Just some of the band's recent activities
21st March 2010
SSWB have once again travelled to compete in the Area Contests in Stevenage, making our debut in the 2nd section. The test piece for us to play this year was Philip Harper's "Kingdom of Dragons".

We were drawn to play 10th out of the 17 bands that competed. An early Sunday start didn't dampen anybody's spirits though. Our performance gave us 12th place which meant that the band is now placed 9th overall in the 2nd section grading tables.

The band's thanks go to Gary Hawkins & Ian Young for deputising on Euphonium & Eb Bass so well. Thanks also go to former Saints Eb Bass player Peter Cole who stepped in at very short notice when regular Bb Bass player Alan "Banger" Clacey was injured with only a week to go and to Richard Evans for expertly guiding us through the test piece at what looks set to become an annual event: an all day masterclass. The biggest thanks however go to band's own Euphonium player James Kelloway who stood in for regular M.D Lee Woodward. Lee has been on tour in America for the past 3 months and was therefore unable to take us to this contest.

Lee has now returned to the band and we can now start work on our programme for SCABA's Entertainments Contest in Crawley. Sunday 17th May
Fresh from a win at the recent Area Contest, the band went to the 28th SCABA Entertainment Contest, held at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley with the aim of continuing that success.

Our 24 minute programme for this year consisted of:

Our performance this year rewarded us with 84 points which was good enough for 3rd place. We also won a prize for the best trombone section. Other particularly pleasing aspects of our result were that we had been awarded the highest score for musical performance and adjudicator David Read had lots of good things to say about our performance such as good attention to detail and that a good sound was made!

The prize giving saw 2nd baritone player Cameron Lake being presented with a SCABA certificate for service to banding. Cameron has been with Saints for 62 years and was band secretary for 32 of those years! Well done Cameron!

Chairman Lisa Hubble said:
It is good to see the band performing consistently well under the baton of our new MD, Lee Woodward. I hope to see the band go from strength to strength in this new partnership, and achieve a favourable result at the National Finals in Harrogate in September.

This SCABA contest was a fantastic opportunity for the Band to acknowledge Cameron Lake's amazing service to Saints. He is our longest serving member, and has been a very loyal bandsman. He is an inspiration to us all!

M.D Lee Woodward said:
I am absolutely delighted with the Band's performance in our first two contests, the level of effort and commitment from the Band has been very pleasing and I am looking forward to a busy summer and then the National finals where we will be going as Area Champions for the first time in the Band's history.

The band is now looking forward to a busy Summer season and its visit to the Whit Walks & Marching Contests.

View Crawley 2009 Gallery here

21st March 2009
The band made its way to the Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage for the annual Area Qualifying Contest. The test piece we had to perform this year was a 3-movement piece called "The Once and Future King" by Andrew Baker. Out of the 15 bands competing we had drawn 10th in the playing order.

After playing, we were taken to have a group photo taken and several individual member photos done as well.

Results time came and we all went back into the theatre to hear how we did. We'd played well and were delighted to hear the following:

1st Prize:

The band's success here is due to a lot of preparation in the 10 weeks leading up to the contest. At the end of February, we had an all day rehearsal which took the format of a masterclass. For this, we booked Mr Richard Evans to take us through the test piece using a set of full band rehearsals and sectionals. We even had time for an impromptu photo-shoot with him. Thanks go to Richard for his work with the band and all the guests who joined us for that masterclass day.

This is a success that the band will be able to build on and take to the SCABA Entertainments Contest in May which is the next big contest that the band intend to enter.

News from 2008
End of Year review 2008

The band have had a busy but successful 2008. In March we competed in the Regional contest in Stevenage and achieved a very pleasing 5th place. Onwards and upwards! Moving on to April, we had two St. George's day parades, one in Henley and one in Wokingham. In May, we competed in the annual SCABA Entertainments Contest at the Hawth theatre in Crawley, where we were once again placed 3rd.

In July 2007 we had a new annual engagement in the form of a family concert for St. Sebastian's Church. That one was wet however, so it was held in the church. A year later, we were able to hold this concert outdoors in the impressive grounds of Wellington College, Crowthorne. Although there was no rain this time, the clouds threatened but everyone had a wonderful evening!

It wasn't all work and no play however; 2 current members and 1 now ex-member all celebrated their 40th birthday. Some of the band, along with family & friends all got together at Eversley Village Hall for a barn dance to celebrate the occasion.

