Remembrance

First sorry not to have posted for quite a while, since getting back from our short holiday things have been quite frantic, work has been busy which is of course something of a relieve as the winter draws closer, but there also seems to have been an awful lot on with other commitments, not least rehearsals for my various bands and orchestras.

This morning the Croydon Brass Band played for the remembrance service on HMS Belfast, she is a second world war cruiser, now permanently moored on the Thames between Tower Bridge and London Bridge. As part of the Imperial War Museum and home of the London Sea Cadets this service does not warrant a full Marines Band so Croydon have been playing for it for at least 30 years now. Although I have played many times this is the first year I have conducted the Band for this service. Over the last few years I was getting a little worried that we were beginning to take the whole thing a little casually, we have been playing the same selection as long as I can remember and maybe not very well recently. So this year I made a few changes to the pieces and rehearsed what we were to play.

HMS Belfast

There was an excellent attendance at the service, and I think the Band played at their best. The ceremony was very moving, and this was enhanced by two of our cornet players doing an excellent job of the last post and reveille. After the service I received many favorable comments from members of the congregation, all in all a very encouraging morning.