For us it started in March with the London and Southern Counties Regional contest in Stevenage. The band were drawn number 1 in the contest, not always the greatest draw, and hurriedly made our way to the venue. Saints delivered a performance we were pleased with then had a good few hours to sit back, have a listen to some other bands, grab a curry and wait for results.
Well, the wait was worth it, for the first time in the band’s history we were Champion Band in the Second Section of the London and Southern Counties region. Added to this a series of consistent results meant promotion to the First section for 2025, also a first for St Sebs.

With a spring in our step we headed to the Wokingham May Fayre which is always a great gig and enables us to play, albeit through the rain, to the community in our own town. A vibrant occasion and great support from the rather hardy audience.

A trip up to Whit Friday Marches followed where we entertained the crowds lining the streets with Slaid Rock Anthem. A brand-new mix of the first few bars of the traditional march Slaidburn, and the more contemporary Party Rock Anthem. For those unfamiliar with the Whit Friday event, it is a brass band contest which has been held since at least 1870. The format of the event is as follows: bands jump on a coach and head to one of the villages hosting a march contest. The band marches down the street entertaining the crowds before arriving at a contest stage. Here the band plays a contest march and this is adjudicated anonymously by someone based in a caravan or nearby building. After this the band jump back on a coach and repeat as many times as time allows. Saints finished a very creditable 30th when the results were averaged out.

The summer concert returned to a newly refurbished All Saints Church in Wokingham. Having not played a concert there for several years it was a delight to check out the new spacious layout and entertain some audience members that had not experienced a St Sebs concert before. The band gave a run out of our award winning Empress of Ireland entertainment programme as well as a variety of traditional and less traditional brass band repertoire to an appreciative audience. We thoroughly enjoyed the venue and enthusiastic response from the listeners and we will return here in June.

Finally, we had our trip to the National Brass Band Championships in Cheltenham. You can read more about this from our two young percussionists experiencing Cheltenham for the first time. The band performed really well and although we thought we may have come higher up the rankings, 11th best second section band in the country is testament to all the hard work that saints have put in over the year.

We’ve had a little break form contesting and concerts and time to explore some new different repertoire before the busy run of events leading up to Christmas kicks off. Now we get back to work preparing for our forthcoming events.

As ever I would like to thank all the fine musicians for giving up their time and efforts to make St Sebastian Wokingham Band such a great place to be.

And just as importantly we’d all like to thank all our supporters. We hope to see you at some of our next events and please come and say hello.

John
MD St Sebastian Wokingham Band