The members of Corby Silver Band would like to say well done to the four members of the band who recently received their impressive GCSE results.

Well done Oliver, Annika, Sophie & Aidan.

We are very proud of all of you.

August 2008

We would like to welcome Trudy Gostellow to Corby Silver Band.  Trudy has a wealth of experience playing with bands from 4th to Championship section.  Trudy is currently settling into the band playing repiano cornet, although we are confident that she will move on to the front row cornet bench in the near future.

August 2008

Over the next few weeks there are to be some changes within the band.

Firstly we are looking forward to September when we hope to be welcoming two new players to the band.  One playing Eb bass and the other tenor horn.  Room will be made for their arrival by a couple of our current players moving positions and possibly sections to fill vacant seats.  More about these changes later ....

In addition to these new members, there are to be a couple of other changes within the band.  Sophie Roberts has been promoted to solo trombone and we are hoping that Annika Raasch will take up the vacant repiano cornet position left when Mark Coull transferred on to Soprano cornet.

We are always pleased to welcome new players to the band regardless of age or experience, as a place can always be found for enthusiastic, hard working and committed players who wish to join our firendly, sociable band.

August 2008

On Sunday 27th July, the band entertained an appreciative audience at the bandstand at Kettering Pleasure Park.  Once again it was a very hot day, so no need to wear jackets or bow ties.  A massive 'Thank you' to Paul Newton for providing the band with some half time interval refreshments.  Well, why else do bands need a Chairman? !!!

Thank you also to the members of our fellow bands who came and depped for us to cover parts left by players who were on holiday.

July 2008

Corby Silver Band has been very busy this summer providing musical entertainment in Lyddington, Great Oakley, Polebrook, Harringworth, Kettering ....... the list goes on.
Take a look at the photographs in our photo album to see what we have been getting up to.

July 2008

We are thrilled to announce that we are able to welcome two new players to the band.  The first is Lucy Williams who joined us on Eb bass to help out at the engagement at Rockingham Park last Sunday.  She will hopefully become a permanent member of the band from September.  This means Colin Claridge will move on to the euphonium/baritone section.

We also have had some interest in the vacant solo horn position.  More details to follow shortly.

Mark Coull has recently taken the vacant soprano position which means there is now a vacancy for repiano cornet.

Unfortunately for the band Eve Harrison is heading off to university in September.  Good luck Eve, and you know where we are during the long holidays you university students get.  This means we are now looking for a new solo cornet player.  Could you be the player we are looking for?

July 2008

The band would like to say a huge 'THANK YOU' to soprano player Mark Coull for his donation of a substantial amount of new music.  The librarian is going to be kept very busy over the next few weeks updating the library and ensuring everyone has the correct parts in their music folders. 

July 2008

On Sunday 15th June the band played at Lyveden New Beild to an apreciative audience.  We were especially proud of Chris, our bass trombone player and band master as it was his first engagement conducting the band.  And yes Chris, some of us did occasionally look up to watch you waving your arms around!
June '08

We would like to welcome Beckie Dummer to Corby Silver Band.   Beckie has joined us from Rushden Windmill Band, where she played 2nd euphonium.  She will take the vacant 2nd euphonium position next to Pete Beale. We hope she makes lots of new friends and enjoys herself whilst with the band.

May 2008

The band participated in their first concert of the busy summer season at a Village fete held in Lyddington on Saturday 10th May.  The weather was glorious and many of the villagers who attended the fete said they really enjoyed our musical performance.  A good time was had by all; and a special 'Well done' to Savannah Bone, (2nd trombone), on her performance in her first concert with the band.

May 2008

We would like to welcome Savannah Bone to the band on 2nd trombone taking our trombone section up to 5.  Savannah also plays 2nd trombone with Youth Brass 2000.

May 2008

We are pleased to welcome Mark Coull and John Hutton to the back row cornet section of the band. 

We are always happy to welcome any new brass and percussion players, though we are particularly keen to attract a euphonium and Bb bass player.  Please see our vacancies page for our current vacancies.

