A great end to the year – and now onwards to 2016!
December is always a busy month for bands and we certainly had plenty to keep us occupied! Our ever-popular Christmas concert at St Paul’s, with it’s mix of Christmas favourites, sing-a-long carols and the much loved (apparently!) ukulele band accompanying the interval mulled wine and minced pies, was a great success and a wonderful ‘official’ end to our year.
However, if you were in Chichester City Centre or at Tesco during December, you may also have come across our hardy carolling ‘teams’ entertaining the shoppers right up to Christmas Eve. It’s great fun for us, and we especially love to see the kids singing along to Jingle Bells and Rudoph! But it is also an important way for us to earn some much needed money towards our annual upkeep – so thanks to all of your who supported us…it really does make a difference.
Outside the city centre, we were also thrilled to be invited to participate in a carol service for around 500 members of the armed forces stationed on Thorney Island. It was a great morning, with some wonderful singing (and perhaps the most enthusiastic rendition of ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ we’ve heard to date!)
Check out our Gallery to see photos of the band in action December. But for now the carol books and Christmas music have all been put away for another year, and our preparation for the contest season is already underway. So it just remains for us to say a BIG THANK YOU to all of our supporters, and to wish you a wonderful 2016 (during which we hope to see you at a few of our events – the diary is already filling up so check it out!)
HAPPY NEW YEAR from everyone at Chichester City Band!
Got your Christmas concert tickets yet?
Don’t miss out on the annual event of the season! Great music – with refreshments thrown in! And of course a top raffle!
Christmas starts here!
Check out our diary pages for some great opportunities to see us around Chichester. Join us for our Christmas concert on Friday 11th December at St Paul’s Church, Churchside. But if you can’t wait until then, head to Chichester city centre on Thursday 26th November for the Christmas lights switch on – we’ll be joining with the Chichester Community Choir to lead the carol singing. The on Sunday 29th November, head down to the Chichester Canal basin to see us as part of their lights switch on event (including Santa and a flotilla of sparkling little boats, with hot chestnuts and mulled wine). Full details and web links to these events are on our diary pages.
A great ‘night in Vienna’ – but there’s another chance to see us at the Regis Centre if you missed it!
Check out our Diary pages for more info.
Planning for the future
This week, our chairman, Howard Smith, was interviewed by the Chichester Observer. Watch the video to hear about our 5-year plans…
Summer is nearly over…
…but there’s still plenty going on!
We had a wonderful final summer outing at the Weald and Downland Vintage and Steam Fair – but the good news is that the autumn season is starting already! We’re working towards the SCABA autumn contest in Crawley (Sunday 13th September) and we have one more outdoor playout at Chichester Cross (11am-1.30pm on Saturday 26th September). But we still have time to prepare for our next concert – A Night in Vienna – a toe-tapping evening of waltzes, polkas, marches – anything with a Viennese flavour. Get on your glad rags and join us! More information on our Diary of Event page…
July may be over and we’ve got a couple of weeks’ rest, but we’ll pick up again on 15th August at the Weald and Downland Museum Vintage and Steam Festival (playing 3.30-4.30pm). Definitely worth a visit. (See our Diary page to find out more.)
Summer is here – a busy June for the band!
June 19th 2015: We’re in the middle of a really event-filled period right now. June kicked off with a great day at Stansted Park for The Garden Show, then we had a busy weekend around the lovely village of Singleton: our 10-piece ensemble played for a graduation ceremony in the amazing Gridshell at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum, followed next day by a lovely sunny afternoon at Singleton Fete. We started the weekend well playing at a fundraiser for the Midhurst Museum (a wonderful place if you get the chance – probably the smallest museum you’ll ever visit! Midhurst Museum website)
The month will end with two Armed Forces Day events – firstly playing on Bognor Seafront for the annual celebration (Sunday 21st June from 9.30) then our own Armed Forces Day concert at the Regis Centre (Bognor) on Saturday 27th (7.30pm).
Find out more about what’s going on this summer on our ‘Diary’ page.
Busy June – and busy July to come!
June was a busy month – very enjoyable, and with a bit of a ‘floral’ theme! Firstly we played at the Chichester Cathedral Festival of Flowers, where the wonderful displays had an ‘arts and artists’ theme. We then went visited Stansted Park for the annual Garden Show – slightly damp in places (but that’s the British summer for you!).
