Our Musical Director takes a look at the year ahead

2017 was a very successful year for the BBB, with 13 performances including village fetes, wedding anniversaries and music festivals. We welcomed new members and tried new styles of music. Most notably, we took on famous Blues Brothers tracks and developed a range of vocal performances with our new star singer Chris Nice (also plays tenor sax). All in all it was a great step forward for the band, and moving into 2018 we're keen to build on successes and not stand still.

Over the last few months, we have been saddened that some key members have stepped down, including Roger Dalby (left in photo). We hope to see Roger back in the band again in future, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank Roger for the hard work he put into the band, both as co-founder and lead guitarist, but even more important - as treasurer! His input, both musically and socially, will be missed.

Bands are always fluid entities and we have been fortunate to be able to find new players to come and join us and ensure that the band maintains a healthy membership, with 26 members playing regularly at present. The challenge over the last few months has been to master a new repertoire of pieces for the season ahead whilst players are joining us for the first time, and the band has really pulled together to make sure new members always receive the support they need. We have been working hard to learn plenty of exciting new scores and all being well will be showcasing 12 new pieces at our big annual concert at Long Clawson in May – but don’t worry we will still have a lot of the old favourites in there too!

Looking at the year ahead I think we are now ready to give some good performances with a range of exciting pieces, both old and new. We have quite a few concerts already booked and a few dates for your diary include: • Sunday 15th April – Belton Horse Trials • Saturday 5th May – Long Clawson Village Hall – an evening with the band • Saturday 30th June – Brothertoft Village Fete • Sunday 15th July – Rempstone Steam Fair