April 2008

The date for the band Annual General Meeting has now been confirmed as Wednesday 23rd April at 8pm in the Corby Silver Band Club.  If you would like to add any items onto the agenda please speak to one of the committee members.  There will be no band rehearsal on this date.

Please let Bev or Pete know if you cannot attend.

We are pleased to welcome two new players to the band.

Sarah Mason, joins us on Solo Horn and Chris Jeffs completes our trombone section by taking up the bass trombone position.

We hope they have a long and happy association with the band. 

This year the band decided to participate in carolling to raise some extra funds for the band. 

Thank you to all the generous members of the public who gave money whilst the band were playing at Morrisons in Corby and Kettering and ASDA in Corby.

Thank you also to all the collecters, or groupies as I like to call them - Bev, Paul, Cathy, Gary, Sue, John, Barbara, Lin and Elaine (and Benjamin) !!!  We are always extremely grateful for the work you do to support the band.

December 2007 

Once again the band provided the entertainment at the Christmas dinners for members of the band club. 

The performances were very well attended and are always one of the bands' highlights of the year as it gives the band an opportunity to play in a series of concerts during the festive season in our own band club.

On Sunday 18th November, on a very grey, wet and miserable day, the members of Corby Silver Band participated in the Leicestershire BBA contest.  We were pleased with our performance, and obviously the adjudicator - Steve Pritchard-Jones enjoyed it too - as he awarded our performance 3rd place, out of the 14 bands that took part. 

We earned ourselves £75 in prize money and a bright green certificate.  Well done to all involved.

Nov' 07

First the bad news ....

We are disappointed to lose Lucy Owen on soprano.  Lucy joined our band earlier in the year and was a major asset at the Midlands areas.  Lucy has gone back to life as a student, beginning a new course at university.  Good luck Lucy!


Now the good news .....

We are pleased to announce an addition to the cornet section.  Eve Harrison has joined the band taking the vacant repiano position in time for the Leicester contest.

We are always pleased to welcome new players.  See our  vacancies   page for more information.

We have now come to the end of our busy summer season of concerts.  There were many concerts that will stick in our minds for one reason or another.  Thank you to the guest players who have helped during the season, -  Clare, Geoff, Gareth and Steve. We do value your support.

Thank you also to our resident photographers Kathy Langtree and Paul Newton .  Keep practising the baritone Bev and you will be on the photos next year !!!

We now look forward to the Leicester contest and of course the Christmas season.  Check out our engagements page to see where and when we are appearing near you.

Our last concert for the 2007 Summer season was the Brigstock Beer Festival.  This was a thoroughly enjoyable event - made even better by the beer!!

A huge well done and thank you goes to our solo euphonium player Pete Beale, who became our MD for this engagement at the last minute.

Sept. '07

There was a good crowd in the audience who came to see and hear us play at the bandstand.  This is an annual concert that the band look forward to performing at every year.

September '07

We are pleased to introduce Aidan Langtree, who is our newest member and will be playing kit percussion.  He was introduced to the band by his dad Tim who plays 2nd Trombone.  We hope that his association with the band will be a long and happy one.
June 2007

Our latest concert held at Little Harrowden Church on 11th May went down extremely well with the audience.

One particular highlight was the duet 'Dance of the sugar plum fairy', as performed by our tuned percussionist Oliver Newton and Musical Director, Keith Espin.

We were lucky to be joined by guest soloist Simon Beard, on violin, who played a lively selection of folk songs, which were accompanied by the band.

It was great to see Tim Langtree, our 2nd trombonist, as he currently working up north and is unable to get to rehearsals, though he still has the commitment to attend the concerts at the weekends.

Many thanks to Hilary, Geoff, Pat and Mairi for helping out. We really do appreciate your support.

A great day out was had by all, even though we all agree that 6 o'clock is a very early start.  We were a disappointed with our 16th position but it just makes us more determined for next year.  Anything was going to be better than last year, as last year we didn't even enter the contest.

We were lucky that we practically had a full band for this years' contest.  We were pleased to welcome Margaret on Baritone and Pat, who bought our front row cornet total to 4.