There was another first for the band this year as we were invited to perform for the Sulhamstead Police College Open Day in August. A most enjoyable day (if a wet one!), with an invite back next year.

The band also held it's 3rd annual Mayor's Charity Concert at Wokingham Theatre in aid of the Me2 club. It raised approximately £1,000 from a full house and also saw a couple of band members receive not only the annual bandsman & musician of the year awards, but some members received awards for 10 years' service.

The band had another busy December with lots of Christmas jobs. This included a sell-out Christmas Concert at Wokingham Theatre with guest conductor David Cole and another first for the band as we had a go at a fundraising evening at The Meadows Shopping Centre in Sandhurst.

Unfortunately, 2008 was also the year that we lost Musical Director Andrew Porter due to work commitments & his Kneller Hall musical studies with the Army.

We are delighted however to announce news, hot off the press, that Lee Woodward of The Band of The Irish Guards will take over as our new M.D. with immediate effect (more details to follow).

Congratulations go to solo horn player Jen Kelland & 2nd trombone player Matt Butchers who's engagement was announced in April. Their wedding is due in July 2009. It was also welcome to new member Paul Gozzard as kit player at the end of the year.

The band’s goals for 2009 include an improvement at the Stevenage Area Contest to qualify for the finals for the first time since 2005. The band have had a consistent 3rd place at the SCABA Entertainments Contest for the past few years and are also hoping to improve on this. We're also looking forward to a master class with Richard Evans and our next visit to the Whit Friday marching contests in June, having not been since 2007.

Sunday 28th September
Tonight, the band held its 3rd annual Mayor's Charity Concert at Wokingham Theatre. The Mayor‘s chosen charity this year is The Me 2 Club which aims to provide one to one support for children with special needs in the Wokingham area. The concert raised approximately £1,000 from a full house.

The first half of the programme included a French element: Shepherds Song (Canteloube arr Richards), The Swan (Saint Saens arr.Stephens).and March from Le Prophet (Meyerbeer arr. Reynolds) to welcome guests from Wokingham‘s twin town of Viry Chatillon. The second half of the programme started with Valero and included the March "Praise" (Heaton) and concluded with extracts from Rimmer‘s arrangement of Dvorak‘s The New World Symphony.

The concert provided the opportunity to formally introduce new members of the band and new appointments, namely:
James Kelloway as Bandmaster who will deputise for regular M.D. Andrew Porter while he is busy with his army bandmaster training course at Kneller Hall. Derek Hawkins, Stewart Lewins and Llewellyn Wells, all new members of the cornet section.

During the concert the Mayor presented the band‘s annual awards and this year the winners were:
Kathryn Rooke-Matthews (10 years service)
Dave Meekings (10 years service)
Damon Emes (10 years service)
Damon Emes (Bandsman of the year)
James Kelloway (Musician of the Year)

After the concert the Mayor, Councillor Brian Willis expressed his delight at the quality of the musical entertainment and the success of the evening.

Damon Emes, Chairman of the band said that he was really encouraged by the positive comments from many members of the audience who noticed how the band had progressed over the year to be able to perform a such challenging programme with great confidence and musical precision.

Sunday 18th May
The band went to the 27th SCABA Entertainment Contest, held once again at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley.

Our 24 minute programme for this year consisted of:

Our performance this year rewarded us with 81 points and 3rd place. We also used part of the day to produce some up-to-date band pictures for this website (seen on the meet the band section

Monday 14th April
The band has had a change of flugel today; After 8 years at St. Sebs on cornet & flugelhorn, Janatha Yarham has left to join Friary Guildford Band's cornet section with husband Mark. Lynsey Frater, who used to play 2nd cornet, has now stepped into that position and the band are continuing with their preparations for the Crawley Entertainment Contest. The band would like to extend a huge thanks to Janatha for her hard work and service to the band, not only as a cornet/flugel player but as a commitee member serving various roles over the years.

Saturday 15th March
It was another early start for the band as we all travelled up to Stevenage for the London & Southern Counties area contest. The test piece was a brand new one; Paul Lovatt-Cooper's "Dark Side of the Moon". We drew 13th to play out of the 17 bands that turned up to compete. A lot of work had gone into our preparation for this contest, including having a blitz on tuning and intonation. It paid off though, because we came away with 179 points which was enough to net us 5th place. Although this wasn't enough for a trip to Harrogate, it's a considerable improvement on being placed 10th for the last 2 years.

