News

April 2008	We are very pleased to announce that Steve Earley has been appointed our new Musical Director!
March 2008	2008 London & Southern Counties Regional Championship Venue - Stevenage Gordon Craig Theatre This year's area contest was the band's last with Simon Jones as our MD. Many thanks go to Simon who has put a lot of work into the band since he started conducting us in December 2005. Maybe the area result isn't the one to remember - but our result of 4th at Leicester reflects the time and effort both Simon and the band have put in. What will we do without the chopstick and your 'ickle stories about squirrels Simon? :-)
January 2008	Butlins Mineworkers Open National Brass Band Festival 2008 - The band made their annual pilgrimage to Skegness to take part in the 2008 contest in January. Although we didn't get the result we hoped for, most of the band stayed for the weekend and a great time was had by all. With stacks to do from the fairground, to crazy golf, bowling to the musical entertainment, meeting up with friends and of course the bar, it was one to remember.
January 2008	The Royston Town Band has been awarded £500 from the Saffron Building Society's donation programme - Band Treasurer Brian Edwards said: "The money donated by the society will make a real difference." The cash will be used to pay towards the costs of re-surfacing the floor of the bandroom, Society chief executive Andy Golding described the 150 year-old town band as very much part of the community and said that they were delighted to be able to donate money to such a worthy cause. The society's donation programme is designed to support worthy causes in the area in a bid to empower groups to help in their community.
Christmas 2007	December was a very busy time for the band with several Christmas engagements. The month started with a concert for the Royston Christmas Carnival, and this was followed by two enjoyable concerts at the Royston Golf Club and the Royston branch of the British Legion. In addition to the concerts the band also played carols in the town centre and at Royston Tesco. On Friday 21 December several members of the band went around the local pubs in Royston playing carols. We received a good reception in all the venues with free drinks and generous donations from the public. On the 23 December the band had its main Christmas concert in the Town Hall where we played to a full house and the band raised a lot of money for our chosen Christmas charity. Every year the band chooses a local charity to support in the run up to Christmas and for 2007 we decided to collect for the Garden House Hospice in Letchworth. With the money from the Christmas concert and the donations from our carol playing, Royston Town Band raised £1000. The committee would like to thank band members for all their hard work during December and all the friends and guest players that helped us out. Paul Skerry 7/1/2008
November 2007	Leicestershire Brass Band Association Open Contest, Sunday 18th November 2007 Venue - Guthlaxton College, Wigston, Leicestershire At 8.00am on the 18th November the band set off for Wigston to take part in the Leicestershire Brass Band Association contest for the first time. Everyone arrived safely, although we were all a bit wet as it started raining on the journey and stayed that way for the rest of the day. It took us a while to all meet up as the venue is a large six form college based on a rabbit warren, then there was a bit of a delay before we could get into our allotted changing room. Thankfully we had plenty of time as the fourth section was pre-drawn and we were band number 5. This gave people time to get that all important bacon butty, to look around the trade stands, and for Graham to tell anyone who would listen that he sells a lot of the things at half the price they were charging! We were not allowed to play our instruments in the changing room so we had to go over to the showers for a warm-up, which everyone enjoyed. Simon then pointed out that it was important to keep breathing once on the stage. This is an excellent piece of advice for any nervous musician (or anyone that wants to continue living for that matter). This was followed by registration during which time there were a worrying few minutes while Simon tried to locate our drummer who had disappeared. We all then squeezed onto the rather small contest stage to give our performance of Celtic Suite by Philip Sparke. This is regarded as a third section test piece so had been a good challenge for the band. We had spent the last two months looking at the music and a lot of hard work had been done by everyone in the band at home and at rehearsals. Although there were a few nerves, the whole band played well and there were some good contributions from our soloists. The audience seemed to appreciate our performance of this demanding test piece and everyone was positive as we came off stage. We had to wait some time before the results were announced as there were another 9 bands to play, so some of us found a pub where we sampled the local ale. When the results came in, we were very happy to be placed 4th out of 14 bands with 175 points. There were some encouraging and constructive comments from the adjudicator and, although we were just outside the prizes, this was a good result for the band and our best result for some years. We are now looking to build on this result as we work on Lydian Pictures by Simon Dobson for the Butlins contest in Skegness in January 2008. A big thank you to Simon for all his hard work in conducting the band, to Lisa for her excellent organization and keeping us all in order, and to Alan and Eddie for helping us out on soprano and kit respectively. Paul Skerry 19/11/2007
September 2007	Thanks to everyone who helped to organise the 3rd Royston Picnic in the Park this year. Royston Town Band, CSD (Cambridge) Band, Ware Brass and Cottenham Band all performed a short programme followed by a massed band session. The weather held out for us and the audience seemed to very much enjoy their day out in the park.