Unfortunately Mike, our kit percussionist, decided very last minute - (just a week before the contest), that he was having trouble with the third movement so would prefer not to play.  This meant our other percussionists Oliver and Ali, who was recovering from broken fingers, suddenly found themselves with extra percussion instruments to play.  So well done lads, you both did brilliantly.

A more detailed response and Keith's comments about the day can be found on the new contests page on the website.

Bill Craddock (Bb bass) is hanging up his mouthpiece and has decided to retire from the band.  This means that their is now a vacancy for any budding bass players.  The only requirements for this position are that you need to be grumpy, like to moan, fond of beer etc.  No, only joking guys, you're not really like that.  You know you're the best section; along with the cornets, and trombones, ....... and horns, and baritones and euphoniums........  I would hate to show favouritism. 

Michelle Mitchell has also decided to have a break from the band, as currently she feels she is unable to give a committment to the band.  But in the true spirit of banding she has said that we can give her a call any time we need somone to help out at concerts.  So, stand near the phone Michelle.  I'm sure you'll be hearing from us soon.

It is now just over a week until the area contest on Sunday 11th March.  The band has been busy rehearsing the fourth section contest piece - The Seasons, by Philip Wilby.

We are pleased that we are able to participate with a full band including three - yes that's three percussionists. 

Rehearsals are going very well, the correct notes are being played, in the right place and at the right dynamics. 

The few remaining rehearsls will focus on polishing our performance and adding those all important final touches.

March '07

Concert - Rothwell Parish Church, 10th February.

Our latest concert went down very well with the audience.  We had a tremendous amount of positive feedback, there was even a comment from the partner of one of our members who said that it was the best performance she had heard from the band for a few years.

The band accompanied guest soloist Simon Beard, for his folk song selection.

Well done to all soloists Sandra, Sally and Pete.  And an extra big cheer for Jodie and Cara, who played their first duet together standing in front of the audience.

We were also joined by the Spectrum choir, who performed a repetoire of entertaining songs, and even joined in with our 'Sound of Music' selection.

A big thank you to Sally and Michael Bruce and Hillary Fett, for helping out, replacing some of our younger members who were away playing in a youth contest in Blackpool. 

We now have a full cornet section just in time for the area contest on March 11th due to the arrival of a new player who found out about the band via the website.   Lucy Owens, is an experienced trumpet player, who fancied giving a brass band a go on cornet. We are thrilled that the band she has decided to join in Corby Silver.  Since leaving university she has spent a few months travelling, but now she has settled back into cold, damp England.  She has admitted that she hasn't played for a while, so was happy to play second cornet, alongside Annika Raasch, but from what we heard on Monday night, it won't be long before she is on the front row.

February '07

Our newest member at Corby Silver Band is Oliver Newton, who plays tuned percussion.  He heard about the band from Annika Raasch, who plays second cornet. 

January '07

 Wow !!!!   What an interesting year it has been for Corby Silver Band.  What started off as a very quiet beginning to 2006, suddenly changed in April following the departure of the Musical Director.  This led to an exciting time of rehearsals led mainly by Lloyd Preston, whilst we advertised for a new Musical Director .  It was a great opportunity for the players to have a go on some of the other instruments they took an interest in.  This meant euphonium players were were plaing tenor horn; horn players were on bass; baritone and horn players were joining the cornet section; trombone players suddenly found themselves with valves when playing baritone; and our resident flugel player Charlie, found himself promoted to principal cornet on one occasion.  We also decided to create our own band website to advertise the band.  It certainly worked, as within a month of the website going live we had an e-mail asking for us to play at a party.  It was as a result of the website that the organiser realised there was a brass band in Corby.

 As we were lacking a permanent MD we decided not to take on too many engagements for the summer, but still managed to play at a couple of charity events, a garden party in honour of a lady who celebrated her 100th birthday and we also played at a wedding.

 In July we were thrilled to appoint Keith Espin, who has a wide range of musical experience. Due to Keith's ethusiasm and determination for the band to improve, attendance at rehearsals has increased as has the motivation of the players.

 We have had new members joing the cornet, bass, trombone and euphonium sections, and have also welcomed back returning members to the cornet, trombone and percussion sections.

  Our youngest members also completed their training period in the junior band and now make up our 3rd cornet section. 

