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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.

Niki is King of the Band!

A big thanks to everybody who braved the fog and frost to come to tonight's AGM. Decisions were made about a new uniform jacket, a child protection policy and the band committee for 2014, which is:

Chairman: Stuart Smart
Secretary: Kate Winters
Treasurer: Andy Maddams
Musical Director: Shaun Pope
Niki Bloom, Rhiannon-Jane Smart & Robert Weedon

These will be added to the website soon.

More importantly, though, we announced this year's very deserving winner for the Billie King Memorial Prize - Niki Bloom, who has been our dedicated band secretary and all-round super person for many years. Big grins all round!

A winner is announced!

Notice of AGM

Manea Silver Band's annual general meeting will be held on Monday 20 January 2014 at 8.15pm at Manea Methodist Chapel. All are welcome.


Items will be the committee elections for the year, a decision on uniform jackets and the awarding of the Billy King Memorial Prize ("King of the Band"). We'll be rehearsing as usual before and after the meeting.

2013 at MSB

As part of a mini-refresh of the MSB website, we've decided to make the conductor's blog into our official newsfeed for the website, so this should be the place to find out the latest news from the band, although do check out our Facebook group and page for all the latest gossip as well.

Shaun indulges his James Bond fantasies at St Ives Waits in August

Band on a bus, Manea Gala in July

Since February we've had our first movie-concert-quiz night "A Night at the Movies" in Manea, park concerts in St Ives, Ely, Manea and Ramsey, three church services, two German nights, one bingo night and a musical tour of Manea on an open-top bus. That almost fits the words to "The 12 Days of Christmas". 

Speaking of Christmas, we're currently in the middle of our Christmas carolling schedule - see our calendar to find out where you can hear us this festive season!

Ely Jubilee gardens August

We've also performed as part of a massed Fenland area band at Ely Cathedral organised by our friends at Chatteris Town Band in aid of the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

It's been a year of changes. We welcomed our new conductor Shaun Pope in February and some new faces have joined us, as well as some more familiar ones who have returned to the band. Our Chairman Nic Paine has decided to step down from this position at the next AGM, but we would like to thank him for his sterling contribution in shaping the direction of the band over the last few years and hope he will remain a keen friend and supporter. 

Cambridge Daily News July 1951

We were saddened to hear of the passing of Stan Shadbolt in October. Stan, who was the principal cornet for Somersham Town Band deputised for almost every band in Cambridgeshire and was a familiar front row cornet at MSB concerts for as long as anybody can remember. 

Benwick Dickensian Market 2012

This cutting from a local newspaper shows Stan (second player from the left) playing with the junior players of Manea Band in 1951. Fast forward sixty years and this was Stan (far left) still playing with us at the Dickensian Market at Benwick in 2012.

The memorable German evening at Ramsey Mereside in October was the last brass band concert Stan played at. He will be greatly missed. 

We've still got our big end of year carol service at Manea to come and will be out and about in the area carolling right up to the big day; watch out for us at Chatteris Co-op, Ramsey Tesco and March Tesco in the next week.

Manea light switch-on 2013

Looking to the future, we have some exciting plans for concerts and events both in Manea and beyond for 2014, but as one of the Christmas pieces we've been performing says, "look to the future now, it's only just begun". Watch this space!