Author: stbadmin

Well, the first news post of the year, and what a year it has been.  Looking back on 2014, the band has seen some amazing successes.  New players and have arrived, some have left us, but we stand healthy and ready for the challenges of the new year.  This includes – of course – The Torchbearer!  We are all looking forward to the rehearsals ahead of January and competing in March at the Riviera Centre, Torquay.  What would a year in banding be without a day trip to the English Riviera!

So, the new website is launched and I hope that it will be received well in the community and beyond.  It has been designed for ease of use, on both traditional PCs and tablet / smart devices in mind.  If you have any comments / suggestions, please do e-mail me at [email protected].

Other happenings this year include the boiler finally being replaced – we can enjoy warm rehearsals now, as the cold weather comes in.  Thanks to the Hall and Woodhouse fund and Sherborne Rotary for their contributions to this, and also the Sherborne Town Council for their support over the year.

I think the image gallery below sums up the year of 2014 for STB.  The open day was a fantastic success and we are already working on organising the next.  The Youth band have gone from strength to strength and the Music In The Park concerts were better than ever and thoroughly enjoyed by the public.

Thanks once again go to our supporters and sponsors during 2014.  We can’t provide the service we do without these people and, of course, the general public of Sherborne and surrounding areas.

We hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoy a healthy and happy 2015.  We’ll see you in the park or at the Proms!

Well, as summer comes to an end I can quite confidently say that it was been a great one!  The band has played a busy schedule of concerts and private events throughout summer 2014 and we have seen success in our recent recruitment campaign, as well.  We are still performing most weekends as we approach October.  With a short break in November, with exception of the remembrance day parade, we’ll be playing every weekend again, before you know it because it will be Christmas!  Sorry – I have mentioned the ‘C’ word!

At the beginning of the summer period we decided to go ‘big’ with our ‘Sherborne Town Band Needs You!‘ campaign, to try and interest a few more players to fill some empty seats.  It’s worked well so far and we are confident and hopeful that more players will come along as the campaign expands.  The brass banding world is a tough one and it would be fair to say that every band is finding current times difficult, but we are stronger than ever as I write.

We have also had great success (better than ever before!) with our Last Night Of The Proms concert.  On 20th September the Digby Hall was packed with enthusiastic audience members who clearly enjoyed this annual, patriotic evening!  It was also a great pleasure to have the town Mayor, Jon Andrews at the concert.

It’s great to write so positively about the current status of the Sherborne Town Band – there’s more to come as we will be busy as usual over December this year, so please come and support us in the town centre on Saturday mornings, or pop along to our ‘Christmas Sing-A-Long’ on Saturday 13th December (tickets available from November).

I leave you with some of the comments from the Last Night Of The Proms.  See you out and about in December!

 

“Fantastic – a great concert of variety and entertainment! “

“Excellent that the Youth Band were so involved – keep this up!”

“Wonderful concert as always – thanks so much, I enjoyed singing at the end!”

 

Well, we have slogged away at the mighty St. Magnus over the last few months, and it was a fantastic day at Torquay on the 9th March.  The band played extremely well and everyone enjoyed a beautifully sunny day, after playing first!  8th place was a great result and the band stay in the Championship section for another year.  What a great achievement for all involved.  The bus was packed full of family and friends, supporting the band, all the way to the stage. The full results for the West Of England can be found at:  http://4barsrest.com/news/detail.asp?year=&criteria=Results%3A&id=18322#.UyoSZvl_t1Y

We now look forward to a great summer season, with lots planned.  Take a look at the events list on the main website:  https://www.sherbornetownband.co.uk/events.html 

The band are looking forward to an exciting program of music over the coming months – to give you a flavour – The Muppets, Cry of the Celts, Glenn Miller, and many more!  We will be in and around Sherborne throughout the summer as well as visiting Wells, Shepton Mallet, Martock and Midsomer Norton.

The annual band dinner will see us all get together and enjoy a well deserved drink or two, and we are saying a grand farewell to our long standing Musical Adviser / Director, Paul Cosh.  Paul has been involved with the band for many, many years and his father was a founding member.  His work and efforts will be hugely missed and we wish him a relaxing “retirement”!

Above:  The band hard at work on the morning of the contest and Paul Cosh at the baton once again.  

The Sherborne Youth Band has been featured in this month’s edition of the Sherborne Times magazine.  The Magazine is a free publication which goes to every household in the town.  It is great to see such positive words about the band and to read about the progress and success of the players.  The band is going from strength to strength with musical director Jim Bennett and are soon to appear at a summer fete or engagement, near you!  The article is shown below.