This is the archive of all previous news articles. It includes details of the band's performances as well as all previous band notices.

2nd September 2007: VERY important details for all Intermediate Band players are now displayed on the 'Engagements' page.

23rd July 2007: Sam Toomer and Jemima Palfreyman are currently in rehearsals in London for Brass Day in the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. Sam is writing a diary each day of the experience. You can read this here.

20th July 2007: 4Barsrest have a write-up on their site of the recent contest in Pontins in which the Great Western Youth Band did very well. You can read that here.

18th July 2007: As rehearsals in recent weeks including this coming Saturday are from 9am to midday, there has been some feedback from parents and players that they prefer this time. However the committee would like to know what the overall view is on this. To get people's views and find out what the majority prefer, please log on to the forum (General Forum) to find the poll.

It is important that EVERYONE votes on what they prefer as it will affect your Saturday mornings! If you aren't already a member, you can register and your account will be activated (allowing you to vote and view posts) as soon as possible.

16th July 2007: This coming Saturday's rehearsals will be from 9am until midday and will be the last rehearsal until after the summer holidays.

As we approach the summer break we thought it important that we update you with the activities currently planned for the rest of the year. The key dates and events are on the attached sheet. Note the summer shut down which runs from Saturday 28th July to Saturday 25th August inclusive. We are sure that you will appreciate the lie ins as much as we will!

Its been a busy and successful period for the Great Western Youth Band, especially given the heartache of last year. When reviewing progress half way through the year we have a thriving organisation that is seeing the standards of playing in all the bands improving to all time high levels. In particular the children in the Intermediate and Beginners band are developing their playing really well. And of course the youth bands 3rd place result in the British Open Youth Championships at Prestatyn was a fantastic result.

We have a strong and active team of tutors who give their time free of charge and along with John Winterflood can be proud of their contributions. We also have a committee that is working hard behind the scenes to raise vital funding and to put into place the facilities, equipment and instruments needed.

And of course we have a great bunch of young people to work with who are a credit to their parents and to Swindon.

So whilst we have many challenges still to sort (funding, getting new members, finding some permanent accomodation, buying instruments, music and other equipment etc) we can reflect on good progress. At our AGM in October we will be able to share much of the future plans with you, however in the meantime, have a great summer and see you all on the 1st September.

The Committee

The dates for your diary are summarised below.

9th July 2007: The weekend of the 7th & 8th July the Great Western Youth Band travelled to Prestatyn for the British Open Youth Band Championships for the first time. The band performed a 25 minute programme of music which included a set Test Piece and other set elements for the competition.

The youngsters of Great Western Youth Band were ecstatic at being placed 3rd receiving an award, £200 and a Gold Certificate, especially as many of the band had to work extra hard because of GCSE’s, AS and A level examinations during the preparations for the competition.

The two adjudicators commented on the band’s excellent performance against more established band’s saying how musical it was. Both adjudicator’s approached the Great Western Youth Band musical director John Winterflood immediately after the results were announced to congratulate him and the band on a first class musical performance that had them in a dilemma as to choosing the runner up position in the competition. They also commented on the high standard of playing from the first three bands giving them all a gold award.

You can also read about us on 4barsrest, click here...

You can see more photos from the weekend in the Photo Album.

1st July 2007: Extra rehearsal details are as follows:
Monday and Tuesday's sectional rehearsals are at St Marks Church. (times shown in table below)
There is also a FULL BAND rehearsal on Thursday evening at the Swindon Music Centre in Churchfields School from 8pm to 9.30pm. EVERYBODY needs to attend this extra final rehearsal.

24th June 2007: Rehearsal details for the British Open Youth Championships at Prestatyn (including beginner and intermediate details): Please note, details of venues which are currently to be confirmed with be published on this website as soon as they are arranged so please keep checking. There are also some new photos in the photo album of the beginner band at a recent Church fete.

19th June 2007: Important notice for all band members: The rehearsals this week are from 9 to 12 at Gorse Hill Salvation Army hall.

15th June 2007: Further details of the band engagements are on the Engagements page.

