The Band are thrilled to announce the permanent appointment of resident conductor Phil Randell.
Originating from musical beginnings in the Salvation Army, Phil started out his career in the brass band world as solo horn for the great Sunlife band. He then went on to play with the best bands across the globe and currently plays with the world famous Brass Band of Battle Creek.
With years of brass band experience, both playing and conducting at the highest level, Phil is an excellent and exciting addition to the Hyde Band and we are thrilled to officially announce his appointment.
Further to this, our professional MD Nigel G Seaman provided the following statement: “I’m delighted to hear that Phil’s appointment has now been confirmed. I’ve known Phil for many years as a performer and conductor and his pedigree speaks for itself. We both have high hopes for the future and I’m looking forward to working together for the benefit of Hyde Band.”
We are sorry to have been quiet for a while, as you can imagine Covid 19 put paid to a lot of plans that we had made for 2020 and 2021. We managed to squeeze in playing Christmas Carols at Hockeys Farm Shop, Fordingbridge Farm Shop and Glynn Court Residential Home. As is our Christmas tradition we also performed two concerts at Sandy Balls Holiday Park and the Ten Carols and Lessons at Harbridge Church. It felt really good to be back and playing for audiences once more.
We are now working hard in preparation for the 2022 West of England Regional Championships, the national grading competition. Wish us luck.
We have a few things planned for the coming year including charity concert at Somerly House and a Concert at Breamore House. Our chairman as his wife have also kindly agreed to allow us to open the beautiful bluebell wood, so do keeo your eyes peeled on our facebook page for dates.
Keep scrolling down below to see what else we have been up to. . .
Over the Christmas period, small groups of players once again roamed the streets of Fordingbridge spreading the Christmas cheer with carols 
We were collecting for our ‘building for brass’ project but above all else we loved bringing a bit of joy through music . If you didn’t manage to catch us on our rounds but want to make a donation, the following is a link to our project where you can find out more information about who we are and what we do! 
www.crowdfunder.co.uk/hydeband
We were delighted to be invited by Becoming Branches to play on their latest single “Hold on To Love” Becoming Branches’ new song Hold On To Love (A Sad Christmas Song). The single came out on Friday December to raise funds for the Salvation Army in Fordingbridge. Becoming Branches Band members Jaz Joyner, 25, Rob Aston, 36, and Hannah Mathew, 32, said: “The Salvation Army is a charity close to our hearts and all the proceeds from this single will be going to support the amazing work they do in our community at Christmas.”
We had a fantastic days banding at the Wessex Brass Band Associations’ Winter Contest. We had a great result and couldn’t be prouder of our principal cornet Jack Grimmett who not only won “Best Solo Cornet” AND “Best Instrumentalist.” Well done Jack!
As usual, we led the Remebrance Parade through the town. Pete Jung, our Repiano Corner also played Last Post & Reveille at the start of a very special dawn screening of the film 1917 at 07:00hrs. Very poignant!
In October the band moved rehearsals rooms and you will now find us in the Salvation Army Church Building, Roundhill, Fordingbridge SP6 1AQ. All players always welcome so why not pop in on a Monday or Thursday evening betweem 8 – 10pm, we’d love to see you!
Another exciting event occured in September, proposal! Congratulations to our Principle Cornet Jack Grimmett & his new fiancée Joanna Cook, our 2nd Cornet player, on their engagement. We’re looking forward to the wedding!
We were also invited to play in the courtyard at Breamore House.
We did also manage to squeeze an outdoor “socially distanced” concert in support of The Ringwood & Fordingbridge Community First Responders. The audience really enjoyed it and there were lashings of traditional cream tea for all involves.
Those of you that attended our concert at Woodgreen Cricket Club in July will know that after 25+ years, Sue Bennett is taking a well earned retirement from playing 3rd cornet.
Sue has been a staunch supporter of the band over the years, wearing many different hats, to enable our organisation to run smoothly.
As well as spending many years as secretary of the main band, she has also been a training band tutor, secretary & administrator and all round good egg!
Sue, we can’t thank you enough for your unwavering support, your contribution to the band over the years has been incredible – we hope that being awarded a Life Membership will in some way show you just how much we appreciate all that you have done.
Sue will continue to support the training band in the interim and for that we’re very grateful!
THANK YOU SUE
We’re Back!!
Thankyou Woodgreen Cricket Club for hosting our first gig in almost 18 months, it was fantastic to be back!
Following on from our recent appointment of Andy Wareham as our Resident Music Director, we are delighted to announce the additional appointment of Nigel Seaman ARMCM ARNCM as our Professional Musical Director. Nigel and Andy will be working together helping us make the best music we can make.
