City of Southampton (Albion) Band

The band is always pleased to welcome new players. We are a non-competing band who play a variety of different concerts throughout the year.  These include playing at local bandstands, playing cruise liners away, the London Marathon, leading the Southampton Rememberance parade, providing music for formal dinners, playing at certain organisation’s reunion events and occasional tours abroad.

In particular we are looking for bass and trombone players at the moment to supplement our numbers.

If you are interested in playing then either contact our secretary Emily Akerman at secretary@cosab.co.uk or just turn up for rehearsal. We rehearse on a Monday night from 7:30pm at the Swaythling Neighbourhood Centre just off Burgess Road in Swaythling, Southampton. We have some instruments available for those who don’t have their own.

Band performing at National Memorial Gardens, Litchfield

Our second trip to Coventry in 3 weeks was to support the British Korean Veterans Association whose members fought in the Korean War from 1950-53, the first war to be officially sanctioned by the United Nations.

 We were asked to play a concert at their formal dinner in the presence of his Excellency the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, Mr. Choo. The audience particularly enjoyed the marches we played which began with Voice of the Guns and concluded with the Hills of Korea, the march dedicated to the BKVA which was conducted by his Excellency the Ambassador.

On the Sunday the band played the hymns for their memorial service in the morning and then travelled up to Lichfield to the National Memorial Gardens to take part in a short Rememberance Service at the Korean Veterans Memorial Garden. This was concluded with a short march past with the band leading the veterans.

The band have just returned from a week long tour to Madeira. The weather was fantastic for the duration of the trip and a selection of the photos have been posted in the gallery section of the website. More details of the tour will appear soon.

Band outside Quinto do Farao Hotel close to Santana

On the 24th September the band travelled to Coventry for the weekend. The purpose of the trip was to play a concert for the Cornish Clay Miners who hold a reunion annually. This year they had taken over the Royal Court Hotel in Coventry. The band were asked to play a concert on the Saturday night consisting of a mix of brass band favourites and a second half containing many of the Last Night at the Proms favourites including Jersualem, Fantasia on British Sea Songs and Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance No.1.

Band preparing for Harvest Festival Service for Cornish Clay Miners

The band stayed in Coventry overnight and joined the Cornish group for a harvest festival service on the Sunday morning followed by a concert containing traditional Cornish tunes. Some of these were performed with the Mid Cornwall Male Voice Choir.

The whole weekend was an overwhelming success with an appreciative crowd of approximately 350 people watching. The band are set to repeat the effort in Coventry for the Korean Veterans Association in late October. For more pictures of the weekend look on the gallery web page.

On the 31st July the band were asked to play away the P&O Cruise ship Aurora in the traditional style of crusie liners leaving Southampton Docks. The Aurora was starting on its way for a trip round the Western Mediterranean for 12 nights visiting Florence, Rome and Barcelona.

For more pictures look at our new gallery page.

Bournemouth Bandstand is always one of the highlights of the year for the band. The bandstand is situated in an ideal place to attract the passing visitors and therefore there is always a good crowd to listen to the music being played.

The band played two concerts on the 24th July, one in the morning and one later in the afternoon. This is quite a heavy workload for the band and therefore a larger number of players is often required. We are generally able to achieve this with the help of guest players from other bands. Some of our guests are almost regulars but they generally all enjoy coming to Bournemouth. In particular, we were priviliged to have 5 trombone players who gave us a great rendition of “The Bold Gendarmes”. Other highlights of the day included “Barnard Castle”, “Blow the Wind Southerly” and “Lord of the Dance”.

Having played at the London Marathon in April, the band made a second trip to the capital in July to play at the London 10K run. As was the case last year, the band were staged at the end of Westminster Bridge outside the historic County Hall building home of the GLC for many years. The 10K route took the runners across the bridge, u-turning at the end before doubling back past Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

A good sized band playing a selection of rousing marches gave the runners the encouragement they needed to get them round the last couple of kilometers before the finish.

The band in front of the Houses of Parliament

On the 26th June the band made its annual appearance on the Southampton bandstand. For the previous two years the weather has been unfavourable with only a small handful of hardened followers in the audience. What a change therefore, to be bathed in beautiful sunshine for a two hour concert in the park.

There were a good number of people sat around on the grass listening to the music. The band played its usual broad mix of tunes from marches, to classical pieces, show tunes, pop classics, jazz numbers and also traditional brass band numbers. Tunes included, “Cross of Honour”, “Finlandia”, “Feelings”, “King & I”, “L’iL Darlin’”, “Blaydon Races” and many others.

A sunny day at Southampton Bandstand

At the Southampton Mayor making ceremony on the 18th May the band were selected for a City of Southampton award in recognition of the band services to the city over the years. The award has been in place for a number of years and is only awarded on a strictly limited basis. Nick Dawson our Musical Director received the award from the Mayor of Southampton on behalf of the band.