10th June 2007: Band engagements in the near future have been added to the engagements page.

8th June 2007:

GWYB tutor Paul Collis-Smith and his family at his passing off parade...

3rd June 2007: Rehearsal times for Satrday mornings are changing through the month of June due to weddings taking place at the church. Rehearsal times are (starting new week on 9th June):
Beginners band - 9am to 10am
Intermediate band - 10am to 11am
Youth band - 11am to 12 am

20th May 2007: There is now a new photo album on the website, with photos from a rehearsal on May 19th. These photos were taken for our new Promotional Material which is currently being created. Click here to see the photos. As always, if you would like a high quality version of any of these photos, send us an email (see Contact Us page).

One reminder, there are no rehearsals on 26th May because it is a bank holiday weekend and lots of people are away.

13th May 2007: We will be taking lots of photographs for the new promotional material for the band at next week's rehearsals (19th May). So this is just a warning in case you are particularly worried about what you are shown wearing or how your hair looks...

12th May 2007: The first Young People's sub committee meeting was held today, with 4 Youth Band members and 2 Intermediate Band members. This committee still needs a few more members, ideally 2 more from either the Beginner or Intermediate band. The next meeting will be on Saturday 9th June at 11am (during the Intermediate Band rehearsal time). The committee members have an extra section on the forum for discussing, elaborating and updating the other members of progress. If you are on the committee and haven't registered on the forum already, even the younger members are encouraged to.

29th April 2007: There are still people who's band fees are outstanding. If you would like to know if you have paid or not, you can email the band Treasurer at treasurer.gwyb@tiscali.co.uk to find out.

We are now very keen to get the Young People's sub committee up and running. The first meeting will be on Saturday May 12th (time: 11am-11.30am at St Marks Church). We still need more people to join this committee. Please don't be scared to come forward and join in. Whichever band you're in, however old you are, you can contribute as much or as little as you like. It won't last long and everyone's view will be listened to equally. If you become a member of the Young People's sub committee, you will also gain access to a new section of the forum. The first subjects to be discussed will include the new uniform...

Please follow this link to learn about details of the 2007 BBC Proms Season including Brass Day in July. Grimethorpe and Black Dyke will be featured this year so members from the band are encouraged to get tickets. If you are interested in going, please mention it to Sam Toomer or Andy Hornsey as there is a possibility of organising a minibus there and back on the day if enough people are interested. The cost of the minibus would be split between everyone going and this would be a lot cheaper than going individually or on the train, for example.

31st March 2007: A letter and form was given out on Saturday 31st at band practice about the Pontin’s Brass Band Youth Championships which we are entered for. If you did not get one or need another copy, you can download it HERE.

30th March 2007: The new forum is up and running! It's a vast improvement on the old one. It works differently and is a lot more interesting to use. To use the forum, you first need to register. PLEASE register with your username as your name. e.g. John Smith's username would be 'johnsmith'. You also need to enter your email address. Please use the email address you most commonly use. Once you've registered, we need to confirm and activate your account so that you have access to the forums. This ensures security to the matters discussed. Committee members can also register and gain extra access ,to the new committee forum which is integrated seamlessly. Click on the 'Forum' button on the left, or click here.

27th March 2007: Update on rehearsals over the Easter Period: There are rehearsals on 30th March and 14th April but NOT the 7th April.

You can also see details of the Pontins Youth Brass Band Festival that we are entered for on 7th July 2007, on this website: CLICK HERE. Please also put this date in your diary!

20th March 2007: We are having a number of problems with the forum at present, therefore the link to it on the left menu bar has been deleted for now. Please avoid any other links to it until further notice.

5th March 2007: With a weekend without a rehearsal ahead of us, obviously we'll all have extra time to practice at the weekend and during the week... Therefore, please follow this link to be linked to a free and totally legal PDF booklet, which has all the major and minor scales. You can print them out, maybe learn a new page each day? Useful as a warm-up and essential to learn and be familiar with. CLICK HERE

FREE GREAT WESTERN YOUTH BAND SOFTWARE: You can now a free piece of software to help you keep track of your practice. Keeping track of your practice can help you see how much time you are spending practicing over a week and perhaps make it more satisfying. Please email the creator at sam.toomer@gmail.com if you have any questions, feedback or have found any problems. It runs through Microsoft Excel with all macros enabled.

