Bromley
Concert Band
The
Friendly Band
Keeping music live since 1953
The
band was founded in March of 1953 in the Parish of “The
Good Shepherd” Downham, Bromley, Kent. The founders were
Cyril Mahoney, Tom Whinder and Tom Shea all accomplished musicians.
(Trombone, Clarinet and Cornet respectively) They were soon joined
by others and in May were playing for outdoor church services
in the Parish. Appropriately the Band was called “The Good
Shepherd Band”. A programme of sports days and garden fetes
rapidly developed in addition to Church music and by its second
year was engaged on almost every Saturday and Sunday in May and
June in and around South East London.
The band’s first professional conductor was Brian Wills,
son of the bandmaster of the pre-war Lewisham Silver Band. He
saw the band through its formative period a highlight of which
was the opening by HM The Queen of the Cutty Sark in Greenwich
in 1957 when Tom Shea played the General Salute. Brian handed
over to Leo T Croke when he moved out of the area in 1959. Leo
was a former director of music at the Tower Ballroom Blackpool.
He was a professional band music arranger and composer and several
of his works are still in our library.
After Leo’s death in 1964 Jack Hickman from the famous Cresswell
Colliery Band took over and continued the Band’s development
until he too moved out of the area in 1973.Walter Gill a former
cornetist with Black Dyke Mills band helped out until Lary Woollaston
MBE was appointed Musical Director in 1974.
Just prior to that, difficulties with our Good Shepherd School
rehearsal facility regrettably forced the Band out from the patronage
of the Good Shepherd Parish. The Holy Rosary Church in Mottingham
took over as our patron although rehearsals were held in the Mallory
School in Grove Park, an ILEA Evening Institute. The Holy Rosary
Church ran a social club called the Maryfield Club (Maryfield
being a medieval name for the Mottingham area) so we adopted the
title of “The Maryfield Concert Band”.
Lary was a Kneller Hall trained army bandmaster who had great
vision and hopes for the future of the Band but unfortunately
he suffered a massive heart attack and died, on the podium, in
1976, a tragic and traumatic experience for us all.
The redevelopment of the Good Shepherd Church and the building
of a Church Hall offered us the opportunity to return to our roots
so we left the umbrella of the Evening Institute and became fully
independent.
After Lary we engaged Barry Carben, who was in charge of the Junior
Band at Woolwich Artillery. He took the Band for two years until
he moved back to his native Norfolk.
Nigel Anderton another army trained bandmaster and also from Woolwich
Artillery succeeded Barry and his energy and enthusiasm took the
Band forward quickly. Membership improved dramatically in both
numbers and quality and he was anxious to introduce the Band to
continental audiences. We undertook our first continental tour,
to Adelsheim in South West Germany, in 1979. Nigel retired from
the Army later that year and we were again in search of a new
Director.
Glen Morgan a professor at Trinity College of Music and an ex
United States Navy musician took over and saw us through our 30th
anniversary concert in 1983.At this time Tom Whinder, still the
principal clarinet, was the only member left in the Good Shepherd
parish and we thought it better to adopt a more representative
title for the Band. We decided that it should become known as
“The Bromley Concert Band".
The Anniversary concert was a prestigious event held before a
packed house at Bromley Technical College and for which the Band
was prepared by Norman Burgess and Christopher Gradwell, two colleagues
of Glen’s on the Trinity College faculty. It was one of
the most successful concerts the Band has ever promoted for itself.
However Glen’s heavy commitments in London sadly forced
him to resign shortly after that success.
Ray Lewis was then appointed and he served the Band for the next
22 years. During this long period we resumed continental tours,
visiting Ostend, Brugge and Knokke Heist in Belgium on several
occasions, Bromley’s Twin Town Neuwied on the Rhine in Germany
and three Costs del Sol trips to Estepona, Manilva, Casares and
Calahonda where we enjoyed rapturous receptions. The Spanish people
certainly enjoy band concerts.
Under Ray’s direction we undertook three day engagements
(six separate two hour programmes) in London’s Royal Parks.
Sadly cost constraints have curtailed the Friday and Saturday
sessions but we still play regularly in either St James’
Park, Hyde Park, Regent’s Park or Greenwich Park on Sundays
in the summertime.
We also entertain summer audiences in Brighton, Broadstairs, Canterbury,
Eastbourne, Folkestone, Hastings, Herne Bay, Hever Castle, Leeds
Castle, Maidstone, West Wickham(Royal Bethlem Hospital) and Whitstable.
In the wintertime the Remembrance Sunday Service in Hither Green
Cemetery is an annual fixture, as are Christmas concerts and every
Christmas Eve, we take part in the very atmospheric Blackheath
Christmas Pageant. In February .we entertain an audience at St
John’s Church Eden Park at which that Church promotes a
different charitable cause each year.
In October 2005 we chose Ray’s successor from a strong field
of candidates all of whom were given the opportunity to take at
least two rehearsals. In a close fought election we chose Martin
Gibbs to succeed Ray. Martin is a trumpeter and has just been
appointed Head of the Music Department at the new music specialist
Bishop Justus School in Bromley. He quickly found that. our 2006
summer season was a busy one. A local charity fete, a school barbeque,
Royal Bethlam Hospital, Greenwich Park, a ten day Costa del Sol
tour, Folkestone Leas Cliff bandstand, Maidstone, Hever Castle,
two days at the Leeds Castle Balloon Festival and Southwark Park
and the Christmas seasonal work were all in the schedule. In 2007
the schedule was equally busy and a glance at our website on www.bromleyconcertband.com
shows 2008 will be as active as the previous years.
Band morale
is high and we look forward with confidence to our future.