After the Easter break, the band will resume preparations for the Crawley Entertainments Contest in May. Best of luck to Littleport, Hangleton and Brighton & Hove City Bands for September though!

News from 2007
Monday 24th December (end of year review)
This year saw the appointment of a new M.D., our bi-annual visit to the Whit Friday marching contests, two band members receiving awards, additions to the uniform and a wedding.

At the beginning of the year, after a three month audition & selection process with a number of candidates, Andrew Porter was hired as the band's M.D., starting January.

Our 10th place at the Stevenage area contest was encouraging, but was still indicative of the amount of improvement work that lay ahead for us; nevertheless another 3rd place at Crawley was nothing to be sneezed at!

We managed to visit 6 villages on our bi-annual Whit Friday trip this year and wound up with placings of between 19th & 36th place along with a place on this year's Whit Friday Best of CD.

September saw sop player Dorinda be crowned musician of the year and librarian, Eb bass player & good all round useful bandsman Ken be crowned bandsman of the year. Fast forward to late November and the band received 2 new additions to our uniform range. Knee-length black raincoats for use at Winter jobs which were seen for the first time at the Wokingham Winter Carnival and band fleeces for use as a "walking-out" uniform (pictures still to come).

December saw flugel player Janatha marry fiancee Mark with some of the band playing for the happy couple on their wedding day. Best wishes to them both for the future!

2008 will see us competing at the Stevenage contest and hopefully qualifying for the National Finals for the first time since 2005. Do keep an eye on our diary on this site and you may even see us near you!

Sunday 23rd September
After the great success of last year's inaugural Mayor's Charity Concert at Wokingham Theatre (website feature coming soon), the band proceeded to hold the second one on the evening of Sunday 23rd. It also saw the debut of two brand new band awards; the player of the year (M.D.'s choice) and bandsman of the year (band's choice). The first winners were sop player Dorinda Bray for player of the year and librarian & Eb bass player Ken Smith for bandsperson of the year. Congratulations to them both! Since the concert was also a celebration of Wokingham's twinning with Erftstadt, our programme included the following works:

Sunday 20th May
The band went to the 26th SCABA Entertainment Contest, held as usual at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley.

Our 24 minute programme for this year consisted of:

We drew to play 7th out of a total of 7 bands and finished playing with 38 seconds of our allocated time slot to spare! Results time came and we learned that with 85 points we'd been awarded 3rd place with £50 prize money, a cup and a certificate.

As with last year, it's a result that the band can feel pleased with but much more could have been gained from the day. Still, we have a chance to reap some great results at this year's Whit Friday marching contests. We hope to see you there!

Sunday 18th March
The band headed for Stevenage once again to compete in the London & Southern Counties area contest. We had put a lot of work into Darrol Barry's Prelude & Jubilate but a good result was sadly not to be as our performance once again netted us 10th place. The band will be back next year, hoping for better things though and on behalf of all at Saints, best of luck at the finals to Epsom & Ewell and Thundersley Brass at the finals.

News from 2006
Saturday 9th September
After having last year off to concentrate on the National Finals, we departed Wokingham at 7:30 AM to head for London's Westminster area to participate in this year's Malta Day celebrations, held at Westminster Cathedral. The day started with us playing the British & Maltese National Anthems as the annual Maltese fair was opened at Westminster Cathedral hall. We provided just over 3 hours worth of music which included the following numbers:

(A few Maltese Pieces were included in here too!) After a good afternoon break (not to mention a loud firecracker display!) it was time for us to lead the procession from the Cathedral to the Sacred Heart Chapel of the Ease in Horseferry Road via Artillery Row and Greycoat Place. We returned to Wokingham at 7:00PM with a good feeling about our upcoming 75th Anniversary concert.

Sunday 21st May
After a year out due to preparations for the Whit Friday marches, the band went to the 25th SCABA Entertainment Contest, held as usual at the Hawth Theatre, Crawley.

Our 24 minute programme for this year consisted of:

We drew to play 5th out of a total of 10 bands and finished playing with 15 seconds of our allocated time slot to spare! Results time came and we learned that with 80 points we'd been awarded 3rd place with £50 prize money, a cup and a certificate.

