Hurry, hurry, hurry – the closing date for the Enigma Brass in the Community is fast approaching – 1500hrs Friday 23rd March 2012.

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The 2012 Brass the Baton Relay application forms and guidelines are now available to download – don’t delay, high demand is expected for some of the available dates (e.g. Queen’s Diamond Jubilee weekend).  Dates will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Guidelines

Application form

Following their appearance at the inaugural QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot last month, Friary Guildford Brass Band went global last weekend, providing pre-match entertainment and playing the national anthems for the Gillette 4 Nations Rugby League matches at Wembley Stadium.  The event was televised on BBC1 and Sky Sports, bringing the band to an international audience.

“I’ve always wanted to say I’ve played at Wembley, said band chairman, Nigel Stevens, “And although it wasn’t as part of an international sporting team, it was still a tremendous honour and thrill for everyone to walk up the tunnel onto the pitch.  All the band had a memorable day,” he added.

Commenting on the band’s excellent performance at Wembley, Tabby Clegg, co-Director of Mode for…. who supplies all the bands for Gillette 4 Nations Tournament said: “Friary Guildford did what can only be described as a first-class professional job at Wembley. Not only was the band professional in performance, its conduct was meticulous and very accommodating to all requests. The band and MD Chris King were an absolute delight to work with and made the pre-match entertainment a very special occasion.”

Friary Guildford Band’s next engagement will be leading Guildford’s civic procession to mark Remembrance Sunday.

Friary Guildford Band with ex-champion racehorse Monsignor

As the official supplier of bands for the 2011 QIPCO British Champions Series Race Day held at Ascot on 15 October, Mode for… was delighted to host Friary Guildford Band as it’s band in residence for the day’s event.

The band’s excellent 10-piece entertained crowds all day from the prime location of Ascot’s impressive Victorian Bandstand, playing a variety of music to accompany the most prestigious and lucrative racing event ever held in the British Flat Racing Calendar.

Mode for, which is co-owned and directed by Tabby Clegg and Simon Kerwin, is constantly developing with an ambition to get more brass music performed and listened to, via its own publishing house and as the supplier of brass musicians, ensembles and bands to a wide variety of private, public, corporate and sporting events.

Having recently supplied its own Ottoni Brass to perform the pre-match anthems at Old Trafford for the 2011 Engage Super League Final, the rest of October and November will be dedicated to being the official supplier of bands for the Gillette Rugby League 4 Nations, where Mode for is giving the opportunity to several bands to perform at prestigious venues and sporting occasions.

Commenting on the contribution from Friary Guildford, co-Director of Mode for, Tabby Clegg said: “I was thoroughly impressed and delighted with the level of performance and professionalism offered by the Friary Guildford Band and I am thrilled that the band will be our band to lead the pre-match anthems at Wembley Stadium in November for the Gillette 4 Nations. Mode for is committed to raising the profile of brass bands and brass music and Friary Guildford did that with great aplomb to the crowds at Ascot. I have to particularly and personally thank the band’s secretary Lauren Cave, who has shown such an impressive level of co-operation and efficiency that every band secretary could learn from.”

Winner of Community Band of the Year Award 2011 was Wantage Silver Band

During the Bands recent annual concert scaba Secretary Ian Carter gave a brief presentation about scaba and its activities and explained how the scaba Community Band of the Year award had been brought about in 2010 through the generous sponsorship of Enigma Air Conditioning who have provided an annual award of a trophy and a prize fund of £500 for the purchase of brass band music.

Eleven scaba member bands had submitted applications for the inaugural award and these had been adjudicated by a panel of judges drawn from the National Association of Brass Band Conductors (NABBC) at their Annual Convention in Whitburn at the beginning of April this year.  The decision of the judges was to award the prize to the Wantage Silver Band and this was announced at the scaba Spring Contest.

scaba was delighted to have been invited to this annual concert of the Wantage Silver Band in order to present the trophy and invited Malcolm Thomson, Managing Director of Enigma Air Conditioning, to make the presentation to  Wantage Silver Band’s Chairman, Eleanor Turner (see photo).

Wantage Silver Band is a large independent brass band organisation.  It promotes brass playing, undertaking concerts, ceremonials, fetes and many other types of engagement.  It also teaches brass and percussion playing to beginners of all ages, providing social as well as musical activities for players of every standard.  In the year from April 2010 to March 2011 the Band played at over 130 engagements. 

The award, sponsored by Enigma Air Conditioning, will provide much-needed funds towards the purchase of new music for all sections of the Band.  In this way both the Band and its audiences will directly benefit from the Brass in the Community Award.

The annual concert featured the six bands from the Wantage Silver Band organisation, ranging from beginners to championship standard and a particular highlight was the massed-band item involving over 100 players – playing an aptly named piece ‘Wall of Sound’ obtained using the Award!

Wantage Silver thanked both scaba and Enigma for their recognition of their organisation and its ethos.

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