Golden Ale Brewed to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Tewkesbury Town Band.
10th September 2024
Today, some of Tewkesbury Town Band spent the day at The Tewkesbury Brewing Co, mashing, sparging and boiling the bands 50th anniversary ale.
The ale will be available on the weekend of 25th October around various pubs in and around Tewkesbury, including The Cross House Tavern, The Black Bear, The Watson Hall, The Nottingham Arms, The Railway Inn at Ripple, and Churchdown Social Club.
The beer is a 5% Golden Ale, and a one off brew of 16 casks.
Please go out and raise a glass to Tewkesbury Town Band in its 50th year.
A special thank you to the local pubs that have supported this project, and also Daryl and Jack from Tewkesbury Brewing.
Tewkesbury Town Bank Celebrates 50 Years of Making Music
16th June 2024
Last night’s formal dinner at Puckrup Hall was part of Tewkesbury Town Bands’ 50th Anniversary Celebrations.
Thank you to all those that helped to organise the event. Thanks also to Mark Farey, Betty Ellis, Christine Danter and Harry Williams for your speeches, and to Puckrup Hall for the excellent 3 course dinner.
It was great to meet and catch up with band members from over those 50 years.
Here’s looking forward to the 60th.
National Brass Band Finals 2022.
Following on from our success in March, where the band achieved 2nd place in the West of England regional fourth section championships, we were invited for the second year in succession to the National Finals in Cheltenham on Sunday 18th September 2022. The test piece was New Beginnings by Fredrick Schjelderup.
Having only returned from our tour to Miesbach on 31st August, time for rehearsals was in very short supply!
Also, with the band still looking for a musical director, we were lucky to secure Rob Nicholson for a couple of weeks rehearsals, and to conduct us on stage on the day.
Rob is a great guy, with a wealth of knowledge, who made every minute of rehearsals stress free, with loads of encouragement for all. Rob has been Bb bass player for The Cory Band, ranked no.1 in the world for many years, so has been there and done it, yet is the most approachable gent you could hope to meet.
The week before the contest saw rehearsals nearly every evening, with adjustments down to the minor detail being concentrated on.
The day before the contest, for experience in a different venue, the test piece was played to a large audience in the Watson Hall during a short concert with the training band. They thought is was a winner!
On the day however, we didn’t give our best performance. Drawn 8th out of 16, we were in the middle of the draw, and as very often happens, got lost in the adjudicators mid position mist. We gained 14th place from 16, which was disappointing, but an achievement to have been competing there in the first place.
All great experience for the band.
Next year will be a higher standard, as we have finished top of the South West fourth section, and thus gained promotion to the third section.
Onwards and upwards!
TEWKESBURY TOWN BAND TOUR TO MIESBACH, BAVARIA.
On Monday, 22nd August 2022, the band left Tewkesbury on a 24 hour, arduous coach trip to our twin town Miesbach, Bavaria, Germany.
With strict orders that the coach toilet was strictly for emergencies only ( 10 days is a long existence in the life of a chemical toilet! ) we made our way through France, Belgium and Germany, before arriving safely in Miesbach mid afternoon.
In the following 9 days we played in town squares, concert halls, several bandstands ( some with amazing backdrops ), had a massed band rehearsal with Niklasreuth Band, and were guests of honor at the 40th anniversary dinner of the Tewkesbury / Miesbach town twinning Association.
We also had some outstanding excursions, which included swimming in fresh water lakes, tobogganing, visits to a distillery and a coffee roastery, ancient lager cellars, and some beautiful churches.
Hospitality during our stay was more than we could have asked for, with a constant supply of schnitzel, pork steaks, chicken ( veggie options also ), cakes, coffee and beer, all provided throughout the week by the Miesbach twinning association, and local town councils.
Love for the connection between our towns was evident throughout the tour, and they are so dedicated to see this continue far into the future.
Special thanks go Helen Walters and Linda Lee for organising the tour on our side of the channel, with Judith Claremont-Fertl doing an amazing job organising all of our events and hospitality in Miesbach.
Also to Harry Sergeant and Martyn Sudworth, our two conductors for the tour.
Last and not least, to Steve and Jason of Pulhams coaches, for getting us safely there and back, always with a line to brighten then the day.😊
We are looking to recruit a new Musical Director,
see the below link for more details:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6QGVOCw8yw&feature=youtu.be
Also, we are looking to recruit a variety of new players on all instruments.
Based in the centre of Tewkesbury, we are a 3rd Section Brass Band, at the
northernmost point of the West of England Brass Band area, just by junction 9 of
the M5. The band can be seen throughout the year, playing in the town and local
area. Regular events include beer festivals, bandstands, private functions, marches
throughout the town, afternoon tea and Christmas concerts, and carolling.
For more details, please contact our Band Secretary on
secretary@tewkesburytownband.co.uk or visit the Come and Join Us page.
Tewkesbury Town Band launches a new season of Bands in the Park
The band kicked off with The Liberty Bell (AKA Monty Pythons theme tune) to open a new season of Bands in the Park 2022, at the Priory Park, Great Malvern.
Forced to cancel the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the Sunday afternoon event was well attended by a crowd, who spanned the generations. And the set included music for all the generations too: a medley of Lionel Bart tunes from Oliver, a sprinkle of Beatles Songs, Thank Your For The Music from Abba, the traditional D’ye Ken John Peel.
There were a couple of fine solos from two up-and-coming, band members and the trombone section entertained, in only the way that the trombones can.
The sun shone, children played, adults relaxed and ice cream was consumed.
UK National Brass Band Finals – 4th section, 19th September 2021
After finishing 3rd in the regional brass band competition held in Torquay in March 2020, Tewkesbury Town Band were invited to take part in the National Finals held at Cheltenham racecourse. Here, 14 of the U.K.s top 4th section bands would battle it out to see who would come out on top and take the National Trophy.
Unfortunately, our musical Director, Andrea Price, who had to leave us after only 18 months due to work resettlement in Manchester, however agreed to take us to Cheltenham as a final farewell. (Andreas first performance conducting the Band was at Torquay, and due to Covid, her second and final performance was at the national finals in Cheltenham!)
With Andrea now living in Manchester, rehearsals were crammed into several back to back evenings and weekend afternoons, when Andrea could make the trip down.
After great anticipation, we drew 3rd in the playing order, and we headed off to Cheltenham after our final 7.30am start rehearsal in Beckford Village Hall.
On stage, nerves held out, and a great performance from the band resulted in 8th place, far better than we had dared hope for.
Special thanks go to Andrea for the huge effort she put in to travelling to the rehearsals, and also to her expertise in her interpretation of the music, and ability to squeeze the very best performance from the band.
Congratulations to all involved, as this was only the second trip to the finals in the band’s history, and 22 years since the last.