The contest also marked Principal Cornet Rob Leeson's last major engagement with the band before moving to America for 2 years.

It's a result that the band can feel pleased with but much more could have been gained from the day. Still, it's onwards now to the Summer season with our usual range of fetes, parades and one very important engagement all coming up...

Saturday 18th March
The band headed for Stevenage once again for the London & Southern Counties regional heats of the Besson National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, armed with Gilbert Vinter's Entertainments as the test piece. After our efforts of last year (3rd place) we went in with high expectations after being drawn 5th in the playing order.

On the day however we didn't do ourselves justice. 10th place said to us that we left the performance we needed in the bandroom a week before and was a bit of a disappointment.

Adjudicator Colin Hardy was particularly severe on our intonation and some untidiness in the first movement, concluding we gave "a very mixed performance with some good musical moments but too many errors today"

So it's back to the hymn books and the drawing board for another year. On behalf of everyone at St Sebs, good luck to LGB and Norfolk Wherry bands for Harrogate

News from 2005

Saturday 24th December
Well, what a year it's been! A couple of long-haul trips up north, 3 jobs for the Royal British Legion, a busy summer and a few things for the band to think about. We made a good start to the year with a 3rd place at Stevenage and returned from the Whits with a 9th at Dobcross. Our annual charity concert in Wargrave followed in July, and in August, soprano cornet player Dorinda Garner became Dorinda Bray as she tied the knot while the band playing at her reception. Also in August, a few band members went on the annual Brass Band Summer School in Bromsgrove and preparations continued into September on the test piece for the National Finals. Our efforts however only netted us 13th. In November we had our annual jobs for the Cantley fireworks display, Remembrance Sunday and the Wokingham Winter Carnival. December saw the band's range of annual Christmas jobs including another charity concert for the Wokingham District Cancer Care Trust.

So, what's in store for 2006? Amongst the highlights for this year, our first rehearsal is on January 9th when we'll be working on the 3rd section Regionals test piece, Gilbert Vinter's "Entertainments". 2006 is also going to mark the band's 75th anniversary year. Watch this site for more details on this.

Sunday 25th September
After our success at this year's L&SC Regional Qualifying Contest in Stevenage, it was time to go one step further and compete in the National Finals in Harrogate. The 3rd section test piece was "A Gallimaufry Suite" by Philip Harper. After a 6 hour coach trip to Leeds the previous day, we had a rehearsal in a very nice hotel, a good meal and a few drinks to get us ready for an 8:00 start the following day.

We got to Harrogate in good spirits and drew to play 11th (not long to wait then!). Rehearsals had gone well, but our performance on the day was only good enough to net 13th place out of the total of 19 bands competing. This left us with another 6 hour coach trip home and next year's qualifiers to look forward to.

Saturday 19th March
Once again the band headed for Stevenage to compete in the London & Southern Counties Area Contest. The test piece was the symphonic sketch "Tam O'Shanter's Ride" by Denis Wright, which is based on the poem by Robert Burns.

We had drawn to play 17th (and last!) and thought that we would have a challenge ahead of us. Our time did come however and we did produce a great performance.

Results time came and we were delighted to hear from adjudicator Malcolm Brownbill that the band had racked up 179 points and earned £75 prize money, a large cup and a ticket to the finals in Harrogate! We have also managed to move up from 10th to 6th in the grading tables.

The amount of work put in by both band and conductor for this contest was phenomenal and was well reflected today. The band are now taking a bit of time-out over Easter and will get together again on Thursday 31st March to start work on music for the Whit Friday marching contests in May.

News from 2004

Friday 24th December
Over the past month, the band have been very busy with a range of Christmas-based engagements. We started with leading a procession at the Wokingham Winter Carnival on 28th November and then performed at our annual Christmas Concert at St. Mark's Church in Bourne End. A small end-of dinner concert at Wokingham Masonic Centre on 10th December followed and then an almost sell-out charity concert at Wokingham Theatre on 16th December which raised £2,000 for the Wokingham District Cancer Care Trust. A couple of carol engagements followed at Tesco Superstore, Wokingham on the 17th December and at The Crooked Billet pub on the 20th December. At this job we also said goodbye to Tenor Horn player Anne Gentry. She will be joining Alder Valley Brass with husband (and former M.D.) Bruce. Our run finished on Christmas Eve with carols at California Ratepayers Hall in Finchampstead.

