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A Warm ‘Welcome Home’ to David Wilson, our new Honorary President!

We are thrilled to announce that David Wilson has accepted the position of Honorary President with the band. 

You could say David is the founding father of modern-day MSB, being the man responsible for reviving the band in 1982.

Manea was without a band for around 20 years after it fizzled out in the 60s, but David had the enthusiasm and passion to restart the band, with a nucleus of 12 youngsters and a couple of adults.

This achievement is something we admire a great deal, and strive to carry forward the tradition of bringing local adults and youngsters together to make music for the people.

David Wilson conducting the band in the 1990s.
Note the youthful euphonium player on the right.

David said ‘Manea Silver Band has a history of producing great musicians.  My son Duncan came from here and is now a professional musician and conductor of Kidlington Concert Brass, a Championship Section Band.  My daughter, Rachel, plays for Norfolk Wherry Brass, who won a place in the National Finals at the weekend.  Neil Waters, a professional musician with regular national radio airtime came from here.  And of course, I remember your current MD when he was this high! [points to knee!].  You never know where music is going to take you.”

Having just listened to us mangle a Queen medley for half an hour, he then added “For you lot, it sounds like the only way it can take you is up…”

CALLING CORNET PLAYERS IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE!

We’re really proud of our harmonious, well-balanced band at the minute, and we have some great, enthusiastic learners coming through.  In the meantime though, we’d love to add to our MSB family by building numbers in the cornet section.

Following our recent relaunch, 2014 promises to be another exciting year for the band, with new (Flowers-style!) jackets and stand banners on the way, and more new directions to travel with some exciting one-off gigs planned.  And no doubt MD Shaun still has some surprises up his sleeve for our 2014 repertoire!

Manea Silver Band aim to offer something fresh in the Fens. 

So if you’d like to be part of a traditional brass band with a cheeky, modern twist and a lively approach to concert programmes, we’d love to hear from you.

Why not have a look at the rest of our website or join our Facebook group and see what you think? Or better still come along on Monday evening and have a blow with us. 

First gig of 2014

This morning we were at the brand new Tesco Extra in Wisbech for our first engagement of the season.

Cheers! Elgood's supplied the goods.

It was a market highlighting some of the local suppliers to Tesco, so we provided a programme mostly consisting of traditional British ditties (especially those with a farming theme) with a few imposters thrown in for good measure.

Despite the weather being a little bit British as well, there was a good turnout and during the break, quite a few band members found themselves gravitating towards the Elgood's stand. Not sure why that would have been...

In brass bands there is often a bit of a lull from the end of Christmas to May while they rehearse their summer programmes, so it was quite nice to get out and about early in the year to blow the cobwebs away - not literally of course, and it's all good practice for our super forthcoming St George's Day and May Day concerts. More details about those will be posted soon.