Our next annual concert will held at Prudhoe Community High School on the 9th March at 7pm.

Please note It will be held in the Performance Area at the far end of the school NOT in the main hall as usual.

This will be a joint concert with our friends the Ponteland Community Wind Band and The Tyne Valley Big Band.

We hope to hold a raffle to raise money for band funds so if you can bring something to donate to the raffle that would be helpful.

Tickets will include refreshments in the interval.

We also hereby give notice of holding a short AGM at the concert.

We have had to cancel this mornings rehearsal due to the wintry weather across the patch. Hope to resume as normal next week.  Please try and aim for a prompt 9.45 start to make up for lost time.

We rounded off our winter tour of the region with a rousing performance in Eldon Square Shopping Centre, Newcastle on Wednesday evening.

The audience were treated to the world premiere of a new arrangement of “The Fairytale of New York” arranged by Dave O’Hignorhan and featuring our very own Shane McGowan lookalike on Bari Sax.

Previously unrehearsed this great Xmas tune looks set to become a band favourite in the fullness of time.

Our conductor Mr Hignett was so moved by our rendition of “White Christmas” that he burst into song during the Chorus.

His spontaneous crooning was so realistic that it was almost as though Bing himself was singing.  Brought a tear to the eye.

We returned to Gibside to play at their annual mas market on Saturday the 15th Dec. Luckily the torrential rain and gales of the previous day had subsided allowing us to play our full programme.

A mystery virus had affected the trombone section but the band sounded great nonetheless

Thank you to Gibside for their contribution to band funds and to the kind people who put spare change into our collection buckets.

We played at Hexham Farmers Market on the 8th December.

This is a lovely event playing right next to Hexhams ancient Abbey.

Unfortunately rain stopped play in the first set but we were able to perform most of our Christmassy numbers after listening to Hexham Community Choir singing in the rain.

We were  joined by a small group of singers led by Barbara Hignett from Haydon Bridge School  to help out with some vocals to our favourite Xmas tunes.

This annual event on our calendar was once again very successful.

We were competing with squeaky trains and the Tannoy,  but we still went down well with an appreciative audience on the chilly main concourse of Newcastle Central Station.

I spotted this review on the local Jazz Review website bebop Spoken Here

We started our Xmas tour around the region with a very enjoyable event at Waitrose in Hexham on 24th of November.

These events allow us to generate income for band funds to help us run the band.

Many thanks to all the kind Waitrose shoppers  their generous donations.

This event also saw us use our brand new PA system for the very first time.

This was purchased using a generous donation from the Waitrose “Music Matters” scheme and is a great asset to the band.