We had a fantastic concert at the Barnes Music Festival at St Mary’s on March 5th, followed by Curry Night, brilliantly organised by our Susie. Next: we’ll be celebrating the Coronation at St Mary’s on the afternoon of Sunday 7th May – music details to follow once Daryle has decided! Then our next current planned gigs are on Saturday 24th June at Trumpeters’ House (full Summer programme), and the Barnes Children’s Literary Festival on Sunday 25th June under our favourite tree by Gails’ Bakery (that’ll be a Flex/Mini Band under Andrea/Charlotte’s leadership). We don’t know yet about Barnes Fair. For our full Summer programme, Daryle has provided the following links:
Come Follow the Band
The Magic Flute Overture – orchestral version
Spanish Fever
A Whiter Shade of Pale
The Blue and the Gray
Libertango
Italian Love Song – O Sole Mio
The Soulful Sixties
At a Dixieland Jazz Funeral
Marianne
Perpetuum Mobile – not this particular arrangement but you’ll get the idea of the piece
The Concerts page has all our events listed, including Canbury Gardens which is now confirmed. Daryle has given us the summer playlist: Concert Prelude (C27), Plymouth Hoe (P1), Selections from “Hairspray” (H14), With Clouds Descending, Singin’ In the Rain, Bad, Bad Leroy Brown, Two Slavonic Dance IV or VI (S66), Gee Officer Krupkee, Highlights from “Yesterday”, There’s No Business Like Show Business (T48), French Military March (A12), Wind in The Wood (W6), English Folk Song Suite (F2), American Salute, We Have All the Time in The World – (might delete this one, either we didn’t play it well or there’s too many parts missing), Soul Bossonova (S28), A Little Tango Music (L21), Three Klezmer Dances. All this music has now been given out.
Daryle may add some additional royal-themed pieces for the Jubilee event on 4th June, and others at the end of the season in case we’ve had enough of the above repertoire by then! The Barnes Children’s Literary Festival on 26th June (time still tbc) will be a mini-band, with minimum numbers of players specified by Daryle from across the Band.
We had a lovely festive play for the Barnes Christmas Fair at Tideway Yard, 10th December - then were so disappointed to have to cancel St Michael's inspiring event because of Omicron-Covid. We're back rehearsing on Tuesday 11th Jan, when we'll be preparing for Barnes Music Festival (date is Sunday March 6th at 3pm, St Mary's - keep checking our concerts page ). Bravo Daryle - you've chosen some wonderful music - below are the details!
The Olympic Spirit John Williams
Portrait of a City – Skyline, Autumn, Downtown Philip Sparke
French horn, bass clarinet, tenor sax, trumpet, euphonium and tuba players – we need you!
Barnes Concert Band is an amateur band with a friendly but professional attitude. We play around six concerts a year, mostly in SW London including the prestigious Barnes Music Festival. Right now we need French horn, bass clarinet, tenor sax, trumpet, euphonium and tuba players. The band meets weekly on Tuesday evenings near Twickenham station. Band membership is diverse and everyone shares a passion to create great music and have fun. We have all the woodwind and brass instruments plus percussion.
If you play around Grade 8 standard or are committed to reaching this level we’d love to hear from you. There is a trial period for potential new members, but no audition.
If you are interested, come and see us and say hello at one of our forthcoming gigs (on the morning of 26 June near Barnes Pond, 11th July at Regents Park bandstand, and 18 September at Trumpeters House, Richmond) or email us on barnessec@gmail.com. Find out more about the band at our website barnesconcert.band
We’re back! Our first rehearsal back at Richard Reynolds School was fabulous, carefully Risk-Assessed and as Covid-Secure as possible. And we sounded pretty good after such a long hibernation, thanks to Daryle’s expert leadership. Susie will keep sending details of how to sign up for rehearsals and of our constantly-reviewed Risk Assessment. Stay safe and keep playing!
