We  had a very successful Xmas fundraising ‘Car Park Tour’ in the run up to Christmas with favourable weather allowing us to play at all our planned Gigs with no cancellations due to snow, hail, rain or excessive wind.

Vallum Farm Christmas FayrePrudhoe CobblesNewcastle Central StationHexham Xmas Farmers MarketGibside Xmas Farmers marketThanks to everyone for turning out in all weathers resplendent in our new ‘winter collection’ Jackets and Beanie hats and for all the generous music lovers who donated spare change into our collection buckets.

We resume rehearsals in January so keep an eye on our calender for details.

We are always keen to welcome new members so why not come along and give us a try.

Rehearsals resume again on Saturday 17th September after our summer break.  We are excited to see the newly rebuilt premises at Prudhoe Community High School and are pleased that we can continue to rehearse there in our usual Saturday morning slot from 9.45 to 11.45.

We are always keen to welcome new members so dust off those instruments and come along. There are no auditions and we are happy to accept all standards of playing.

Just a reminder to all members that the yearly donation/subscription to be a member of the band starts again in September so please see our treasurer Dave Lamb accordingly.

We are playing at Stocksfield Cricket Club in honour of the Queens 90th Birthday today.

Our MD Dave Hignett has already played for the Queen and other members of the royal family at various royal occasions. Rumour has it that the Queen herself may will be attending and bringing her Sword.

Arise Sir Hignett?

The band were invited to play again at this years Hexham Regatta.  Luckily the wind wasn’t quite as strong last year where we narrowly escaped being blown into the Tyne.This historic event has history going back to the clubs founding in 1878 and has a tradition of music being played at the regatta dating back many years.

We had a great new location away from the funfair and a nice cosy tent at this years Northumberland County Show. The weather held off and there was no mud so we had a lovely day.Many thanks to Marg Baillie who kindly forwarded us these excellent photos of the band.

We recently had a very enjoyable and successful with our friends Whittonstall Community Band and Ponteland Community Wind Band held in the memory of John Myers.

Here we see Whittonstall Band with special guest conductor Mr Hignett flown all the way from Hexham to be with us.It was a very poignant evening as we were trying to arrange a similar concert last year when John sadly died. A candle burned on stage all night in his memory.Ponteland band, under the baton of Alastair Lord, closed off the first half with a very entertaining set.The second half of the concert ended with our now traditional massed concert band with a performance of Elgars ‘Nimrod’ played in Johns memory as it was one of his favourite pieces.

Spring has sprung and to mark this we were invited to play in the newly refurbished Bandstand on Hexham Sele as part of celebrations during the annual Spring Fair.

Much merriment was had by all

This weekend we managed to dodge the rain and play our last Gig of the 2015 ‘Car Park’ Tour on our home patch, squeezing into a last minute slot at the monthly Prudhoe Market.Thanks as always to George McCreedy for his ongoing support of the band and to all the generous shoppers who gave donations into our collection buckets over the Xmas period.

We have now broken up for our Xmas break and will resume rehearsals in the New Year. (Watch our web calendar for details of dates)

If anyone is thinking of joining us now is a good time of year as we have next term to rehearse music new and old before heading out and about again in the summer.