The band are now taking advantage of a long rest and a chance to look at next year's area test piece (Tam O'Shanter's Ride).

Our first rehearsal of the new year is on Thursday 6th January at 8pm. If anyone would be interested in joining the band or would just like to come along for a blow, then please do!

Saturday 9th October
The band once again made the longish-haul trip to Folkestone, Kent for the annual SCABA Autumn Contest at Leas Cliff Hall. We drew to play 2nd in the playing order out of a total of 9 bands and performed "How Sweet The Name" (by Ronald Tremain and arranged by Donald Osgood) as our hymn tune and "Three Impressions For Brass" by Arthur Butterworth as our test piece.

We scored 85 points for our hymn tune performance which placed us fourth and 186 points for the test piece performance which netted us 2nd place (1 point behind 1st place!), the best percussion section award and new M.D Dave Richards bagged the best conductor prize! All in all, another fantastic day and a great reward for some excellent rehearsal work by all!

Saturday 11th September
The band made its annual trip to London to play at the Malta Day celebrations. This year they were held at the Emmanuel Centre in Marsham Street (SW1) and at Westminster Cathedral.
As with last year an early start was needed to get to London early enough (leaving the band room at 7:30am!). Once we got there we played some background music for the Maltese fair in the morning and in the afternoon we lead the procession from the cathedral to the in Horseferry Road. Arriving back at the band room for 6:45 it was another long but most enjoyable all day all round!

Saturday 26th June
The band were very upset to hear of Alan Clacey Senior's death at the age of 88. Alan had been one of the founder members of the band back in 1931 and was the band's longest standing musical director for 26 years. His son, Alan junior, was a member of the band for some time before leaving due to work commitments. He will be sorely missed by friends and family.

Sunday 16th May
The Band headed for Crawley, West Sussex to compete in the 23rd SCABA Entertainment Contest. Our programme was:

We were up against 8 other bands including 2 youth bands. We went for a different way of boarding the stage this year by marching on while playing The Great Escape march. A truly enjoyable day however with the band netting 78 points and the following prizes:

Musical Director Bruce Gentry was making his final appearance with the band today so this made a great leaving present for him. It was also bass player Edd Leach's final appearance with the band before leaving us due to various other committments.

Sunday 21st March
The Band went to Stevenage to compete in the London & Southern Counties Area Contest. The test piece was Vizcaya by Gilbert Vinter, who also composed the well known Brass Band pieces "Spectrum" and "Variations on a Ninth". Vizcaya paints a picture of festival time in the Basque region of south-west France, and is based on Basque folk tunes. Vinter's son said "Vizcaya is both challenging, and intoxicatingly optimistic, full of Mediterranean sunshine". 18 bands competed in the contest, and Saints were drawn to play No. 7. The combination of nerves and playing in a strange venue however led to us being placed 9th, by the adjudicator, Dennis Wilby, with a score of 163 points. Though this was a disappointing result the band has now moved up to 10th place (out of 19) in the Third Section. The first contest of the year now over, the band is rehearsing hard for the SCABA Entertainment contest in Crawley on 16th May.

News from 2003

Saturday 11th October
The Band competed in the Southern Counties Amateur Bands Association (SCABA) contest in Folkestone.
We are a third section band in the National Registry, but with SCABA we are graded second section. So, we're expected to compete against third and second section bands. We drew to play 7th out of 11 bands and we chose to play our selected hymn followed by Brass Dynamics as our test pieces. The Band had worked very hard at rehearsals and were rewarded by being placed third over all in our section for both the hymn and the test piece - just 2 points behind the winning band!

Saturday 13th September
For the fourth year in succession the Band was invited to play for the Malta Day celebrations in London. This year they were held at St Columba's Church and the Brompton Oratory in Knightsbridge.
We left the Band Room at 7.30am to arrive in London in time to play outside in the street while the dignitaries arrived - trying hard to drown out the noise of the traffic! Then we moved inside to play background music for the Maltese Fayre.
The day ended with the Band leading the procession from the Oratory around the streets of London. We arrived back at the Band Room at 6.30 - another long, but enjoyable day.
4 Pictures of the day

Sunday 22nd June
The Band was invited to play outside St Paul's Cathedral to welcome home cyclists who had completed a sponsored ride from Rome to London.
We also had the chance to play inside the Cathedral in between the Sunday services.

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