olney Brass Beginners are doing fabulously well after only starting in October. They are now gearing up to perform at our annual Christmas concert on Saturday 14th December. David Rose has written a special piece called the Star that Shone, which includes narration, and will give them an opportunity to play with the Senior Band, and Open Band will be playing Stop the Cavalry as their joint piece with the Seniors. For more details and tickets follow this link: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/olney-brass Also, some Open Band members have recently graduated from Stage 2 of Learn to Play Brass, receiving the awards of Distinction and Distinction*. Congratulations to our four superstars!
Congratulations to our four superstars and the new recruits!
Not all gigs are public - and one of our favourites is being invited to play at Red Bull for their Christmas Market, some of you may recognise Clive Darnell in this photo as he continues to support and help the band having been an associate instructor in the early days of Stantonbury Brass. It was great to see him looking so happy to sit next to me!
The Band Christmas tree at this year’s festival challenged people to identify the Christmas Carols
being played by each instrument Here’s Finn’s entry, he knew the names (and numbers) in seconds… and wasn’t thrown by the odd pictures!
Trumpet: Silent night 70
Baritone: God rest ye merry gentleman 32
Euphonium: Jingle bells 100
Trombone: Away in a manger 12
Tuba: Good king Wenceslas 34
Finn plays cornet in Open Band and has played at many of the Senior Band sessions too!
Well Done!
