... and it wouldn't be Christmas without the crazy carolling schedule that we put ourselves through!  Thanks to everyone for all their hard work over the Christmas period, this is such a critical time for our fundraising and helps to ensure that we can sustain the band financially for the year ahead.

Many thanks go to the local supermarkets and town centres for allowing us to play and collect and a huge thanks to the people of Wotton, Dursley, Chipping Sodbury and the surrounding areas for your fantastic generosity.  We wish everyone a very happy and healthy 2023!

Our annual Christmas Concert took place on Saturday10th at Kingswood Village Hall.

We were joined by our fantastic Training Band, led by their Musical Director, Alan Swain and our evening included great solo items from Jules Farron on Cornet, Ken Stout on Flugel, Mandy Norman on Euphonium and Andy Symes on Eb Bass.

The evening was also a surprise celebration for 3 of our players.  Jenny Lovell and Julie Ashby were presented with their 50 years service awards from the Gloucestershire Brass Band Association, and Marcus Dunstan (who thought he had escaped it by moving north!) was presented with his 60 years service award from the Cornish Brass Band Association.  Thanks so much to Ian ford from the GBBA who organised this and came along to the concert to present the awards (and to help us out when one of our cornet players was struck down with Covid!)

On Wednesday 7th we were joined by Yate Community Choir in a charity concert in aid of  Chipping Sodbury Lions.  

The concert was really well-attended and packed with a lovely selection of Christmassy music from both groups.

The band played it's part on Sunday 13th, leading the parades in our home town Wotton in the morning and in neighbouring Dursley in the afternoon.  Thanks to our Principal Cornet player Jules Farron for an excellent rendition of the Last Post at Wotton!  As the photo shows, it was an absolutely glorious day in Wotton and both parades were really well-attended in a wonderful show of respect, and once again this year, the band takes this opportunity to remember its two players lost during the First World War ...

Private Charles Smith of the Gloucestershire Regiment - died 19th October 1915 aged 21.  Son of Mr and Mrs James Smith.

Lance Corporal James Davis of the Royal Army Medical Corps - died 26th August 1916 aged 34.  Son Mr and Mrs J Davis and husband of Ethel B Davis.

..and whilst one of our ex-players was living it up at the Albert Hall, our Oompah group 'Die Votton Schtompers', were playing a little closer to home at the Plough Inn, Charfield where Oktoberfest celebrations were in full swing.  Thanks to the Plough for making us so welcome (and for letting us sit near the fire!)

Congratulations once again from the Wotton crowd to Sam Iles who, on Saturday 15th, competed as a member of Foden's Band who defended their title National Champions of Great Britain!

Sam joined Wotton Band as percussionist in 2014 and his amazing performance of 'Helter-Skelter' from our 2016 CD, Legacy, gives a clear indication that he was already destined for great things.

We are all so proud of you Sam - Congratulations!

(Congratulations to the rest of the band too).

Click here to find out more about our Legacy CD.

We are delighted to welcome Magnus Peter - the latest member of our band family, arriving safely on Sunday 2nd. Congratulations to the Davies family on your beautiful new arrival, we can't wait to meet you soon Magnus!

On Sunday 25th we played an afternoon concert at Chipping Sodbury Town Hall.  The varied programme featured several of the band's soloists, including a first solo performance with the band from our Solo Cornet player, Adam Iles, who treated the audience to a superb rendition of Joy Webb's 'Share My Yoke'.

The concert also gave us an opportunity to present our Principal Cornet player, Bruce Davies, with a thank you and goodbye (for now) gift, as he takes a break from band ahead of the birth of his second child.  Good luck to the Davies family from us all!

On the evening of Saturday 24th we performed in a fantastic concert in aid of Longfield Hospice, sharing the stage with our friends from Nailsworth Silver Band to celebrate the life of our dearly missed friend, Alan Bruton.

As part of our memorial concert, Alan's wife Jane was presented with Alan’s posthumous certificate from the GBBA to commemorate 50 years of service to local bands.

The certificate was presented by our Euphonium player and Alan's dear friend, Pete Stanulewicz (pictured). An incredibly well deserved award for a lifetime dedicated to music making

The band is very proud to have played its part in the Proclamation Ceremony in our home town of Wotton-under-Edge on Sunday 11th, marking the formal Proclamation to the people of the town of the beginning of our new King's reign...

