Our anniversary year has marked the end of an era. When the Devon and Cornwall Police Band disbanded, Mike Griffiths stepped forward to take on directorship of the new Band which was formed to carry on the good work of the Police Band. Mike has conducted (and organised the concerts) for 20 years now and last year decided that 2025 would be his last year. At the anniversary concert, he handed the baton onto Hannah his daughter. A presentation was made to Mike by the Band Chairman and the youngest member of the Band presented Hannah with a wonderful bouquet. Mike is looking forward to joining the front row cornets and doing some playing.
The 26th April saw the Band at St Mary the Virgin Church in St Marychurch for their 20th Anniversary Concert. We had a great audience to help us celebrate in style with a programme of the Band’s favourite pieces over the years. We opened with Fanfare and Flourishes by James Curnow based on Charpentier’s Te Deum and went on to perform a great variety of music from the film music of Hans Zimmer to the classical sounds of Shostakovich. Our marches were wide and diverse taking in the tradition of Punchinello, the virtuosity of Wilfred Heaton’s Praise and the slight comedy of Clochmerle. The Band had a great time and we think our audience did too.
Thank you for your support over the past 20 years. The Band are delighted to have raised over £70,000 for various charities. If you enjoy our Band and would like to support us in raising more money for charity over the next 20 years, please email us so we can add you to our Friends of the Band list. There’s no money involved, we just let you know our news and details of our upcoming concerts.
A big thank you to the team at the Church under the inspired leadership of Fr Nick Debney. It was wonderful to play in this beautiful Church. A massive thank you to Zoe and her team for the refreshments and raffle and finally, a huge thank you to Gary (who seems to have become our official photographer) for the wonderful photographs of the event.
On this special 20th anniversary year, one of the founder members of the Band was chosen as our band person of the year. Geoff Edis is not only a great musician but also drives the trailer with all our equipment, leads the alternate Wednesday group for the less experienced players and, is the Band secretary. He always has a joke or two and the Chairman was pleased to present him with the Malcolm Nellist cup.
We had a great concert last Wednesday for our Films and Musicals Concert. We raised over £800 for the British Heart Foundation which will be added to Tony’s (our treasurer and star soprano player) Marathon fund raising. That means that the Band have raised over £71,000 for charities since it’s formation in 2005.
Our first concert of 2025 is promising to be an exciting one. We have music from the big screen and from the stage. Highlights include James Bond, Pirates of the Caribbean, Crimson Tide and Schindler’s List from the movies and why not sing along to the Sound of Music, Andrew Lloyd Webber classics and some other highlights of the West End. If that’s not enough, we have our guest singer Beth Lamming who is going to delight us with her songs from the musicals. This is shaping up to be a very special evening.
Tony, our band treasurer has arranged this concert in memory of Darren, a colleague and friend who died from a heart attack at an early age. All proceeds will go to the British Heart Foundation. As well as organising the concert, Tony will also be running the London Marathon to boost the total. Well done Tony!
Our Christmas Concert this year was in aid of Safebreaks who are a social care support service based in the Teignbridge area. http://safebreaks.co.uk We had a wonderful evening at the Avenue Methodist Church, Newton Abbot, with a lively audience and raised £620 to help the work which Safebreaks does. As well as the traditional carols we had Christmas movie music, some Caribbean inspired music and finished with the ever popular Christmas Festival Overture. That has made the total amount raised by the Band this year (for charity) over £4000. Thank you for all your support. We wish you a Happy Christmas and look forward to seeing you all in 2025.
Theresa Moorin our resident soprano and horn player doesn’t just have a great voice… She is also a self defence instructor and she also likes to take on crazy challenges! As it was the 80th anniversary of D-day this year, Theresa decided to go on The Frontline Walk following a route along the beaches of Normandy which were the backdrop for the Normandy Invasion. Theresa did the walk in aid of Blesma the military charity for Limbless Veterans and raised nearly £2000. Well done Theresa!
This event just seems to get better and better. The Band was supported musically by Torbay Police and Community Choir (soloist Samson Spooner), Theresa Moorin, and the Corps of Drums. Central Church once again provided the wonderful venue and allowed us the ability to put on multi media screens and to provide a big enough venue for flags and marching! The Band’s focus was on Dday80 and after the concert part of the evening, Father Peter March lead us in remembering all of those who have been affected by war in all conflicts. It was fabulous to have so many Cadets supporting us and to have the wonderful standards and their personnel who had been so busy over the weekend. They were brilliantly organised (as always) by the superb Dave Tribble. We were also incredibly pleased to have members of the incredible Brixham Battery group wearing uniforms from the 1940s. It’s impossible to thank everyone but well done to our MD, Mike Griffiths, who once again put all of this together.
Here are a few photos, but please check out our new Remembrance 2024 page in our gallery. Thank you to Christine Bovey for the photos.
The Band joined with Torbay Police and Community Choir once again at Paignton Parish Church to support the start of the Royal British Legion Paignton Branch Poppy Appeal. It was a great concert and we were very lucky to have an amazing photographer (Gary Hadden) to take photos for us – thank you Gary. Some are included here but to see more, please visit out Remembrance 2024 page in our Gallery.
