Concert - 12th July

Brunel Brass performing at Christ Church Swindon

Back by popular demand, the West of England 4th Section Champions are performing in Swindon to raise money to allow the band to represent Swindon at the National Finals in Harrogate later this year.

The band will be playing a wide selection of popular and some more traditional music and would be more than pleased to see you there.

The Concert Starts at 7.30 pm.
Tickets are £5 and £4 concessions.

Brunel Brass to Compete at the National Championships

Brunel Brass set for Harrogate after a win at the South West 'Area' Contest

After a long period of preparation and a lot of hard work the band competed at 2008 West of England Regional Championships held at the Riviera International Conference Centre, Torquay.

Brunel Brass triumphant after winning at Torquay in 2008 - Image kindly provided and copyright of Swindon Evening Advertiser

The band had an early start leaving Swindon at 6am to make a final rehearsal at 9am in Torquay, hoping that the band would have a more favourible draw than last years number 1, the band waited in trepidation for the results of the draw; finally the phonecall came in with the band drawn a comfortable 7th already the day was starting to have a good feel about it!

The band made their way to the Riviera centre after what had been a good rehearsal unusually the section was running early so it was with a quick change and in a flash that the band were registered and queued up listening to what sounded like a good performance from Wincanton through the doors into the contest arena. Wincanton finished their performance and the band got into position, calmed their nerves and the whisle blew. No start just yet though as the band waited for what seemed an age whilst the percussion assistants tuned the timps. Eventually the timps were tuned, one last deep breath, the baton dropped and the band gave their performance of Four Cities Symphony. Pleased with their performance the band waited for the remaining 13 bands to perform before the results were announced.

After the section, the band gathered and waited for the adjudicators to make their final deliberations and collate the paperwork. With results announced from 6th to 1st position the process is always a nerve racking experience and this time we knew we had played well, the results were announced Weymouth 6th, Shanklin 5th, Bream 4th, Totnes 3rd, Wincanton 2nd. We had heard Wincanton earlier they had been good still no mention of Brunel could we have beaten them? The tension amongst the band was incredible, could we be 1st, what if we were 7th? And then it came, "... and in first place, with a cheque for 200, the winners trophy and an invitation to compete at the National Championships in Harrogate with 185 points Brunel Brass!" With that came a sigh of relief and a unanimous cheer from the band. We had done it and the hard work had paid off. What a result we had won!!

This year we had a reputation to live up to ... Here's what the Brass Band press had to say about us before we played.

Quoting 4 Bars Rest
"What a tremendous debut last year for Brunel – and all off the number 1 draw if we remember right."
"There was plenty to admire about their playing and given the size of the field they could count themselves a touch unlucky they didn’t get to Harrogate. Still, a year later they return and after winning at Wessex last year they should fancy their chances – draw permitting."
"Who will win though? A couple of bands do stand out for us with Brunel Brass our tip if they have built on their impressive debut last year."

Quoting 4 Bars Rest Retrospective analysis
"Playing number 7, Brunel Brass turned out to be head and shoulders above the rest on Saturday, winning by a two point margin to take the Fourth Section title for 2008."
"In many contests people have varying opinions on who the real winners deserved to be, but in this particular contest nobody could have really argued with the result – the band really did play very, very well." more...

Brunel Brass Win Their First Contest

Brunel Brass competed in the Combined section of the Wessex Brass Band Association contest held in November 2007 at the Pavillion Theatre in Weymouth.
The band played Darrol Barry's Divertimento and were pleased to achieve their first win less than 12 months after the formation of the band.

Competing in the 4th section nationally, the band were competing against bands graded in the section above them and were especially pleased to have beaten 3rd section Verwood to the top prize.

With a positive result under their belt the band are looking forward to Christmas engagements and will begin their work on the area test piece Four Cities Symphony

Brunel Brass are Back by Popular Demand

Following a number of enquiries after the success of the band's inaugural concert at Bath Road Methodist Church on 29th July Brunel Brass hosted a second concert at Bath Road Methodist Church on Saturday 29th September.

The band were joined by members of the Janice Thompson school who entertained the audience alongside the band. The evening was a huge success with the Church almost full to the brim with what can only be described as a fantastic audience.

Stay tuned for details of further concerts and engagements via our Events Page

Brunel Brass - Inaugural Concert - 30th June 2007

Following on from their recent contesting success, Brunel Brass are hosting their inaugural concert at Bath Road Methodist Church in Swindon, the event is open to all and tickets are £5 and £4 concessions and available on the door or via the Contacts Page

We are very pleased to welcome Ray Dance and Judith Sharpe to perform with us at the concert who will be providing entertainment along side the band.

So why not come along and listen to a quality performance at this the major milestone concert hosted by the "Newest Brass Band in Swindon".

Brunel Brass - Placed 4th at Weston Super-Mare Contest

Brunel Brass have just competed in the long awaited Weston Super Mare contest achieving a very respectable 4th place, the band played Philip Sparke's 'A Malvern Suite' and put in a very solid performance. After an extremely early start, the band produced a quality of sound that the was amazing with the band having progressed in leaps and bounds since it's last performance at the 'Areas'. Unfortunately a combination of nerves and the early start lead to a couple of mistakes on the day that the band had not suffered from previously during rehearsals, this meant that the band just missed out on the prize fund but were still over the moon with the result especially having beaten the current Welsh 4th section champions at the competition!
The band are now working hard to prepare their programme for their forthcoming concert at Bath Road Methodist church on 30th June 

Find out all of the results at 4 Bars Rest Click Here to See All Sections Results