4th March 2007: Click here to express your views about the October Course.

We will be voting for the band representatives at the rehearsals on the 17th March. So, up until that Saturday morning you can put yourself forward if you would like to be on the sub-committee (4 youth band members, 2 intermediate members and 2 beginner band members).

Photos from Gwent Contest: You will have collected your photo from band last Saturday if you had one taken. Please remember you either need to return the photo if you don't want it, or BRING THE MONEY TO BAND for what you want, and hand it to Paul Richards ASAP.

Article from the recent newsletter:
The committee is still hard at work on behalf of the youth band. In addition to finalising the instrument position, the work to plan the future of the organisation is underway. In line with the adoption of the constitution, new roles have been created and filled with volunteers for the next few months until a full AGM can be held in the Autumn.
The current committee is as follows:
Acting Chairman - Paul Richards
Acting Secretary - Vacancy (Andy Hornsey interim)
Acting Membership and Property - Mary Martin, assisted by Matthew Walton
Acting Treasurer - Chris Jefferies
Acting Fundraising Officer - Venice Marriot-Webb
Acting Welfare Officer - Sarah Hornsey
Acting Communications Officer - Sam Toomer
Parents Representative - Vacancy
Young Peoples Rep - Sam Toomer
You will see that we still have a couple of vacancies, we are really keen to see other people getting involved. We really need to get some energy behind the Youth Band if it is to move onto new levels of music making, and if anyone can devote some spare time to get involved then it should be great fun and very rewarding. Please contact Paul Richards on 01793 771577 or 07970 781005 if you would like to find out more.

A reminder to everyone that there is no rehearsal next week, 10th March.

10th February 2007: There will be band rehearsals on Saturday next week, but not the following week. So, be at rehearsals on 17th February but there are NO rehearsals on the 24th February.

Second notice, we are about to start a sub-committee which will be formed from 4 youth band members, 2 intermediate members and 2 beginner band members. It would be best to have people who are ONLY in those bands so that they can best represent the views of people in those bands. We would have small meetings, lasting about half an hour, once a month on a Saturday morning at band practice. We will have a vote next Saturday (17th February) if more than the numbers listed above would like be on the committee. Everyone is encouraged to consider this and not let the same people be involved in organisation and decisions that are made in the band. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, please say so on the forum asap.

4th February 2007: Steven Mead's Adjudicator's comments are posted on the forum in full. Highlights include:
Thine is the Glory: steady full toned, impact of this opener was good.
Victory: excellent percussion, marvellous soprano, tempo/pulse well maintained
Berceuse: Soloist is good, need to capture the vocal line of solo
Swing Low: Effective number and a good contrast in the programme
Kalinka: Starts well and tempi windup is handled well. Exciting stuff. Well done, enjoyable.

17th January 2007: The Greater Gwent Youth Band Festival is taking place at Coleg Gwent (Crosskeys) on Saturday 27th January, 2007. Great Western Youth Band will be performing in Section 1 against 9 other bands. This section commences at approximately 2.00 pm. We are drawn to play band No 9. Uniform will be required for the performance on the day; white shirt, bow tie, red waistcoat, dark trousers, black socks and clean black shoes.

We will be travelling by a Barnes Coach, pickup 1.30 pm from outside St Marks Church, Swindon . Casual clothes can be worn for travelling and changing facilities are available at the contest venue. It might be advisable to take a packed lunch although there is a college canteen serving food and refreshments.

Rehearsals for the contest are as follows:
Saturday 20th January, 2007 11.00 am to 1.00 pm at St Marks Church
Friday 26th January, 2007 7.00 pm to 8.30 pm at Swindon Music Centre, Churchfields Lower School
Saturday 27th January, 2007 10.00 pm to 12 pm at St Marks Church

Please make every effort to attend rehearsals as there is stiff competition this year.

