From Frome Town Band:

Spring is a busy time as we started planning for the year and tried out new pieces for the band to play - the theme this year was TV & Film music, we had a range of genres.... Police Academy, Lily the Pink, Monsters Inc, My heart will go on, Pirates of the Caribbean (a firm favourite of the band and supporters alike), James Bond to name a few.

March saw the band put two teams into the Lions Swimathon, "Fish out of Water" and "Mermoids", mostly made up of our youngsters, family and friends and we were very grateful for them taking part, they had great fun and managed to raise a huge amount for the band and Frome Lions cause as well.

We held our very own Coronation Concert at the bandstand in the park, we welcomed our beginners and intermediates to play, for some of them it was their first ever concert and they did remarkably well. Dalma from intermediates played a solo of "Morning has Broken" which was well received as it was very nerve racking playing on her own.

The weather was kind to us for the blessing of the Well at St Johns Church at the end of May, finished off with our annual treat of ice cream at La Strada. Lions Fete music set in June was well supported by the public and thankfully a lovely sunny day. 

Musical Director Chris Turner has been working in Hayesdown First School this year to provide FREE brass music lessons to pupils in small groups, this has been funded through grants and fundraising.

The purpose of this venture is to grow the beginners band and to give back to the community. Some of the main band went in and gave a short assembly to the whole school, we played a few marches and some of the pupils even performed to us what they have learnt.

Frome Festival and On

Frome Festival in July was well attended, and we went 'live' on our FaceBook account: Frome Town Band, they all sounded amazing and some of our beginners from our school programme played to the public, they were nervous but of course they were brilliant.

September we went to Frome Cheese show which was greatly supported as we performed on their music stage in the extreme heat during lunchtime - always a great set. This then followed the event of celebrating 25 Years of the Cheese & Grain in which we got to open the day of festivity, we were proud as punch and very happy to support the Cheese & Grain.

In November, a few of the main band members helped to support Frome Town Council to steward the Drone Show, it was an awesome sight which saw some great light display work which would have taken the drone company hours to programme. We are looking forward to this again next year.

This year, we were honoured to play several hymns to the congregation for the Remembrance Parade whilst they were waiting for the Services, Scouts, Guides to walk down the hill, it is always a very well attended event by Frome Community. 

December was a whirlwind of brass music, we started the festive season off with Switching on the Christmas lights, it is always an honour to start the proceedings for Frome community and we saw a bigger crowd this year.

We braved the extreme cold to take part in the annual Tree of Remembrance service at Rook Lane Chapel which is put on by Frome Lions. We then visited care homes: Rosetti House, Bellemont Villa and Greenhill Grange followed with carols at Corinth.

Busking in Westway precinct and at Asda was fabulously supported by Frome community in which our fundraising this year will go towards providing FREE music lessons for our beginners and intermediate band members. 

Our Christmas concert was a sell out at the Merlin Theatre, the following awards was presented by our Band President Jim Boulter and Deputy Mayor of Frome Andy : 

Natalie Hanna : Best Newcomer

Alan Sills : Stannard Award

Katie Jackson  : Most Improved Female

Josh Pulman  : Most Improved Male

Hugh Fowler  : Tony Light Award

Lucy Ide      : Musician of the Year

Lastly we busked in the bandstand on New Year's Eve for an hour, with classic band marches and traditional music.

We are continuing to grow the band and always looking for volunteers to help support the band at events and will welcome any new or experienced player into one of our three bands.

If you would like more information please do get in touch [email protected] . We wish all our members, supporters a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2024.