Year: 2025

Every year in November the Mayor of Aylesbury attends a remembrance service at St Mary’s church. This is a time of reflection, commemoration and thanks to honour all those who have died in the service of the nation in wars, and was held in the evening of 6th November. Music for the service was provided not just by Aylesbury Concert Band, but also the Aylesbury Consort of Voices, and St Mary’s Church Choir led by Kenton Brigden.

Before the service The Mayoral party entered the church as the Band played Nimrod from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar. After the welcome and Bidding prayers led by Fr. Douglas Zimmerman the first hymn was Jerusalem, accompanied by the band. The service comprised readings as well as hymns and other music provided by the musicians, and prayers led by Fr Zimmerman. Prior to two minutes silence, a lone piper, Pipe Major Neil Esslemont, processed down the church playing Flowers of the Forest.

This is all the music played by the Band, conducted by Brendan Gudgeon:–

Nimrod (from the Enigma Variations by Edward Elgar)
Jerusalem (Hubert Parry, words William Blake)
Where Never Lark or Eagle flew (excerpt) (James Curnow)
Only in Sleep (Ēriks Ešenvalds, arr. Phillip Littlemore)
I Vow to Thee my Country (Gustav Holst)
National Anthem
Earth Song (Frank Ticheli)

These are the pieces sung by the Aylesbury Consort of Voices:–

I Sat Down Under His Shadow (Sir Edward Bairstow)
Hear My Prayer (Henry Purcell)
If ye Love Me (James Macmillan)

This was sung by St Mary’s Church Choir:–

For the Fallen (words by Kenton Brigden)

This year so far has been almost routine for the band. We’ve played at three events, in every case we had been invited back having played on these occasions a number of times in previous years.

23rd March, Eaton Bray

On the afternoon of Sunday 23rd March the band performed a concert in St Mary’s Church, Eaton Bray in Bedfordshire in aid of Scannappeal, a charity which raises funds to provide state of the art medical equipment for hospitals in Buckinghamshire. The programme included music from shows and films such as Wicked, The Wizard of Oz, and Moana.

26th May, Stone Fête

The weather on the Spring bank holiday Monday was cloudy and cool, and it looked like it might rain, which was a shame as the month had been quite sunny and warm until then. Although the band had the use of a tent for shelter it was barely large enough for the whole band, so it was fortunate that what rain that fell was only a few spots. As usual we played two sessions of music separated by a dog show, which seemed to last a very long time!

24th August, Vale Park Proms

In contrast the annual “Proms” concert in Vale Park, Aylesbury, enjoyed a dry and fairly warm evening. As usual a large audience gathered in the park to hear the band, joined this year by a local rock group, so the pieces in Aylesbury Band’s programme followed a rock music theme…

Part 1	Part 2
National Anthem	Africa
Sweet Child of Mine	I was made for loving you
Thriller	Hallelujah
Human	Can’t Take My Eyes Off You
Sweet Home Alabama	Hey Jude
It’s My Life	Sweet Caroline
Against All Odds	Fantasia on British Sea Songs (inc. Rule Britannia)
Highway to Hell	Jerusalem
Stairway to Heaven	Pomp and Circumstance March no. 1 (inc. Land of Hope and Glory)