Ratby Cooperative Band Organisation

Senior Band strength at Spring Festival

The Ratby Cooperative Senior Band recently took part in the Spring Festival Contest at Blackpool on 26^th April.

The band finished 9^th out of 20 competing bands in the Senior Cup section of the contest after being drawn to play 3^rd. They performed George Lloyd’s test piece “English Heritage” to a large audience in Blackpool’s Winter Gardens, delivering a performance good enough to land them in the top half of the quality field of competing bands.

Steve Plant, the Ratby Co-operative Brass Band’s Chairman, said: “The band gave a really good performance of a difficult piece of music. After speaking with many who heard the band play, the feedback was fantastic and we feel this is a performance we can build on throughout the year in both our concert programmes and contest performances. The organisation are very proud of the band’s efforts.”

Bandin’ in the Park

The Junior Band were again invited to play at Abbey Park this year before going on to play in the organisation’s Summer concert later that evening. They played for an hour going through a variety of pieces, some old favourites (Dr Who) along with newer pieces still being progressed (Frozen). The weather just about held out with rain falling only once – but the band played on and it didn’t last. We received many compliments after the performance from the audience and passersby who simply stopped to listen. After the concert, we had Pizza’s delivered, followed by games before heading off to meet up with the rest of the band. Well done all – great afternoon!

Ratby pBone photoshoot!

Members of Ratby Junior Band were delighted to be asked to be involved in the promotion of an award winning product and ground breaking innovation – the pBone. The plastic trombone, ideal for players young and old, novice to the more professional was the innovative idea of former Ratby Band chairman Steve Greenall. As part of the celebration of Steve winning the Innovation of the Year award in the Nectar Business Small Business Awards 2013, the members of our Junior section showed Steve (a trombone player himself) how it should be done. All at Ratby were very proud of our youngsters in the national press, and of course proud of Steve and his great success! Well done Steve. Look out for any colourful pBones on a concert stage near you!

Musikfest Success

Thanks to all the bands and groups that participated in this year’s Ratby Band Musikfest at Groby Community College. Two packed evenings of entertainment, featuring all the Ratby Bands and our guests including Lutterworth Town Band, The Enderby Wind Band, Soar Valley Music Centre Swing Band and the Heart of England Chorus.

The drinks kept flowing courtesy of our waitering staff (yes you guessed it they were band members off duty!). We look forward to next year and even more music making!

Junior Band Sponsored Walk

In a bid to raise some funds to buy and repair our set of instruments, the Junior Band committee organised a sponsored walk around Bradgate park and put one foot in front of the other for a good cause. Around 30 folks of all ages and sizes turned out for the 4 mile circular walk and thankfully all completed it and the weather was kind. We also had a couple of bikers and a welcoming committee waiting at the coffee shop! A Special mention must go to Steve Plant who raised over £100 by himself on the Sponsored walk which was truly fantastic – Well Done Steve!