The band entered the North West Counties Brass Band Association Contest at Fleetwood on 4th October, and were delighted to be awarded first prize in the Fourth section. We were awarded 181 points by adjudicator Capt Paul Norley, who complemented the band on its tuning, direction and overall performance.

As well as the overall prize, the band were awarded a further 3 trophies. MD Steve Hartley was awarded the prize for winning conductor, and Dave Thomas won the award for best Euphonium player. A special award was made to cornet player Millie Forrest who at age 11  was the youngest player at the contest.

The result at Fleetwood is the latest in a string of successful contest results for Darwen Brass over the past two years, and is the culmination of lots of hard work and committment. A big well done and many congratulations to all.

We are now preparing for our next contest at St Helens on 15th November, together with a series of concerts which will take us up to and beyond the busy Christmas season.

Darwen Brass announce the launch of their new training group - Darwen Brass Jr!!

REHEARSALS COMMENCE 24th Sept 2009 6.30pm - 7.45pm!!!!!!!!

Since acquiring our own rehearsal premises in Lower Darwen, we are growing in strength and numbers and, after a number of good results at local contests and many local appearances over the last year, we want to give something back to the community.

Our latest venture is the forming of a Brass Learner's Group. We are looking for young (or old!) brass beginners to join a small learner's group. Maybe you played a brass instrument in the past and want to take it up again, or maybe you have brass lessons at school and want to play in a musical group - this is the place for you! The group would be ideal for those people of any age who have begun to learn a brass instrument and want to further their skills and improve their ability. We have a number of brass tutors and music teachers on hand to help, support and offer advice, all of whom are CRB checked.

If you, or someone you know would be interested in coming down and giving it a go, or you would like more information, please contact Darwen Brass' Secretary, Catherine Carey, on 07790662842, or email darwenbrass@yahoo.co.uk. Alternatively, you can check out our website, www.darwenbrass.com.

Exam passes with distinction.

It is with great pleasure that we announce that Millie Forest, our youngest third cornet player, has recently taken her grade six cornet exam and passed with a distinction.

She also took grade six piano and gained a pass with merit.

We are very pleased for her and wish her continuing success in her playing abilities.

New sponsors for Darwen Brass

We are extremely pleased to announce 3 new sponsors supporting Darwen Brass.

Perrys Peugot of Blackburn

Akash Restaurant & Takeaway of Darwen and

Great Escape Holidays

We are extremely grateful to these companys for their support to our band.

On our Home page via the Great Escapes Holiday Banner our visitors can get a superb opportunity to aquire a 7 night luxury holiday in the Canary Islands for only £99.

Click the banner for more details.

Whit Friday Marches. June 5th

The Band took on the exhausting challenge of trying to play at as many contests as possible in this annual event which takes place in the Tameside and Saddleworth areas every Whit Friday.

This involves trying to get into and out of a coach as quickly as possible at every venue so as to play, then move on to the next in the hope that we can get to the next one before too many are queued up in front of us.

It was a extremely wet evening and we got caught in many a downpour but our efforts were rewarded with a couple of prizes. Out of the seven contests we managed to get to and enter we took second prize at Audenshaw, and first prize at Droylsdon. The march we chose to play was the same one we won with at Greenfield two weeks ago, which is Cornish Cavalier, by W.E. Moyle.

Well done all in the band, and a special thanks must go to James Utting and Neville Rogerson who came along as deps to help us out.

Nev. Hounslow.

Greenfield Contest results Saturday 23rd May.

We are pleased to announce the band entered this contest and won several prizes in a contest consisting of seven bands taking part.

 The contest itself being in three parts, A march with deportment a hymn tune to be played in normal band formation, followed by a more testing march tune again played in normal band formation.

Prizes were awarded for each part with extra prizes for different sections of each band and an overall trophy for the band with the highest points.

We gained fourth position for deportment in the first part, the march. We then were pleased to hear the result of best trombone section being awarded to us, this was followed by first prize for the hymn tune and then also first prize for the main test piece.

We also had enough points to be awarded the overall best band trophy as well.
Well done to all band members who took part, we did exceptionally well.

Nev H.

New member alert

We would like to welcome Matt Twomey to our percussion section.

Matt is an accomplished musician who plays the clarinet to grade 8 standard and over the past few weeks has found himself to be a natural on the timps.

Welcome on board Matt!!

Mandy. P

 Tameside Contest.

 Sunday 29th March.

We entered this contest and managed a fifth place, a little disappointing as we did hope for better, considering we took first prize at this contest last year. However it is still a reasonable result in consideration of the twelve bands we were in competition against, and those that took the higher places are renowned as being good bands.

We did play at our best, enjoyed playing it, and still had a good day out from it all though.

Nev. H

New member alert

We would like to welcome Alison Firth to our cornet section.

Alison is a very fine cornet player and will be a great asset to the section.

 Mandy. P

The Area Contest, Blackpool March 1st

Sunday,  March 1st saw us enter the area's contest in Blackpool where we gained a creditable 8th place out of 19 bands to enter and play. Although a little disappointed that we could have done a little better, it is still not a bad result, and certainly a higher position than gained in the same contest last year. Well done all who attended and played.

Nev. H

New Bandroom

On the 2nd Feb 2009 we will move into our new bandroom situated in Albert Mill, Lower Darwen.

Mandy. P 

Now Christmas is behind us.

After a very hectic lead up to and including the beginning of the Christmas period, during which we performed a Christmas concert, went for an interview at Radio Lancashire and on the following Wednesday did a recording at Radio Lancashire which was broadcast on Christmas day evening. In amongst this there were several out door caroling events in both Blackburn town centre and Darwen Market, plus one for the Sunnyhurst residents association at the beginning of December, a small carol concert at Hoddlesden. This should have been on the green, but snow and ice conditions meant it was indoors in the social centre. A carol service at Pickup Bank Chapel, and another along with the Friends of Sunnyhurst woods on December 21st, the same evening we finished this seasons work at St Georges Church in Mill Hill for a carol service there.

Now into the New Year.

We are now looking forward to the new year with a concert in Thwaites Theatre for the British Legion on Saturday 10th January. This to be in the style of a "Last Night At The Proms" event and hope it will be well attended. A similar concert is also coming up on February Thursday 5th at Haslingden High School. Then there will be some more serious work to be done for the first contest of the year, the "Area Contest" in Blackpool.

Nev. H

 16th Nov 2008 - Another good result for Darwen Brass!

The band entered the Wilkinsons contest which is an annual event that takes place in St Helens. We were drawn to play fifth in the fourth section, and after a good deal of hard work in rehearsals leading up to the contest, that hard work paid off with being awarded a third prize. This prize was won in a field of other extremely good bands so we are proud of our efforts.

Nev. H

It is with great sadness that we announce that one of our members Alison Sedgewick passed away on Sunday 19th October after a long illness. Alison was one of our founder members of Darwen Brass and also spent many years with Blackburn & Darwen 2nd band. She will be sadly missed.