City of Southampton (Albion) Band » Engagements

Christmas Concert at the Point

mark — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 12:01:59 +0000

Christmas as usual has been a busy time of the year for the band. We have played three times at Marks and Spencer raising money for charity, played the carols for a carol service at St. Albans Church, Swaythling, performed for the Masonic Lodge in Lexby Road, Totton and had a great evening on Sunday 11th December at our annual Christmas concert held at The Point, Eastleigh.

The latter event was a particular highlight for the band and was well appreciated by the audience. The first half consisted of music from the band’s standard repetoire including the euphonium solo “The Holy Well”, a couple of solos from Les Miserables, a Mack and Mable selection, Ravel’s Bolero and others. This was interspersed with music from the men’s barbershop chorus, Ocean Harmony, singing traditional American numbers ”Home on the Range”, “Georgia on my Mind”, “Under the Boardwalk” and “Take me Home Country Roads”. For the second half the band concentrated more on Christmas tunes including Leroy Anderson numbers “Sleigh Ride” and “Christmas Festival”, Howard Blake’s “The Snowman”, Jona Lewie’s “Stop the Cavalry” and several carols to which the audience were able to join in. Ocean Harmony performed another set of songs including “White Christmas”, “Hello Mary Lou” and the Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty Four”. The audience had to endure a horrible evening of weather to get to the concert but went home feeling that the effort had been worth it.

Korean Veterans Weekend

mark — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 21:53:49 +0000

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.

Band travels to Coventry

mark — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:32:09 +0000

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.

P&O Cruise Ship, Aurora played away

mark — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 13:46:32 +0000

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.

Band plays at Bournemouth

mark — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 08:44:40 +0000

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”.

Second Trip of the year to London

mark — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 08:16:43 +0000

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

Sun shines on Southampton Bandstand

mark — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 08:30:14 +0000

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

Wordsworth Infant School May Fayre

mark — Mon, 16 May 2011 08:37:28 +0000

The band played two short sets at Wordsworth Infant School in Shirley for their May Fayre on Saturday 14th May. The event gave some of the members of our junior section an opportunity to play with the full band in an environment that was not too intimidating. The band are always keen to attract new members both young and old to their ranks. New players are always made to feel most welcome.

Band playing at Wordsworth Infant School

London Marathon

admin — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 14:08:40 +0000

On the 17th April the band made what is becoming its traditional trek to the London Marathon. We were allocated to play in the same place as last year on Jamaica Road in Bermondsey which is at about the 12 mile point of the marathon.

It was an early start for the band leaving Southampton at 6:00am in order to arrive in London before all the roads were closed off. We arrived at about 8:00am and immediately descended on the nearest coffee shop for breakfast. The owner must have thought all his Christmases had arrived at once!! Having polished off a number of bacon sandwiches and the like we were able to set up in order to be ready by the time the first runners (or wheelchair athletes) went past.

The band played from 9:30am until almost 1:00pm with only one short break in between. They played a selection of lively music to keep up the spirits of the athletes. The London Marathon theme (Ron Goodwin’s The Trap) was played more than once as was the Sports Report theme on Radio 5 (Out of the Blue).

By 1:00pm the mop up operation had begun and the stragglers were having to negotiate the people and lorries clearing up as well as their fellow runners.

The band packed up and were able to get on their way. They were able to get home at just after 3:30pm when some athletes were still running.

An unusual request

admin — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 13:18:54 +0000

The band recently received an unusual request from Abdul Salam to play whilst he proposed to his girlfriend Shariah Haque. He had decided that the perfect spot to do this was at the picturesque location of Reinfield House in the New Forest.

And so on Saturday, 2nd October to the accompaniment of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from the Lion King Abdul got down on one knee and proposed to Shariah. Fortunately, for everybody involved, she accepted his proposal.

Pictures of the happy occasion have been added to the website on the gallery page.