January 2007	Once again an enjoyable weekend was spent at Butlins in Skegness. Entertainment this year included the international trombone quartet ‘Bones Apart’ of which Becky Smith is a member, Becky learnt to play in the Royston Town Band and still joins us on occasions throughout the year.
January 2007	A cheque for £500 was presented to MAGPAS, this money was raised over the Christmas period but playing concerts and carolling.
June 2006	Welcome to new member Melanie. Katie also moved up to the main band on Trombone this month, she has been with the junior band since February.
19th March 2006	We were delighted to be able to compete in the Area Contest at Stevenage this year. The band achieved 9th place out of 25 competing bands.
21st January 2006	The band enjoyed a weekend at Butlins in Skegness for the National Mineworkers Contest. Butlins had put on a great programme of events for the weekend including the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Royston Band achieved 6th Place in the competition.
April 2006	This month we said a sad goodbye to The Clarke Family who have moved to Spain. Matthew was a baritone player with the band and his Mum, Chris was learning to play Horn in our Adult Learners Band. The band played at their leaving party, wishing them well with a rendition of Y Viva Espana.
February 2006	A cheque for £900 was presented to the Ichthyosis Support Group, the money was raised by the band over the Christmas period. Every year we choose a different local charity to support at Christmas. We chose this charity as there are two young girls who live in Royston who suffer from this rare skin condition. The money will be going towards research into the condition.
December 2005	We are delighted to announce that Simon Jones has accepted the position of Musical Director of the band.
Christmas 2005	Once again we had a successful and enjoyable festive season. The band were busy entertaining the residents of Royston playing carols in the town, outside Tesco and also on a pub crawl. A traditional carol concert was played in Royston Town Hall, with guest appearance by Father Christmas and also a Church Carol Service in Heydon (a local village). A lively evening was had at Royston Golf Clubs Christmas party. And a favourite of many band members was the Nativity Play at Eversden, complete with a real donkey. On Christmas morning we played carols for Royston Hospital and Richard Cox Nursing Home, joining us were several ex band members who were back in the area for the festive season.
15th October 2005	Music from Films and Shows Reunion Concert was a very successful event. More than 40 players performed in the concert of past and present members of the band. Also, in the audience were several ex-members who played in the band in their youth. During the evening Brian Edwards was presented with a gift and the position of Honorary Life President of the band having completed over 63 years service. The evening concluded with drinks in a local hotel which gave us a chance to catch up with ex-members of the band, some of which we hadn’t seen for many years.
November 2005	Adult Learners Band was launched this month.
4th November 2005	A new member has arrived! Molly was born to Lisa and JJ who both play in the band. Molly’s seat on cornet has already been reserved! We hope that she will be musical as she is the 4th generation of a family of band members.
14th August 2005	This summer's social event was a barbecue, a great afternoon was enjoyed by all. A few enjoyed it a bit too much and one member had a bit of a sore head and didn’t make it to work the next day!! Thanks go to Derek and Judy for hosting the event.
16th June 2005	We once again spent an enjoyable weekend with our friends from the Grossalmerode Musikzug when we visited Royston’s Twin Town in Germany. This weekend was the Heimat Fest which is a big celebration weekend. We took part in the carnival parade marching through the town, played lots of concerts and participated in lots of social activities involving schnapps and beer!