Witney Town Band

A Cutt above the rest

alan — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 16:19:47 +0000

At the ODBBA Entertainment contest on Sept 26th at Burford School, WTB entered the unregistered section and took all the prizes: best musical performance, best entertainment and best soloist – flugel player Jenny Howes. A special commendation must go to the percussionists from the junior band who really helped get the crowd going. To top a great day Sandra Howes won best Horn player from the entire day, beating players from higher section bands.

Rhys gets the horn

rhys — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:27:27 +0000

Hi Al,

The horn arrived in perfect condition – than you very much. You’re right about the mouthpiece, but as you say, a pint of full fat coke should restore it to its former glory.

It looks like a really nice instrument. Why haven’t we used it before? The lass who will play it down here will be delighted.

We had a practice last night with two new members - the old chap who used to play with the Sally Army and the young lad from Cornwall – and they were superb. The standard was raised SIGNIFICANTLY by there attendance. I had to take up the melophone which is proving to be a bit of a test after having practiced the trumpet for the last 3 weeks. I could barely get a note out of it at the beginning, but things were better after an hour.

I’ll send you the weekly news letter again on Saturday morning.

in the meantime, thank everyone at the band for me.

Cheers,

Rhys

News from the Front

rhys — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:58:22 +0000

We had our first band practice on Wednesday evening. The Senior Medical Officer, a chap called Martin Reynolds, caught up with me just minutes before I was to meet with the ‘volunteers’. Good job too, as it turns out he is a half decent Eb bass player.

There is a primary school here and one of the teachers, a lady called Dawn, came to play the tenor horn – the fact that we haven’t got one was a bit of a drawback, but I’ve asked Al Bennett if Witney band would lend me one. Dawn played the cornet and brought one of her mates along, Kate, who played saxophone.

The first hour was truly dreadful, but nobody had played for years, except me and I was playing the trumpet which I hadn’t played for years. The last 30 minutes was more bearable and I think we are going to be making an acceptable sound by Christmas. One of the DJs from the BFBS radio station will be coming next week to play the melophone (Euphonium substitute).

ODBBA Entertainment Contest

alan — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:08:36 +0000

Congrats to all on the excellent first place at the Burford Contest!, you can see a few pics from the day in the gallery, plus adjudication below.

New Photos

alan — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:11:34 +0000

Some new photos up on the Delph Whit Friday site…

http://www.onlinepictureproof.com/marlinimages/albums/brass_bands/31776_3986/browse/

Delph Adjudication

alan — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:14:44 +0000

Delph adjudication now in.

Gallery

alan — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:50:14 +0000

New pictures added in the gallery, thanks Jim! You can access them over there on the right or via the gallery on the main site.

An Interesting Job!

alan — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:57:49 +0000

That has to be the most surreal job I’ve ever done! marching round Oxford in 3/4 time, maybe we should try a three-legged race at Delph next year?

A sign outside the church stated ‘Holy Hour Friday 6-7′, is this an equivalent to Happy Hour?

Junior Band

nikki — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 22:50:33 +0000

Hi Juniors, Just testing to see if anyone reads this thing. Send us a message about anything (vaguely band related!)
Nikki

Hail Smiling Morn!

alan — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 19:39:57 +0000

The greatest free show on earth has passed once more, what were peoples best bits? Was it black peas at Dobcross? The ‘glow in the dark’ pie & chips? Or just the sheer relief that they managed to get the coach going again?

Weather wise it was the worst in living memory, you’d have to go back to a time when Hammonds Sauce Works Band were on the circuit, Derby County and Wolverhampton Wanderers were in Division 1, Leeds beat Arsenal 1-0 in the FA Cup final and T-Rex were top of the charts with Metal Guru, knocking the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Band off the top spot.

Any guesses on the year?

Castell Caerffili
Recorded at the bandroom in preparation for Whit Friday 2009.