The expected time of return is 8.00 pm after the contest although this is subject to the contest and presentations running according to schedule.

The coach will drop off at St Marks Church on it's return.

Any questions please phone me on 01793 421511

John

18th December 2006: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everybody! And by the way, rehearsals start again in the New Year on Saturday 6th January 2007! Thank you for everybody's hard work and enthusiasm this year. Let's make it continue in 2007!

Players and tutors from the band playing on Neil and Christine Hamilton's Radio show!

17th December: There are finally some Youth Band recordings on the website. (see the Media Player next to the logo at the top...) These were taken from a video camera recording of the concert following our Summer Course 2006.

7th December: A small group from the Youth Band played at a Special Needs concert on Wednesday evening. The concert was put together by children and teenagers with special needs from local schools. The event was put together with support from the Swindon Music Service. The group from the Youth Band, consisting of three Cornets, one Trombone, one Euphonium and a Tuba accompanied the schools and audience through three carols. It's unlikely the audience will ever go to a concert hosting a larger variety of musical genres!

5th December: Details for the Carol Concert on 14th December are on the Engagements page. Please click here to view the details.

26th November: Our first contest as the Great Western Youth Band is in January. Please put this date in your diaries: Gwent Youth Brass Band Festival, Saturday 27th January, 2007, Coleg Gwent - Crosskeys Campus.

25th November:

Photo taken in 1977, our Musical Director, John Winterflood... So what's changed?! Post caption suggestions on the band forum!

24th November: Click here to view the newspaper report from the November 18th concert.

23rd November: Stratton Sainsbury's have confirmed that we have a slot to play from 6-8pm on Thursday 21st December. We need a group of between 20-25 players and adults to collect money. Put this date and time in your diary!

23rd November: Our first concert raised £1460! Well done and thank you to everybody involved. The music was fabulous and there was a vast amount of positive feedback from the audience afterwards. This is just the start so we all need to keep the enthusiasm going and we can achieve more and more.

17th November: Notice from John Winterflood to the bands:

Rehearsals Saturday Morning same time as usual at Gorse Hill Salvation Hall from 10 am - 1 pm

Concert commences at 7pm at Christchurch, Old Town Could all the band members be there by 6.40 pm at the very latest. Percussionists need to be
there for 6.15. Could older band members : Robert, Sam , Jason, Neil, Grant, Richard, please be at the church by 6.15 also to help me set up. Anyone else who could be there early I would be most grateful for the help.

We still need two volunteer parents to help with the parking at Christ Church, two volunteer parents to help Eric Walker usher people to their seats and give out programmes and four people to hold donation trays at the very end.

As you know parking is not very good at Christ Church those can could you please park in the public car park just up the road on the right hand side. Many thanks for your anticipated help.

There is refreshments afterwards in the church hall this is free and everyone is welcome. Please come and spend a few minutes talking to the
members of  the steering committee.

12th November 2006: Please can all band members and parents login to the Forum and see the latest post regarding fundrasing that most parents can look into very easily. PLEASE have a look.

12th November 2006: The GWYB constitution has now been amended with corrections that were voted in at the first meeting. You can download it here. If you have any thoughts on the constitution, please contact us. You can email us at greatwesternyouthband@googlemail.com or post a message on our forum if you are a band member.

11th November 2006: The new logo was chosen today and is now visible on the forum and throughout the website! Thank you to everyone who voted and everyone who designed logo ideas. The timetable for Saturday 18th November will be posted here ASAP to remind anyone who is unsure. The rehearsal will be at the Gorse Hill Salvation Army hall at the normal times. It is vital that everybody is there.

2nd November 2006: There have been a limited number of posters printed, so if you would like some more, you can you print them out from this scanned in version of the poster. Right-click HERE and click 'Save Target As...' to download the poster.

1st November 2006: The tickets for November 18th have now been printed and will be available from Saturday. We also have a number of A5 poster which need to be put up wherever possible. So if you know of somewhere a poster could go up where lots of people would see it (maybe at school, your workplace, notice board etc), pick up a poster on Saturday. And just to confirm, there is a rehearsal this coming Saturday, 4th November.

