SLINFOLD CONCERT BAND

Engagements

History

Contacts

CD

The band was originally formed in 1978 by John Reed and consisted of just five players, all performing on brass instruments. John's idea was to keep alive the tradition of village bands and those early players were mostly beginners living in Slinfold village. Weekly rehearsals were held in John's dining room and he was responsible for writing the arrangements and parts, conducting the band and carting all the gear around!

From those humble beginnings the band has grown in size to fifty players, many of whom travel considerable distances to get to rehearsals and engagements. In addition to brass players there are now woodwind, percussion, keyboard and guitar, thereby forming the present Concert Band status.

Since 1991 the band has been privileged to have Malcolm Gay as its Musical Director. Malcolm lives in Woking and trained originally as a military bandsman, becoming a soloist on clarinet and saxophone. Later he went on to study conducting and arranging at the famous Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall. 

Under Malcolm`s expert and enthusiastic leadership the band plays a wide variety of music ranging from Mozart to Glenn Miller, from Bach to Big Band. Malcolm is continuously adding new arrangements to our library and they include well known tunes from the big musicals, TV themes, light classics, some military marches and even numbers from the pop charts.

The band plays numerous public engagements including The Pantiles Tunbridge Wells, Eastbourne Bandstand, Charterhouse, QEII Cruise-liner, Electric Theatre Guildford, Cranleigh Arts Centre and many town bandstands.

In the past the band has made short tours to play in France, Germany and Holland.