On Sunday 4th the band completed it's outdoor concert season with a performance in the bandstand at Keynsham Memorial Park.  

Our thanks go out to all the friends who helped us out at this concert.

The band would like to say a big thank you to Nige Galliott who has helped us out as temporary MD for the last couple of months.  Nige has helped us put together a programme for our summer events, made up of popular and entertaining music that has gone down really well with our audiences.

Our thanks also go to Debs Galliott who has helped out enormously over the summer, covering for player holidays on horn, baritone and euphonium.

Thanks both for all your help and hard work - it's very much appreciated!

On Saturday 6th we returned to one of our favourite places - the annual village fayre in the beatiful Cotswold village of Cold Aston.  As always, we were made to feel extremely welcome and unlike many other years, the organisers managed to arrange some really fantastic weather for us.

The band played an entertaining programme of popular, well-known music to an appreciative crowd.  As always, our thanks go to the fayre organisers - we are sure you will have had a really succesful day and we really appreciate you inviting us along to be a part of it.

We made the most of the sunny weather and used the opportunity to get a few nice photos of the band in this lovely setting ...

What a great evening we had on Friday 15th when we were invited down to the Plough Micro Pub in Charfield to play a lively programme, concluding with the Last Night of the Proms favourites.  Led by our guest Musical Director, Nige Galliott, the band performed an entertaining programme featuring solos from Ian Brown on Horn and George Woodman on Percussion, and a performance of our Eb Bass player, Morris Harper's fantastic march, 'The Mariner', conducted by Morris.

Both the welcome from everyone at the Plough and the weather they arranged for us could not have been better!  We hope they invite us back - it was a lovely event.

The video below really sums up the atmosphere of the night ...

On Tuesday 7th we performed a concert for Chipping Sodbury Music Society in Chipping Sodbury Town Hall.  The concert featured a wide variety of music from Malcolm Arnold's 'Cornish Dances' to Queen's 'Fat Bottomed Girls'!  The concert concluded with a Jubilee Finalee, including Crown Imperial, Nimrod and Pomp and Circumstance No. 1.

Thank you to Chipping Sodbury Music Society for inviting us along, and also our thanks to the players from other local bands who stepped in at extremely short notice to help us out due to a number of players falling ill!

On Friday 3rd the band played at the Wotton Jubilee celebrations in Synwell Playing Field.  The Training Band started the afternoon off with a lovely programme of music under the direction of their MD, Alan Swain.

The main band followed on with a selection including some patriotic numbers including Crown Imperial and Pomp and Circumstance, and solos from Bruce Davies on Cornet and George Woodman on percussion.

On Thursday 2nd a small group of us performed as 'Wotton Oompah Band' at the Chalford Beer Festival.  We entertained the early evening crowd with a selection of Oompah music and a few 'old favourites' such as Delilah and Sweet Caroline.

The Oompah Band is made up of anything from 5 to 8 players, and can be contacted here.

We were part of another sad occasion on Wednesday 11th when we played at the funeral of our Honorary Life Member and dear friend, Robert Moss.

Robert played a really active part in the band during the 1990s, always attending our rehearsals, listening to the music and chatting with all his band friends - young and old!  He would join us at all our engagements from village fetes to brass band competitions and also came to all our social functions - band dinners, skittles evenings and even some of our weddings!  But he really came into his own at Christmas time with his collection bucket in Wotton Street and various supermarkets and shopping centres across the area - we know that his amazing efforts at this time of year made all the difference in the world to our collections.

Robert didn't stop there, he even did a sponsored swim to raise money for the band to buy a set of band banners.  This must have been absolutely exhausting for him, but we never heard him complain!

Robert will always remain a big part of the band's history - a truly amazing man!

On Friday 6th we joined members of Nailsworth Band to play at the funeral of our dear friend Alan.  It was a huge privilege to have been able to play a part in this beautiful service in St George's Parish Church in Nailsworth.

We are really looking forward to returning to the church and joining our friends from Nailsworth band on Saturday 24th September in a special tribute concert in Alan's memory.