Nigel Seaman is a busy freelance conductor, teacher, brass band trainer and adjudicator currently working with a number of bands in Wales and beyond. In 2015 he joined the creative team of Cory Band, the world’s top-ranked band, as their Musical Consultant, working closely with the band’s Musical Director, Philip Harper.
He has been tutor of tuba and brass studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama since 1977 and is in much demand as a conductor, teacher, mentor, adjudicator and brass band trainer.
Born in Denbigh, North Wales, Nigel studied at the Royal Manchester and Royal Northern Colleges of Music. On graduating he moved to South Wales in 1975 to join the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera as Principal Tuba. Two years later he moved to the principal chair of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, a post he held for 33 years until his retirement in 2010.
Over the years, Nigel has held a number of appointments with all the top Welsh bands including Cory, Tredegar Town, Parc & Dare, Lewis Merthyr, Llwydcoed, Markham, BTM and Burry Port Town Band.
Nigel is also in much demand as a freelance conductor and adjudicator, frequently working with bands in Wales, whilst visits further afield have included, Wellington Brass (New Zealand), Soli Brass (Netherlands), Kortrijk (Belgium),Brighouse & Rastrick, Faireys, Desford and Staffordshire bands.
He is currently Professional Musical Director of the Jaguar Land Rover and Hyde bands.
Nigel’s connection to the Antipodes began in 2017 when he was engaged as the chief adjudicator of both the Australian and New Zealand Championships. He returned on two occasions in 2018 to direct Wellington Band’s winning performances in Melbourne and Blenheim to become Australasian Champions of that year.
For 10 years Nigel presented the popular ‘Sounding Brass’ programme on BBC Radio Wales and during his professional playing, conducting and adjudicating career has travelled extensively in the UK, and undertaken many overseas tours throughout Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, the Middle East and Far East, New Zealand and Australia, and during the past 40 plus years has directed over 400 contest performances and many more concert appearances with over 45 different bands.
In 2011 the prestigious Welsh Music Guild presented Nigel with the John Edwards Memorial Award, given in recognition of outstanding achievements in the field of Welsh music. This reflected Nigel’s long career in the BBC NOW and his many years of music-making in Wales. He is also a Silver Award recipient and Life Member and Executive Member of the South East Wales Brass Band Association.
One of their projects uses music, and the band, to attract children who live on the streets. They are then offered counselling and the organisation tries to trace their parents and hopefully reunite them – with the best outcome being the children return home. The children who are not able to be reuntited then stay at the foundation.
Obviously as an organisation they are always looking for financial support and whislt we are a registered charity ourselves; we do hope that we can help to raise awareness of their plight and would be happy to accept donations on their behalf. Hopefully the first thing we will be able to send to them to cement our relationship is some simple arrangements for younger players.
To find out more about the delight foundation please visit their web page http://delightfoundationafrica.org/
#delightfoundation
Come and see us in concert at Hockeys Farm Shop, South Gorley this coming Sunday. It’s free!
Hyde Band are delighted to announce the appointment of Andy Wareham as Resident Musical Director. Andy brings with him a wealth of experience as a performer, composer and conductor.
An experienced jazz trumpet player and brass band cornetist, Andy has performed in a number of high profile locations. These include the Montreux Jazz Festival, The Concorde Club Southampton, Wales Principality Stadium, Wales Millennium Centre, Symphony Hall Birmingham, Barbican Centre, Branwyn Hall and the Royal Albert Hall. He has received a number of awards for his performance, including a special honour from Wynton Marsalis following a performance at the Barbican Centre in London during the ‘Essentially Ellington’ competition, hosted by Jazz at Lincoln Center (USA).
Andy is also a published composer with a range of publishing houses and has had his music featured on BBC television and radio. He has won a number of awards for his music including the MFY ‘Vivendi Composition Award’, ‘Best Student Composition’ at the 2016 University Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, The Cory Band Composition Competition 2017 and A4 Brass Quartet’s Composition Competition 2019. Andy currently holds the position of ‘Young Composer in Residence’ with the world famous Black Dyke Band and is being mentored by Black Dyke’s Composer in Residence, Professor Philip Wilby.
As a conductor, Andy has previously held positions as both a Musical Director and a Conductor with a range of ensembles throughout South Wales and the South of England. After graduating from Cardiff University as a Bachelor of Music (Hons), Andy went on to study as a Master of Music (Hons) at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He was accepted as RWCMD’s first Brass Band Conducting student and studied under the guidance of euphonium virtuoso and conductor Dr Robert Childs. Following two years of conducting the RWCMD Brass Band he graduated in July 2018 and directed the band one final time at his own graduation ceremony.
Follow us on Instagram 🙂
thehydebrassband