Opening for a Principal Euph

As our players and followers know, Manea Silver Band aims to offer something fresh in the Fens. 

We are a non-contesting band, preferring instead to focus on our fun, innovative concert programme.  It’s a great place to let your hair down and we have several members who also play for First Section bands. 

Following our relaunch in 2011, the band is growing fast, adding 11 new players in the last 2 years!  2015 promises to be exciting times for us, with some great gigs to be announced soon, including our first foray into music festivals!

Sadly, our Principal Euph player Malcolm has recently retired, so we have an opening for a Solo Euph.

If you’d like to be part of a traditional brass band with a cheeky modern twist, we’d love to hear from you.  

Why not have a look at our website or join our Facebook group and see what you think? Or better still come along on a Monday evening and have a blow with us – all players welcome. Contact Shaun – md@maneasilverband.co.uk – for further details.

MSB And The Shed of Dread!

It was with some trepidation that we brushed the cobwebs aside and ventured into the chilly gloom.  

We’re looking to build our junior band this year, but with many of our more frequently used instruments already out on loan there was only one thing for it – time to delve into the band’s long-untouched instrument stock in ‘Billie’s Shed of Dread’!

But what a cornucopia of delights awaited!  A band geek’s dream of weird and wonderful instruments from all different eras and continents, some beautifully engraved, some masquerading as scrap metal, some downright bloody awful, but almost all playable!

RJ's not too sure this one's a keeper!

We’re really proud of our learners at MSB and recent years have seen a steady stream of youngsters moving through the band.

But we know that a musical instrument is a big investment for a family, so as well as the lessons being free we also offer our learners an instrument on loan for as long as they need it, until such time as they decide to buy their own. 

We now have a lot of cleaning and TLC to perform on these poor neglected objects, but soon they might bring joy to someone’s life again.

But crucially, an instrument only comes to life if there’s someone to play it! 

Newsflash! Howard Trom also does buttons!

At MSB we pride ourselves on bringing music to the local community and making learning an instrument accessible for all.  By continuing to offer free music lessons, we hope to bring brass banding alive for the next generation of musicians.  

So if you or your kids want the chance to learn to play a musical instrument for free then get in touch! We know there’s a treasure trove of talent out there just waiting to be found and polished up!

Waiting for love...

Our learner classes are currently on Mondays, 7pm at Manea Methodist Chapel, before band practice.  Contact secretary@maneasilverband.co.uk for more info.

MSB on tour!

It's Butlins Mineworkers time again!

This year a grand total of 16 of our players, friends and family are headed to sunny Skegness to enjoy the best of brass - a record!

MSB is a non-competing band, but the annual pilgrimage has become somewhat of a band tradition in recent years.  We go to make friends, maybe have the odd pint ( ;) ) but above all to be inspired and awed by the thriving brass band community and the vast spectrum of entertainment it has to offer.

We also have players taking part in the charity Trombone Choir on Saturday night, and in the Gala concert on Sunday, this year performed by the formidable ladies of Boobs & Brass, an all-female brass band raising money for breast cancer research.

With all this going on as well as evening entertainment from top class brass-based acts, it's shaping up to be a cracker!

If you're going, look out for us in the bar, or you can follow our brass-fuelled (and no doubt increasingly incoherent...) antics on Twitter, @ManeaSilverBand #MSBOnTour

CALLING BASS PLAYERS IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE!

Following our relaunch in 2011, the band is going through a real period of growth, adding 11 new players in the last 2 years!  These are exciting times for the band, with a new logo, new (Flowers-style!) jackets for 2014 and stand banners on the way. 

After sell-out successes with recent movie quiz- and English-themed concerts, we have more new directions to travel, with more novel one-off gigs planned.  And no doubt MD Shaun still has some surprises up his sleeve for our Winter 2014 repertoire!

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 boost Team MSB by building numbers in the bass section.  Poor Robin gets lonely!

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 a Monday evening and have a blow with us – all players welcome. Speak to Kate – secretary@maneasilverband.co.uk – for more details.

Oktoberfest in Manea - what's the wurst that could happen?!

There were lederhosen-clad gents  and beer wenches aplenty in the Rose and Crown this weekend, as MSB brought oompah to town in style!