We finished the month with an ‘Oscar Night’ themed summer concert, our annual contribution to the Festival of Chichester. During the concert we were very pleased to be able to present Life Vice President awards to two of our great supporters and friends – Cllr Anne Scicluna and Mr Stan Gillett.
July is shaping up to be even more busy – please see our Diary of Events page to see what we’re up to.
‘The Garden Show’ at Stansted Park
June 6th 2015: The band played for the Saturday opening of The Garden Show in the beautiful setting of Stansted Park on the Hampshire-Sussex border. The rain stayed away as the crowds flocked in to sample the horticultural delights and garden-themed events. A new venue for us but one we certainly hope to visit again – a really enjoyable day!
An afternoon at Slindon fete
May 23rd 2015: The rain stayed away for our first fete of the season (and the first outing for our new summer shirts!). A lovely afternoon in the grounds of Slindon College, always a great start to the summer season!
Iona triumphs again!
Solo cornet, Iona Harrison, took the ‘Best Soloist’ prize in our section at the recent SCABA Entertainments contest (Sunday May 17th) – the second time in recent years she has walked off with the cup! The adjudicator, like the rest of us, was clearly impressed with her beautiful performance of Massenet’s Meditation from Thais. Well done Iona!
Iona Harrison takes Best Soloist prize at SCABA Entertainments 2015
Iona Harrison takes Best Soloist prize at SCABA Entertainments 2015
Summer is here – a busy June for the band!
Where did June go?!
Well, we promised you a busy June – we’ve been out every weekend, mostly twice! Starting with Stansted Park Garden Show on June 6th, we’ve been to the Weald and Downland (ensemble at the Masters Degree graduation), Singleton Fete and Bognor Regis (twice!) for Armed Forces Day (21 June) and then our own AFD concert (27 June). See our June 2015 gallery for some pictures.
July is already off to a great start with our Summer Concert at St Paul’s (more on that soon!)
Music from Stage and Screen (and that was just for starters…)
Just about half way through July and it’s already been a busy month, starting with ‘A Night with the Stars: Music from Stage and Screen’ – the theme of our annual summer concert at St Paul’s in Chichester. Part of the Festival of Chichester for the third year running, we entertained an enthusiastic audience with some old favourites (Great Escape, Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Singing in the Rain and Over the Rainbow – a lovely horn solo from Mary Teague) as well as some more recent film and TV themes (Pirates of the Caribbean, Game of Thrones). We turned to the musicals for a lovely duet for cornet (Derek Price) and flugel (Pete McGovern) – I know Him So Well from Chess. And we also had another chance to hear Iona Harrison give her beautiful rendition of Meditation from Massenet’s opera, Thais. We won’t talk about the ukulele interlude (!) but it seems it was quite popular and may be back…
But that was just the start of July – the following weekend saw our ensemble in the beautiful Old Rectory Gardens for the Felpham Conservation Society fete, with the full band back in action again the following day in a slightly soggy Tangmere – a rather luxurious marquee meant we could keep going in some style!
This weekend we’re taking a rest but we’ll be back in action next weekend in Sidlesham (where we hope to regain our Tug of War crown) and Selsey for the RNLI service. Don’t forget to keep checking our ‘Diary of Events’ pages to see where we’ll be next…
And so July is almost over…
The final weekend of a very busy July was a lovely mix of fun and celebration. Our annual trip to Sidlesham Fete on Saturday was tremendous fun – the weather was great, the cream teas were delicious and the tug of war – well, the less said about that the better! (Let’s just say we’ll have to go back next year to get our revenge…)
A weekend of contrasts, Sunday dawned wet and windy – and the annual Selsey RNLI Service of Praise and Thanksgiving on Lifeboat Green had to be moved indoors for the first time since we’ve been playing for them. But St Peter’s Church turned out to be a beautiful alternative, and the full house with everyone in fine voice made for a very successful service.
We had a fantastic ‘Night in Vienna’ at the Selsey Centre on October 24th. A full house joined the band for an evening of waltzes, polkas and marches. And the band even dressed up for the occasion…
But if you missed that one, don’t worry as we’ve managed to sneak in an extra date for the diary. Catch us on November 15th (3-5pm) at the Regis Centre (Alexander Theatre), Bognor Regis. A great way to spend a chilly autumn afternoon. (Tickets £10/£8).
Help us raise funds while you shop!
We’ve set up a fund-raising page using Give as you Live, a fund raising website that directs a proportion of online spend to your chosen charity. See our new page for more details.
