As the World Cup approaches, Manea Silver Band will treat villagers to a Full English!

A group of Manea musicians will be hosting an action-packed, interactive concert at the weekend, treating the audience to a brassy celebration of English music, from Elgar to Adele.

 Shaun Pope, the Musical Director of the band,said “With the World Cup looming, we wanted to get people in the mood for celebrating England!  Through the ages, England has produced some of the best music in the world. 

“Well-known English music, from proms to pop, always makes for a lively concert, but as usual we will be spicing things up even further. We have a few tricks up our sleeves to make sure the audience to get involved!”

The concert, entitled ‘The Full English’, is taking place in Manea Village Hall at 7.30pm on Saturday 3 May, and will feature talented local vocalist Shannon Buckton. 

The band have also teamed up with Classics restaurant in Manea who are offering an early bird menu of light summery dishes, so you can eat a classy Ploughman's platter before you join the band at the village hall for a Full English!

The band offers free music lessons to learners of all ages.  It is hoped that this concert will raise money to go towards music and other teaching resources for the group.

Shaun said “The event will be fun and informal, and we’d encourage people to bring their own beverages to make it a really sociable event!”

“Brass band music has a very strong tradition in the area.  Manea Silver Band prides itself on taking a refreshing approach to concerts, to get people involved and keep that tradition thriving. We hope this concert will keep people talking about us!”

Tickets are £5 each and are available at Classics restaurant or by calling Rhiannon on 07963 259984 or emailing treasurer@maneasilverband.co.uk.  They will also be available on the door. 

MSB enter the Twittersphere!

Follow us @ManeaSilverBand for up to the minute Manea Silver Banter - and watch us make a # of it...


https://twitter.com/ManeaSilverBand/

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.