We’re carefully following government guidelines about when we can return to rehearsals – and it’s not yet clear! We’ll communicate with the Band with as much notice as possible when we’re good to go. It’s likely that we’ll return to St Mary’s in Twickenham for a while longer, with initially the same Covid-secure procedures as we developed last Autumn. We’re delighted to have a growing list of confirmed concerts if the easing of restrictions continues – check out our Concerts 2021 page. Meanwhile, huge thanks to everyone who has helped keep the Band in touch and entertained during the 3rd Lockdown – Fiona for encouraging us to share our favourite cheesy (and winey) music, and Clive’s fabulous Musicals Quiz. The following posts are our current details of Covid procedures (which we’ll keep updated), and the music we’ve been playing. We’ll ask Susie to re-send the passwords next time she sends one of her incomparably entertaining emails! More news soon.
A very Happy New Year to our Band Members and Friends. Some have been through such a difficult year, our thoughts are with you, and we’re all hoping to share music again as soon as possible. In this post, Clive, our Principal Trombone, tells us how the Band managed just a little bit of carefully-distanced carol-playing at the Barnes Village Christmas Festival. We also later performed at St Michael’s Church, so bringing Xmas cheer with a reminder of live music to many people. The Band held four rehearsals in between lockdowns/Tier 4 – we were on to the 11th version of the Covid-Secure Risk Assessment before we got there! Huge thanks to Andrea, Daryle, and everyone who’s helped keep us together in 2020. Below, we update you about next steps but first, here’s Clive:
“It had been 278 long, frustrating days for the good people of South-West London. Would they ever get to hear again the warm tones of the Barnes Concert Band or would that be just a memory to be recounted to their children and grand-children in the years to come? But wait, who is this motley group of people gathering in Barnes High Street on this cold winter’s evening. Chairs are being set out and, yes, instruments unpacked by mask-clad musicians (of a sort). Inquiries as to what was going to happen were met with the reassurance that there would be carols in due course, although this would have to wait until a quorum had been established and carol books arrived. (The Closed Hammersmith Bridge traffic challenged the keenest musicians.) Some desultory playing by ear of the odd tune from some of the braver ones there, interspersed with warm up notes from others, encouraged more people to gather (socially-distanced of course). Finally, the music arrived and the band launched into its first full carol, with warm applause at its conclusion. Over the next hour or so, more and more came and went, children dragging their long-suffering parents over to watch and then being handed coins, and even notes, to put into the sanitised collection bucket. At last, something that could be paid for without having to use contactless. Liquid refreshment was provided during a brief pause in proceedings before the relentless march of the carols resumed, only to be brought to a halt finally by a steady, cold drizzle. Ah well, it had been a long wait but worth it, for both players and audience. A faint echo of normality for Christmas 2020.”
In Tier 4, we won’t be able to resume rehearsals by early January, so we’ll keep you updated. There’ll be more online gatherings, particularly the AGM on 26th Jan at 7.30pm – Susie will send more details in her unique and treasured style. When we can meet again, fingers crossed, the term is planned to continue until March 23rd. Then, hopefully, a summer term starting April 13th and ending on June 29th, just in time – we hope – for the Barnes Fair. We’re canvassing ideas for online sessions, and future events, so please keep thinking about our music and our very special community of players!
A Symphonic Wind Band Playing In South West London
A very Happy New Year to our Band Members and Friends. Some have been through such a difficult year, our thoughts are with you, and we’re all hoping to share music again as soon as possible. In this post, Clive, our Principal Trombone, tells us how the Band managed just a little bit of carefully-distanced carol-playing at the Barnes Village Christmas Festival. We also later performed at St Michael’s Church, so bringing Xmas cheer with a reminder of live music to many people. The Band held four rehearsals in between lockdowns/Tier 4 – we were on to the 11th version of the Covid-Secure Risk Assessment before we got there! Huge thanks to Andrea, Daryle, and everyone who’s helped keep us together in 2020. Below, we update you about next steps but first, here’s Clive: 
Barnes Concert Band 