The Waterloo Band & Bugles of The Rifles based at Edward Brooks Barracks, Abingdon were delighted to once again perform a charity Christmas concert hosted by the Royal British Legion in the picturesque town of Bourton-on-the-water in Gloucestershire on 3rd December 2022 at the Cotswold School.
Of course, the programme which was performed in front of a full house had a predominantly festive theme which included many seasonal favourites as well as opportunities for the audience to indulge in some traditional carol singing. The concert opened with the National Anthem followed by the entry to the auditorium of our Bugle Platoon to the march ‘Silver Bugles’, they then performed the bugle feature ‘Sir John Moore’ before leaving the stage to the Regimental Doubles.
The band then established the festive theme of the concert with ‘Festival Fanfare for Christmas’. During the concert the band went on to perform ‘Ukranian Bell Carol’, Sleigh Ride as well as several arrangements of Christmas themes but the most unusual was ‘Minor Alterations Christmas through the looking glass’, which cleverly disguises some very well-known Christmas tunes which makes for interesting listening. The band were also able to showcase their versatility in ‘Stephenson’s Rocket’ a descriptive piece celebrating the early days of steam, and a selection from the ever-popular musical ‘My Fair Lady’ featuring such classic songs as ‘I could have danced all night’, ‘Get me to the church on time’, ‘The rain in Spain’ and ‘on the street where you live’.
In the audience were some VIP guests from RAF Brize Norton and the band were delighted to play the ‘Dambusters March’ and the ‘RAF March Past’ during the concert in their honour.
Our Bugle platoon re-joined the band in the second half of the concert to the march ‘Prince Consorts Own’ followed by the iconic ‘High on a Hill’ as part of the Finale which also included ‘Christmas Festival’ and ‘We Wish you a Merry Christmas’.
We would like to thank our friends from the Royal British Legion for their hospitality in looking after the Band & Bugles, and the audience for their warm appreciation and generous donations which raised £3500.00 to help with the fantastic work of the Royal British Legion – we look forward to returning!
The Waterloo Band & Bugles currently have vacancies for Cornets, Trombones, French Horns, percussion and welcome enquiries from all brass and woodwind players. If you are grade 6-8 standard and would like to find out more, please contact Serjeant Alison Bright at recruiting-band@7rifles.co.uk