We had a “blow out the cobwebs and have some fun” rehearsal this evening and ‘eased’ into the new year with light touch run throughs of Suite Gothique, The Padstow Lifeboat, Spectrum and Mephistopheles. 

​Band Chairman, Kevin, who led this evening’s rehearsal, reflecting on 2024 said: “A good year for the Lydney Band organisation. We will try our hardest to make 2025 even more fun.”

As we reach the end of 2024, we would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and extend our thanks for the ongoing support we have from across the local community and beyond. This year has been one of continued development and success across Lydney Town Band, Lydney Training Band and the Lydney Starter Group!

Throughout 2024, the Town Band proudly represented Lydney on the contesting stage, achieving our first outright contest win in over twenty years at the Wychavon Festival of Brass, taking Third Place in the Third Section of the WEBBA Regional Championships in March and qualifying for the National Championships of Great Britain, and retaining the Best Percussion Section Award at the GBBA Own Choice Contest.

Our fabulous Training Band also returned to the GBBA Own Choice Contest in November, winning their section and retaining their Gold Standard Award. The Starter Group has continued to provide the ideal onboarding point for aspiring musicians and in Spring, undertook a showcase tour of the area's residential homes. Players from both groups also enjoyed success at the Bailey Lane End Festival during the summer! We were also able to celebrate the enormous contribution that Roger and Ken Powell have made to the Training Band and Starter Group, when the pair were shortlisted for the Brass Bands England 2024 Services to Youth Award.

Special shout outs go to the team that undertook the Severn Bridge 10k and the Portishead 10k to help raise money for new instruments; to Louise and Matt for brilliantly portraying the protagonists of our Wychavon entry: The Tale of the Princess and the Dragon, as well as Adrian for his deft trombone work at the story's climatic finale; to the Town Band's Musical Director, Thomas Dunne, for his incredible work in helping us achieve our contesting successes; and to Kevin and Kerry Ford for all of their hard work in the continuing development of the Training Band!
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Onwards to 2025!!!

We’ve ended our epic 2024 Christmas carolling season on home turf, bringing some last minute festive cheer to the customers of Tesco Lydney!
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Many thanks to everyone who has donated, said hello, sang along and even taken a turn conducting our ensembles. A big shout out to our incredible collectors, ensemble conductors and the people working behind the scenes to bring everything together across the Lydney Starter Group, Lydney Training Band and Lydney Town Band!

We’ve had one heck of a Christmas epic this weekend!

On Friday evening, a small Town Band ensemble brought some festive entertainment to The Huntsman Hotel in Shirenewton. On Saturday, we had an ensemble of Lydney Town and Training Band players take a turn on the stage at the Taurus Crafts’ Christmas market and today, we’ve had a two Town Band ensembles bringing festive cheer to the shoppers of Monmouth Waitrose, before this evening Lydney Training Band performed at the St Mary’s Church Christmas Carol Service! (Thanks to Rich and Ian for some of these great photos!)

Only three days until Christmas!

Only one week to go until Christmas! We started this week with some more community carolling, visiting Primrose Hill and Lychgate Mews on Monday evening! Shout out to Kerry, Richard and Tim for these great photos and to Beth for her incredible outfit!
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Next up! On Thursday, we will be appearing at the Carols at the Bandstand event in Bathurst Park, starting at 4:30pm. There will be mince pies, mulled wine and a special appearance from the Lydney Gospel Choir!

We’ve had a very busy second half of the week - on Wednesday, we took a festive tour of Lydney’s residential homes visiting Goode Court and Rodley House; on Saturday we had a double feature with a Town Band ensemble playing at the Brockweir & Hewelsfield Play Area and Lydney Training Band returning to perform with Chepstow Male Voice Choir’s Christmas concert; and today, we had two teams spreading Christmas joy at Tesco in Chepstow!
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Only ten days to go until Christmas!!!

We’ve got another busy weekend ahead! 

One highlight you won’t want to miss is going to be the Chepstow Male Voice Choir Christmas Concert on Saturday, where Lydney Training Band will be performing and helping to spread the festive cheer. This is always a really well supported event and this year, the choir will be joined by two fabulous guest singers! If you’re available, it would be amazing to see you there

​Despite the best and worst that Storm Darragh could throw at us this weekend, the band played on!
We had an ensemble of players braving the elements on Saturday and bringing some festive cheer to the shopper of Tesco Lydney. On Sunday, Lydney Town Band were welcomed back to the Mount of Olives Church, Coleford for their Christmas Carol Concert!

This weekend, Lydney Town Band will be returning to the Mount of Olives Church, for our annual Christmas concert, which will feature brand new arrangements of two much loved Christmas classics alongside all your favourite carols and festive tunes! Entry is free and the festivities start at 4pm
Here’s a couple of photos from Wednesday evening when we had two teams bringing festive cheer to the residents of Primrose Hill and to the Severn View Inn

You may remember that a few months ago, we said a fond farewell to Ben, ahead of his joining the Royal Marines. Last week, Ben celebrated his passing out ceremony and also in attendance was fellow Lydney Town Band alumnus: Daryl Powell!

Thanks so much to Sam for this marvellous photo of the pair of them

​First weekend of Christmas activities - COMPLETE!
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Lydney Training Band brought some festive musical cheer to the Lydney Lights Switch-On on Saturday! We also had ensembles of Town and Training Band players (plus some helpers - thanks Julia and Duncan!) performing in Monmouth, Taurus Crafts and Primrose Hill School!!!

The Lydney Town and Training Band Christmas Schedule is here!

On Sunday 8th December, Lydney Town Band will returning to the Mount of Olives Church, Coleford for their Christmas Concert. On Saturday 14th December, the Chepstow Male Voice Choir have kindly invited Lydney Training Band to perform as part of their annual Christmas Concert. The Training Band will also be perfroming at the St Mary's Church Christmas Carol Service, in Lydney, on Sunday 22nd!

We’ve also got loads of opportunities to see us at our community carolling sessions! It's going to be a busy one and we can't wait to see as many of you as possible!