WHEN the sound of music wafts across Wiveliscombe Recreation Ground on Wednesday evening (June 23), it will be history in the making as the town band marks its 125th anniversary with a free open-air concert, writes Sue Michinson.

The brass band players will be giving their all to celebrate the historic occasion, part of a success story that began in 1896, when a member of the local military Volunteer Yeomanry started what was then the town’s third brass band.

In spite of two world wars and in recent times the pandemic, it has survived and is thriving, now under Director of Music Chris Grabham, 23, who took over its leadership in 2017 while he was still in college.

“We’re firing on all cylinders again and getting back to where we were before the pandemic, with a very busy, wonderful buzz,” said Chris.

“The anniversary concert will be a balance of well-loved and modern work – moving in a modern direction but not forgetting our roots! There will be band favourites in the first half, and the best of British music in the second, and we would love people to bring along Union Jacks and recreate a Last Night of the Proms atmosphere.”

The band has kept going in spite of the pandemic, with Chris organising regular online meetings as well as covid-careful sectional rehearsals in gardens, barns and churchyards.

Innovative splicing of pieces recorded in members’ own homes, also saw the creation of two lockdown videos which have each attracted over 10,000 plays on the Wiveliscombe Town Band’s Facebook page. The most recent was in collaboration with Wivey Rugby Club, the other with singer Joe Ashfield.

Although there are a number of silver and wind bands elsewhere, Chris believes the Wiveliscombe Town Band is one of the only performing brass bands left in Somerset, if not the South-West.

It has 26 members, ranging in age from under ten to those in their seventies, playing everything from cornets, tenor and baritone horns, trombones and tubas, to percussion – drum kit, cymbals, glockenspiel, xylophone, cow bells, or ‘the kitchen sink,’ as Chris puts it.

There is also a training band and a training programme for a drumline – percussion instruments usually played as part of a musical marching band.

The longest serving family in the band is that of Wiveliscombe tuba player Matt Reid, including his son Henry, who joined two years ago when he was eight. Matt’s late grandfather, Malcolm, was the band’s conductor in the 1950s and later a tuba player until his death in 2003.

Matt said: “My granddad joined the band by accident. After re-training as a music teacher after the war, he moved to Wiveliscombe to teach at the primary school. He was looking to join the church choir, who

also used the old church rooms to

rehearse in, but turned up on the wrong night and walked into band practice instead.

“He didn’t play a brass instrument but they asked if he could conduct as they needed a conductor. After a short while he learned to play cornet and then moved around the band a bit before settling on the tuba.”

Matt, 38, started learning the cornet in the training band, when he was seven, as his grandfather thought he should learn a musical instrument. He joined the main band aged eight and played cornet for 28 years before retiring with a lip injury.

Two years ago his son Henry wanted to join the band. Matt added: “He was very enthusiastic, and after ferrying him up and down, after a year off I re-joined and took up the tuba. The bigger mouthpiece was easier to play after my lip injury, and I play my grandfather’s tuba, which belongs to the band.”

Longest-serving band member is Colin Rayson, 74, who started at the age of eight. “I liked music and learned the piano at the same time – there weren’t so many other distractions in those days,” said Colin. “I started on the cornet, they just said here you are, can you get anything out of that? I got a squeak, they said well done, keep practising, and that was it.”

A euphonium player now, he has also played tenor and baritone horn as the need arose.

At one time he thought of retiring but director Chris dissuaded him and now he intends to just keep on going.

Much, it seems, like the Wiveliscombe Town Band.

** The concert starts at 7pm on Wednesday, June 23, at Wiveliscombe Recreation Ground. Refreshments will be available from Wiveliscombe Rugby Club. Entrance is free, although donations are welcome, as the band is hoping to restore two rare, historic drums.

** The band is always keen to find new members, and provides free instruments and tuition. Brass and percussion players of all ages and experience can get in touch on Facebook or wiveliscombetownband@

hotmail.com