 Once again we had a very busy but successful set of Christmas engagements.  It was pleasing to be able to take part in new enagements that the band had not  previously done before. 

 We would like to take this opportunity to thank members of other local bands who have been very supportive by helping out during the year.

 Special thanks to Geoff, Ian and Dave at Rushden Town Band,  Clare and Phil at Gretton Silver Band,  Sally at Rushden Windmill Band and Gareth Haines.  

 We are now aiming towards a very successful 2007.  Engagements are already starting to come in for the summer, and we are busy rehearsing the area test piece, Suite: The Seasons by Philip Wilby for the contest in March.

December '06

On Sunday 3rd December Corby Silver Band played at the Lakelands 'Light up a life' carol service.  As usual it was a great success, made even more sucessful for the band as we aquired a new trombone player, who just happened to be attending the service.

December '06

Corby Silver Band is aiming to compete in the 2007 area contest in Burton on Trent in March 2007.  We have recently received the music for the 2007 area contest.  This year the test piece is Suite: The Seasons by Philip Wilby.


Rehearsals have now begun in preparation for the contest.  Although we already have a complete band for the contest, you are still welcome to join us at our rehearsals on Monday and Wednesday evenings, starting at 8:00.

We are pleased to announce that we have another new member.  Annika Raasch was introduced to the band by fellow band member Sophie Roberts (2nd Trombone). Annika will join the cornet section playing 2nd cornet.  Pleased to meet you Annika.  We hope you enjoy yourself at Corby Silver Band.

Robin Gray has become our latest new member at Corby Silver Band.  He will join the euphonium section.

Robin's arrival is perfect timing, as our previous 2nd euph player, Daniel Clay, has had to take some out to continue with his studies. Although we do hope he will be able to come back soon.

Fantastic news for Corby Silver.  Following an exciting time of advertising and auditioning for the position of Musical Director we have made a decision and have appointed Mr Keith Espin as our new Musical Director.

Keith’s personal philosophy about playing in any musical ensemble is quite simple:

 

  We play because we enjoy it

  We want to play to the best of our ability

  We play in the spirit of the group activity – team-work is paramount

  We want to improve, as individual instrumentalists and as a band

 

It is with this view in mind that Keith is delighted to have been successful in his appointment as Musical Director of Corby Silver Band and is looking forward to building on the existing fine level of musicianship within the band.

  Many thanks to Lloyd Preston for stepping in and waving the baton in the meantime.                                                                                                  

We are pleased to welcome Daniel Clay to Corby Silver Band.  Daniel will take up his position on 2nd Euphonium, which will please Pete Beale (Solo Euphonium), as now he can take it a bit easier. 

We are pleased to welcome Daniel Marlow to Corby Silver Band on Bb bass.  Dan also plays Bb bass for other local bands.  His arrival at the band couldn't have come at a better time as Bill, another of our bass players is currently recouperating following an operation.  We wish you a speedy recovery Bill!!

Two of our players have been selected to join Northamptonshire's first all female brass band.  Michelle Mitchell (cornet), and Amanda Beale (baritone), are proud to be members, and are looking forward to the first 'Boobs and Brass' charity concert. 

The concert takes place at Kettering Parish church on Saturday 30th September at 7:30pm.  All proceeds will go to the Breast Cancer Campaign and the Opthalmic ward of Kettering General Hospital.

Tickets cost £7, and are available by calling Jane on 01536-391081 or Maggie on 01933-624694.

Well done to Jane and Maggie for organising the the concert.  May it be the first of many! 

Well done to our newest and youngest members of the band Cara and Jodie (3rd cornet), who have now performed in their first concert with the band. 

The band was askd to play a short concert at Claremont Parkway Residential home, to celebrate the birthday of a lady, who had reached the grand age of 100, yes thats 100 !!!!

You did brilliantly girls !   And don't worry, you will grow into the jackets, although it might take a while !!!!!

We are pleased to announce that we now have a complete trombone section again.  Matty Dalton has re-joined the band after a short break and joins Becky Maglone and Sophie Roberts.

We are pleased to welcome back Michelle Mitchell to the cornet section, playing repiano cornet.