After a few months without a blog due to our hectic schedule we have taken a moment to let you know what has happened over the last three months!

April saw our first engagement at Ponteland Beer Festival playing on one of the warmest weekends of the year so far. Entertaining a sellout crowd of 2000 people we opened the event playing popular music from The Beatles, Lionel Richie and Rose Royce. As well as the popular music we presented we featured new pieces such as Balkan Dance, a feature that is deeply rooted in folk music and has proved a welcome challenge for the band stretching our ability with its complexities. The event was a great success and we are privileged to have a long-term affiliation with this festival.

In May our summer engagements continued with a sunny day at Wallsend bandstand. We enjoyed the sunshine and the crowd that amassed got chance to see our latest programme of music in a great setting. As well as our performance commitments summer is a great time to put in work in the band room with Aidan keen on developing us by playing new test pieces as well as perfecting our concert repertoire with one of our new favorites being A little star went out, a Phillip Harper piece that helped win Cory Brass in concert with their Roald Dahl themed programme. This flugal solo is a marvel definitely to be heard and is sure to be a crowd pleaser at our upcoming gigs.

Onto June and we were able to help out another charity performing a concert at the Immaculate heart of Mary Church in Lobley Hill. We entertained the audience with a variety of pieces for a great cause and it was also a further opportunity to fine-tune our playing ahead of our concert with The Low Fell Singers. We also performed at Belsay Hall for their blooming Belsay event with a busy Belsay providing a picturesque setting for us to perform to a new audience sharing brass band music with a wider audience is always great and a superb opportunity for us to gain new fans and inspire others.

At the end of the month we occupied St Thomas the Martyrs Church in Newcastle where we played alongside The Low Fell Singers performing music from stage and screen. This concert is fast becoming an annual event as this is the second year in which we have collaborated. With DSB playing pieces from Brave, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Incredibles with The Low Fell Singers presenting The Trolley Song, as well as selections from West Side Story amongst other crowd pleasers. We would like to once again thank them for their help in providing this concert as it was gratefully received by the full audience that marveled at the performances and gave us great feedback.

This month we look forward to many more concerts as well as doing the hard hours in the practice room. As always keep up to date with our engagements on both our website and social media pages and look out for the blog next month!