It was great to be able to get back to Wotton Hill on May 1st after a two-year break.  The 'Band Sunday' tradition takes us to the top of the hill on the first Sunday in May each year to perform hymns and marches to welcome in the Spring.  The weather wasn't all that 'springlike' this year, but at least we kept dry as we played to a lovely audience who turned out despite the weather.  Thank you to all of you for your support - it is very much appreciated!

We are very sad to hear of the death of our ex-principal euphonium player, Alan Bruton.

An exceptional player, Alan played a huge part in the band's success over the last 15 years, performing solos at many of our concerts and also contributing in a big way to contest successes as we progressed from the third to the first section.  Alan will always be remembered as a kind-hearted and dedicated bandsman who always supported the band and encouraged our young players.  This heartbreaking news has saddened us all, and our thoughs are with Alan's family at this really sad time.

As musicians, we are so grateful that Alan shared his talent with us, and his beatiful playing can be heard on our CD, 'Legacy', particularly in his solo performance of 'Catari, Catari'.

Unfortunately we didn't get a reapeat of our Oxford success at Cheltenham this year.  Nonetheless, team Wotton Band found plenty to smile about as we headed off to the racecourse by pirate ship!

Our congratulations go to all the bands who were able to compete in the regional finals this year after 2 years of lockdown, and special congratulations to our close neighbours, Nailsworth Band - third place in the 3rd Section.

On Tuesday 29th the band held an open rehearsal as we completed our preparations for the upcoming West of England Brass Band Championships in Cheltenham.

It was lovely to see such a great audience ath the Baptist Church in Wotton.  Thank you for your support and we hope we can once again do the town proud at the regional finals.

On Saturday 26th the band travelled to Oxford to take part in the ODBBA annual competition.  The band chose to play this year's area test piece - Gilbert Vinter's 'Spectrum' which it is rehearsing ahead of the rearranged West of England Championships at Cheltenham on 2nd April.

We were pleased with our performance and even more pleased to be awarded first place in the First Section.  The band was also awarded additional prizes for best bass section of the day and best percussion section of the day.

Congratulations to everyone, and special congratulations to our bass section - Morris, Mark, Simon and Andy; and our percussion section - George and Sam.

All in all, a very succesful trip!

All change!  The band is still busy rehearsing Gilbert Vintner's 'Spectrum' ahead of the West of England Brass Band Championships, but the competition will now be taking place at the Centaur Centre, Cheltenham on Saturday 2nd April (instead of our usual March trip to the Riviera Centre in Torquay).

The band will also be performing later this month when we travel to Oxford to take part in the Oxford District Brass Band Association competition.

On Monday 31st a small group from the band were able to attend a very special birthday celebration to play happy birthday to 100 year-old Wotton resident, Edwina Heatherington. The celebration was held in front of Mrs Heatherington's home, on the lawn of the Tabernacle in Wotton-under-Edge.

Happy Birthday Edwina!

Rehearsals are now well underway for the West of England Brass Band Championships in Torquay where we will be competing in the First Section following our promotion in 2020.

This year's test piece is Gilbert Vinter's 'Spectrum' - his musical depiction of the seven colours in the spectrum, each vividly portrayed in brilliant sound/colours: Intro and Red; Orange; Yellow; Green; Blue; Indigo; Purple.

On Tuesday 11th a small group from the band played at for the funeral of our dear friend Brian Chappell who passed away on Tuesday 14th January, aged 91.

Brian has always played an important part in our band, joining as a beginner when the band was struggling in the late 1960's, and going on to teach generations of new players right up until recent years when he still popped along to the Training Band to help out with learners and play the bass part in rehearsals.  Brian was a true bandsman, always willing to step up to the challenge - playing Eb Bass, trombone, baritone, or pretty much whatever the band needed him to do at the time.  He also served on the Band Committee for many years in both the Chair and Secretary roles, and was proud to become an honorary life member when he retired from playing with the main band.

Our thoughts are with Brian's lovely family at this sad time as we remember a very special man who gave so much to Wotton Silver Band and whose spirit will always remain at its core.

We are so pleased that on 9th September 2019, we were able to gather together (under lockdown regulations) to play for Brian's 90th birthday celebrations, and we were also able to send him a very special video message which can be viewed here ...