Festival of Chichester launch day
The band was invited to perform at a kick off day for the 2015 Festival of Chichester, with ‘tasters’ of various events being performed in St John’s Chapel, a lovely venue tucked away just south of East St. We only had a short slot, so rather than try to scramble the whole band, we sent a quartet to play a short set. We had fun, and we’re now looking forward to the Festival starting in June. Loads of good stuff, including our own summer concert on Saturday 4th July (St Paul’s, Churchside – see our Diary page for more info)
On Saturday April 25th at 7.30pm we’ll be performing a concert at the Jeneses Community Arts Centre in Bognor Regis. It’s not only an impressive church complex, but is also where we meet twice a week to rehearse. So please come and see us at home!
‘At home’ for our Spring Concert
Tickets available on the door or contact chichestercityband@gmail.com to reserve
We’ve changed our email address!
We’re changing our contact email from immediate effect to chichestercityband@gmail.com – the old contact email (secretary@chicityband.co.uk) will work until the end of May, but please start using the new one to get in touch!
More ways to find out where we’re playing…
We’ve updated our events listing for 2015 – lots of places to see us (and some more yet to be confirmed). And it’s now easier to find our events:
- Check what’s coming up soon in the events panel to the right
- Look at our new ‘Diary of events’ – a searchable listing of all of our confirmed dates in the menu bar above. (You can still find the month by month calendar underneath the Diary)
We’ll be adding more events (including some appearances in Chichester City centre) through the year, so keep checking back…
A good run up to the Areas!
It’s always a good idea to play out a test piece before contest day – and we were given the opportunity to do so at the Chichester Festival of Music, Dance and Speech. The band was delighted to come away with not one, but two pieces of silverware – the Robert Hall Challenge Cup and The Mayor’s Trophy for best ensemble!
The Chichester City Training band is back!
Have you ever wanted to learn a brass instrument? Are your children learning already but would benefit from some additional expert tuition? Or maybe you used to play and would like to find a way back in to banding? If your answer to any of these questions is ‘yes’ then the Chichester City Training Band could be for you.
Starting on Thursday 26th February, 2015, we are inviting anyone in the local area to have a go at learning to play a brass instrument. Open to all young and older students who would like to learn to play a brass or percussion instrument, no previous experience is needed – just your enthusiasm to attend a weekly training band rehearsal for one hour and a commitment to practice at home during the week. (We can supply an instrument to get you started.) Additional lessons can also be arranged.
CCTB Musical Director: Alan Rodger ALCM LLCM (TD) MISM
Alan has coached and directed brass and concert bands in the West Sussex area over the last 10 years. He is a visiting brass teacher at the Midhurst Rother College and other Primary Schools in West Sussex, as well as Musical Director of the newly formed Midhurst Schools Concert Band. He will be supported by experience members of Chichester City Band.
When: Thursdays during term time, 6.45-7.45pm
Where: Jeneses Community Arts Centre, 45 Linden Road, Bognor Regis, PO21 2AS [codepeople-post-map]
Come along any Thursday for a taster session!
For further information contact:
- Alan Rodger 07791 192649
- Howard Smith (Chairman, Chichester City Band) at tubaarmy@gmail.com
- Email: chichestercityband@gmail.com
January 2015 – and the diary is already filling fast!
We’ve already had our first concert of the year – a successful Italian evening for the Friends of Ravenna (one of Chichester’s twin cities). But the rest of the year is already filling up. Check out our calendar pages to see what we’re up to in 2015.
Our summer (4th July) and Christmas (11th December) concerts are already booked at St Paul’s, Churchside. The fetes are already filling up and we will be planning to play out in the City as often as we can. So please come and see us whenever you can!
Italian Night
Happy New Year to you all! It’s a chilly start to the year so perhaps you could do with something to remind you of warmer sunnier times? Many of you may know that Chichester is twinned with a number of beautiful European cities, one of which is the city of Ravenna in north east Italy. Chichester has a twinning group – the ‘Friends of Ravenna’ – which meets monthly, with activities including meetings with an Italian theme, biennial exchange visits, Italian conversation groups and cross-cultural projects. (More information can be found on their website http://www.chi-ravenna.org.uk/)
We are delighted to be partnering with the Friends to put on an evening of Italian entertainment at our regular concert venue, St Paul’s, Churchside. It will take place on Friday 16th January at 7.30pm. Tickets are available on the door but to help with catering please let us know if you would like to come. Please see booking details in the attached, or email ‘secretary@chicityband.co.uk’ to reserve.
