What a wonderful way to celebrate the Jubilee: playing on the stage at the Rowde Jubilee Picnic for an hour long set. We tailored our music to the event with various marches and royal tunes (including a Queen medley and Duke Ellington), finishing with the National Anthem.

The playing field was packed with locals enjoying the various stalls and entertainment scheduled throughout the afternoon. Many thanks to Cllr A Humphreys for permitting us to use their photo of the band (originally posted on the Rowde Village website).

The third concert of 2021 for Chippenham Town Band involved a fair journey to a beautiful Plaza at the Centre Parcs near Longleat. For the occasion we focused on military style music including various marches as well as some swing classics. There was the traditional pause at 11 with the Last Post resonating throughout the Dome (see photo).

We also played a “Marching Through The Movies” medley which surprised the audience when we started with whistling part of the Colonel Bogey March. Thankfully the rest of the piece involves our more traditional wind instruments!

The mix of solemn music such as “Nimrod” (from Enigma Variations) and the “Theme from Schindler’s List”, with striking tunes including “The Dam Busters”, “Thunderbirds” and “Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines” seemed perfect for the morning and the audience seemed to appreciate the live music.

We are hoping to return to this location on Christmas Eve for festive carols!

Our second concert of 2021 and the honour of closing the bandstand season at John Coles Park, Chippenham. It was wonderful to see so many people in the park (including friends and family of band members); we even had a few requests we were able to play!

For such a brilliant day we bizarrely ended up playing a lot of songs that include the letter “B”: Barnard Castle, Birth of the Blues, Beach Boys (medley), Abba (medley), Basin Street Blues and Embraceable You!

We played a variety of music; around 20 pieces in total consisting of a march, various songs, theme tunes, a hymn and we ended with the national anthem. My personal favourite of the bunch was “Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines” although it was a delight to have a few pieces that included solos showcasing the different instruments: trombone (Basin Street Blues), alto saxophone (Embraceable You) and clarinet (My Way).

Hopefully we will return to the bandstand in May 2022!

Our final music played in 2019 (22nd December); a 2 hour set towards the exit at Morrisons where we performed festive tunes as well as more traditional carols.

Christmas hats (and antlers) were worn in the spirit of the season and many shoppers stopped by on their way out of the store.

Donations were collected in separate tubs for the Wiltshire Air Ambulance (https://www.wiltshireairambulance.co.uk/ ) and also for Chippenham Town Band (to help fund our rehearsals).

We played a 2 hour set at Morrisons near the exit (our band was too big to fit in the foyer!) Many a shopper enjoyed the tunes which ranged from music such as Jingle Bells and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, to traditional carols (Away In A Manger, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, O Come All Ye Faithful to name but a few). We only just reached the end of the carol book and were able to repeat a few of our favourites.

Donations were collected for our charity; this carol set was supporting BLISS: for babies born premature or sick (https://www.bliss.org.uk/).

Some of the band even wore festive jumpers or Christmas hats to mark the occasion and all were in festive spirit. If you missed us, please pop by on Sunday 22nd December when we will be playing in the afternoon.