We are delighted to announce that on Sunday we placed 3rd in the Fourth Section of the Midlands region of the National Brass Band Championships. We competed against 16 bands, each performing a set test piece called ‘I, Daedalus’ by Andrea Price which is based on the Greek mythological figures of Daedalus and his son Icarus and their ill-fated attempt to escape from a tower in Crete in which they were imprisoned.

The adjudicators commented “A solid and well managed performance. Good solo lines and well-constructed sections. Musical Director has a musical approach – an enjoyable performance” and “There was much to commend about this well lead performance. Confident playing, well balanced, and stylistically accurate for the most part”.

The two adjudicators felt that our performance was worthy of 3^rd place, winning the band a trophy, £100 prize-money and an invitation to the National Finals in September. This is where the top bands in the Fourth Section from each of the regions come together to see which band is the best in the country. This will be the first time since 2002 the band has qualified for the Finals.

It’s been a rather challenging run up to the ‘Area’ contest this year which makes the success all the sweeter but also poignant.

At the end of December following many months working to improve the band Clive Keech stepped down as our Musical Director. Peter Bassano who had moved into the Brackley area agreed to take the band to the contest. On the last day of January, we received news that Peter was not feeling well, an old friend and ex-player of the band Nigel Hall stepped in to continue rehearsals whilst we hoped Peter would return; less than a week later, the tragic news came that Peter had sadly passed away.

Mark Probert kindly agreed to prepare and conduct the band for the Area contest. The Friday before the contest, Witney Band conductor Guy James stepped in at our last regular rehearsal while Mark was busy finalising his own preparations for the contest with GUS band.

Sunday was a long day with our rehearsal booked for 8:30 in the function room of a social club in Bedworth. We spent a short time warming up, playing hymns, going over sections of the test piece for the last time before the contest. Then we received "the call"; Floss had managed to draw us first.

We took the stage, played the National Anthem, a benefit of being drawn first and then began our performance of ‘I,Daedalus’. We did our best and, like every other band, hoped it would be enough to achieve a good result. The rest of the day was spent in and out of the Bedworth Civic Hall both watching bands whose players, following the new borrowed player rules, have helped us and of course watching other bands.

It was a great day for the band, whilst we were saddened that we couldn’t go to the contest with Peter, we were delighted that we managed to go at all and to receive such a great result under the guidance of his former student, and friend, Mark was just reward for all the work that everyone has put in. We are very grateful and want to say a sincere thank you to all those who helped us on our journey.

We were saddened to learn of Peter’s passing on 1 February 2025. Whilst his association with the band was only for a very short time, he certainly made an impact and we were very much looking forward to going to our Area contest on 9 March 2025 under his leadership.

Peter was a remarkable musician and educator. His amazing career included travelling the world as a freelance trombone player, spells at the Royal College of Music as a trombone professor and later as Head of Music and collaborations with artists such as the Bee Gees, Pink Floyd and The Beatles. When he was hired to perform on the Beatles track “Hey Jude”, as well as playing the handful of notes required, the hired musicians were also asked to sing. It came as a great relief that the sound they were looking for was that of untrained voices!

He has written a book “Before the Music Stopped” that details his musical journey and contains many stories about his life and career, some of which he shared during rehearsals. These stories and his wit together with his natural ability to get the most out of the players is what made the few rehearsals we had with him so enjoyable and productive.

We will certainly do our very best on 9 March 2025 at the contest in Peter’s memory and our thoughts and best wishes are with the family at this difficult time.

We are delighted to announce the Peter Bassano has agreed to take us to the Midlands Regional Contest on 9 March 2025. Peter was a professional trombone player who has played all over the world with various orchestras and brass ensembles. He has also recorded for TV and film, toured with the Bee Gees and played and sang on the Beatles track 'Hey Jude'. In fact he has played, conducted and adjudicated at the highest levels. We are delighted to have him on board and we have already seen what a difference he will be able to make to the band after spending only a very short time with him to date. 

Our next rehearsal is in fact a workshop with Paul Cosh, with whom Peter has worked before, where topics such as breathing, embouchure, articulation, posture and developing an individual effective practice routine will be covered whilst working on our set test-piece for this year's contest which is 'I, Daedalus' by Andrea Price. 

There are still one or two seats we need to fill for contest day and we are always on the look out for new players. If you'd like to come and benefit from Peter's knowledge and experience and would consider joining the band then please do get in touch. 

2024 was a busy year for the band with 13 engagements and 3 of our own concerts. Throw in a National Brass Band Championship contest and some Musical Director changes and there was never a dull moment. Now, safely into 2025 and we are able to look back and review.

We were delighted to welcome Graham Blackman into the band on Eb bass at the start of the year. Having come along to our Christmas concert at St Peter’s Church with his wife, Graham had enjoyed the performance and it had got him reminiscing about the many years of brass playing in his past.

“After 18 years without playing my tuba, and with a little nudge from my wife, I joined the band a year ago. I was made to feel very welcome from the start. The Friday rehearsal nights work really well with my shifts and it is great to round off each week with a drink and a catch up in the Band Club. Over the year, I have enjoyed playing a variety of music, traditional and contemporary, the highlight for me being our performance at the Brackley Armed Forces Day. I would recommend anyone who is interested in making music (young/old, beginner/experienced or anywhere in between) to come along and have a blow.“

The beginning of every year starts with preparations for the National Brass Band Championship. We compete in the Fourth Section and are keen to work our way up the rankings and be in with a chance of promotion before too long. The testpiece was “Music for Jock Tamson” by Alan Fernie and some of our members joined The GUS Band for their workshop on the testpiece at the beginning of February, hoping to get some hints and tips on how to impress the adjudicators on the day. We were pleased with our performance though the adjudicators placed us 12th.

This was the last contest that our 2^nd baritone player Leonie Walter played with the band. She moved away, so unfortunately we had to wave her goodbye and wished her well. We understand that she has joined Bilsdale Silver Band and is enjoying her continued involvement in banding up north.

Summer saw the band undertake a number of engagements including the Armed Forces Day at the rugby club in Brackley, a number of fetes at local villages including a band favourite at Eydon and a session at Abington Park as part of their “Bands in the Park” series.

David Howard, who took over the role of Musical Director at the beginning of 2023, decided to move on during the summer of 2024. We'd like to thank Dave for all the work he put into the band during his time with us and wish him all the best. We would also like to say that we were immensely grateful to Clive Keech who had recently started coming along to the band to play cornet for being willing to step up and take over.

The Band BBQ, hosted up at our bass player and Chairman Nigel Surman’s farm, signalled the end of the summer engagements where we played games, bounced around on his bouncy castle, got taken for rides in his Ford Model T, ate, drank and enjoyed social time with the band without the instruments. Following a short break, we returned to rehearse for our Autumn Concert, Remembrance Service and a couple of Oktoberfest gigs. One such gig was at The Bell Inn in Adderbury, where we joined Rhys Owens, who now runs the pub and used to play with the band for a fun night of Bavarian Oompah tunes and beer.

Christmas is often a very busy time for the band and this year was no exception. Performing multiple times of a weekend and sometimes twice on the same day we entertained shoppers, visitors to the local supermarkets, residents of Brackley Fields Care Home and those that turned out for the Community Carols, all in addition to our very popular Christmas Concert. One particularly fulfilling aspect of caroling is that it allows us to interact with our audience more and take requests. Once such interaction at Wappenham Farm led to an impromptu rendition of “Away in a Manager” by a young girl, who sang delightfully as we accompanied as quietly as we could. That was certainly a proud mum and dad moment and it was a privilege to have been part of this.