Tony and the gang at the pub laid on a fantastic selection of eight German beers and some stonking sausages for the crowds to enjoy, while swaying along as the band polka'd and valtz'd its heart out!

MD Shaun had his work cut out, juggling playing a cornet part on euph, conducting an increasingly raucous band, making sure enthusiastic volunteer conductors from the audience didn't do themselves any injuries, and fighting with some particularly unhelpful red braces that just wouldn't stay fastened!

We were also very pleased to welcome Mary Rogers of www.lockerleysilverband.co.uk who spotted our German nights on our website.  She came all the way from Hampshire for a blow, just for an excuse to don a Rheinmaiden outfit!

All in all a fun night was had by all, with pub-goers unsurprisingly getting more and more into the music as the night went on.  How many will remember the night clearly remains to be seen...

 

Danke schoen :-)

MSB welcomes new Principal Cornet Vicky Salisbury

It’s all change on the front row at MSB, as our Principal Cornet Rhiannon-Jane Smart hands over the reins to long-time friend Vicky Salisbury.

Due to work commitments, RJ is now taking on the valuable role of ‘Bumper-Upper’, or ‘Second Hottie Along’!

The lovely ladies joined the band at the same time 17 years ago, under the baton of Peter Cain, who has since sadly passed away. They have been friends ever since.

RJ stepped into the top seat in 2009 when Principal at the time, Clare Hall took on the Musical Directorship. Rhiannon rose to the challenge, working really hard to overcome nerves and lead the section, which at one point consisted of just her!

She has done a grand job, tackling solos such a Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s Emerald Skies.“I love being part of Team MSB,” she says.  “I love it when we all pull together such as for our film quiz concert a couple of years ago, playing great music and working hard behind the scenes to put on a great show.”

After taking time out from band to start a family, Vicky is back and loving it.  We dropped her right in at the deep end at her first full gig as Principal, a WWI Centenary commemoration, making her play the Last Post.

“I remember some great times with the band as a kid, such as dressing up and having a laugh at our themed German Nights!” she says. “It’s great to be back.  I was nervous walking back in after such a long time away but it was like I’d never left.  The band is now a lively hub of music, heart and friendship that I absolutely love being a part of! It has a fresh face and is bringing banding into the modern world whilst upholding banding traditions with pride.”

Rhiannon and Vicky are part of what is becoming a great cornet section, with some familiar faces, new recruits and young learners.  Peter would have been very proud of how far they’ve come.

Do you want to be part of Team MSB? Our doors are always open to new recruits and familiar faces! Join our Facebook group or contact secretary@maneasilverband.co.uk to find out more…

MSB to appear alongside Virtuosi GUS, Cory and Brighouse!

We are incredibly excited to announce that, this summer, Manea Silver Band will be appearing alongside some of the biggest names in banding!

It’s all thanks to our friends at Your Logo Here, who are so impressed with our fresh modern logo that they’ll be featuring it on their display jacket, pictured.  Now Cory, Brighouse & Rastrick, Flowers, Fairey and Virtuosi GUS - to name but a few - will all be seen in the same place as the plucky underdog from Manea!

Your Logo Here have also produced a fantastic set of soft shell jackets (pictured) for the band, which all members will be receiving shortly, so we can display our logo as we play out and about this summer.

Robert, our 2^nd baritone player, designed the logo.  He wanted to produce something musical with a real sense of place.  The resulting design uses the lines of the musical stave to represent the Old Bedford and the Hundred Foot rivers. 

These two watercourses border the Ouse Washes, the wetland at the heart of a colossal 17^th Century drainage project which centres around Manea and gave us the Fens as we know it.

The featured Whooper swan is also a part of our local heritage, with as many as 7,000 spending their winters here, roosting on the washes and feeding on sugar beet scraps on surrounding farmland.  With their gentle trumpeting call and incredible strength (they migrate 1,000 miles from Iceland to Manea in one go) they made the perfect ‘aspirational’ finishing touch to the logo.

The band is currently trying to raise funds to produce a set of stand banners featuring our logo.  We think its modern look will help us with our fresh modern image and support our ongoing work attracting young players into the brass scene by offering free music lessons.

Can you help?  You can sponsor a banner in your name, your businesses name or as a gift – look here for details.