Loughborough Concert Band

Our concert in the tiny and very picturesque Church of St James was very well attended by an audience of music enthusiasts.

Their enjoyment of live music came through even when the very serious reason for the concert was raised. A volunteer from the Motor Neurone Disease Association told us how any money raised on the night would be spent: in training volunteers, in giving grants to help the sufferers and their families and in funding research in the attempts to find a cure.

St James’ congregation had chosen this as their charity for 2023 since one of their members was dying from MND but fortunately lived long enough to know they were fundraising in this cause. At the time of writing the amount raised is not known. However, due to the very generous sponsorship of Charterhouse Holdings, every penny donated would go to the charity.

The band’s programme was as varied as ever including the Standard of St George and Highlights from the Pink Panther, Royal Review and Memory. Our compere, Eddie Pearson, tried to convince us that Jurassic Park should more properly be called Cretaceous Park but, sorry Eddie, no-one seemed convinced.

We were lucky to gain the services of deps Leo Burton and Thomas Ward on trumpet and Andrew Haworth on tuba and luckier still in that the concert organisers provided canapes. So, a message to the lovely deps – we’re not often fed!

UPDATE 21/05/2023: This concert raised  £868. Huge congratulations to everyone at Normanton-on-Soar who worked so hard to raise this fantastic amount, well done to all players and to Dave Coble espcially who led us so well at a difficult time.