31st October 2006: We haven't had many logo ideas yet, but you can view the current ideas and vote for your favourite by clicking here to visit the Logos page. There is still time to design your own! PLEASE have a go. When you send it to Sam, it will go straight on the website for the world to see!

30th October 2006: http://www.brasscast.com/main.htm Visit this website to subscribe to a free brass band podcast. Take a look at the website and give it a try. A new podcast is released each week with music from a certain brass band- including some youth bands- and a short interview with a member of the band. There are quite a few podcasts out there related to the brass band movement, but this one seems to have the best balance between music and talking.

29th October 2006: www.normans.co.uk/newsletter/signup.php Everybody go on this website! Sign up to the Normans free Brass Newsletter and you will be sent a free bottle of valve oil and get entered into a prize draw to win a new Besson Prestige Cornet! What excuse could you possibly have not to enter?! Good luck!

23rd October 2006: We have now purchased 2 timpani and a xylophone, expanding our percussion equipment further! This means the percussionists for all 3 bands can use them and percussionists won't have to bring their own xylophones to each rehearsal.

21st October 2006: All band members/parents etc, please login to the forum and see a new post about the November 18th concert. We need a volunteer for quite an interesting job on the day...

15th October 2006: There are rehearsals this week (Saturday 21st October) at St Marks Church at the normal times but not the following week (Saturday 28th October) as it will be in the middle of half term and the past has shown that many people are away.

14th October 2006: You can now get tickets for our first concert. Please visit the Engagements page for information about getting tickets for November 18th. Click here to visit the Engagements page.

13th October 2006: The poll asking "Do you think the logo suits the website and the band?" is showing that currently 71% of people don't think that the logo suits the band and the website. This page also shows that members of the band are able to design a new logo... So if 71% of people think a different logo would be better, why have we had no suggestions or design ideas?! GET DESIGNING and send them to greatwesternyouthband@googlemail.com! You can design as many as you like; whatever you think looks good and that other people will like too!

11th October 2006: Information from the meeting on Wednesday night will be on the site soon including a copy of the constitution with the amendments that were made. On a separate point, Kevin Bird is the main contact with regard to the concert on 18th November so can be contacted with any suggestions or questions at kevinbird878@btinternet.com.

9th October 2006: MySpace update: We have 100 friends on MySpace already! Thank you to everyone who has befriended us and anyone else with MySpace, please send us a friend request.

8th October 2006: The agenda for Wednesday's meeting is confirmed. Click HERE to view it.

7th October 2006: The logo on this website is only temporary. It is now up to members of the organisation to design a new logo that will be used for all of the band's publications etc. It must be done on a computer and everyone is encouraged to have a go! The deadline is Saturday 28th October and on that day at the band rehearsal, the best logo will be voted for. Get designing! (NOTE: there is a prize for the winner...)

6th October 2006: As a method of advertising the site and promoting the band, a MySpace account has been setup. The address of this is http://www.myspace.com/greatwesternyouth. Click HERE to visit the page. We are currently trying to add as many people as possible as the profile page has links to this website and the information shown on our home page.

4th October 2006: With new hosting and the domain sorted, the web site is now up and running. If anybody finds any problems (especially if you're using a different browser than Internet Explorer), please contact the webmaster. Any suggestions for how to improve the site are welcome and if any band members has messages/notices that they want put on this page, it can be done very easily!
MEETING FOR PARENTS WITH STEERING COMMITTEE: WEDNESDAY 11TH OCTOBER 7.30 AT ST MARKS CHURCH HALL. It is important that as many parents are there as possible.

3rd October 2006: The web site is currently being updated daily as more information, pictures and features are added. The two forums are up and running so the committee are kindly asked to use the committee forum to communicate so that people aren't left out of the communications. It would be a good idea to add the forum to your favourites in your web browser so you can get to it easily. All the committee members can check the forum instead of checking their email and by using the forum, everybody can be updated whatever computer they are at with the internet. Obviously, please keep the password secret.