Band of the Welsh Guards

🎷 The Inter-Service Saxophone Quartet is pleased to welcome audiences to their debut concert performances, featuring works by Maslanka, Saint-Saëns and Eschaich.

Brought together by a shared passion for music, musicians representing different branches of the Armed Forces have united to celebrate the military’s rich and long-standing musical traditions through an exciting chamber music programme.

📍 Charlton House, London
Charlton Road, SE7 8RE
🗓 Tuesday 26 May
🕐 1:00pm

📍 Regent Hall, London
Oxford Street, W1C 2DJ
🗓 Friday 29 May
🕐 1:00pm

🎟 FREE ADMISSION

We hope you can join us for these special debut performances!


RAF Music
Band of the Scots Guards
Band of the Welsh Guards
The Royal Corps of Army Music
British Army
The Army in London - HQ London District
Regent Hall Salvation Army

🎺 Brass and Curry 🥘

Recently, our 10 piece brass ensemble, along with percussion, were honoured to perform at the Lord Mayor’s Big Curry Lunch. Hosted at the Guildhall in the heart of London, the ensemble performed an eclectic mix of military and popular music across three sittings of lunch and were treated to a curry themselves afterwards!

Since it began in 2008, the event has raised over £4.2 million to support Armed Forces veterans and we are proud to do our bit in supporting it.

Photos by Pauliina Roots Photography

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💂Marching Through The Decades - 2005-2014🎺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

This period began with the appointment of a new Director of Music, Major David Cresswell. One of his first tasks was to take the band on a 77 day tour at the start of 2006 to North America, with 59 performances across 26 states, as well as a trip over the Canadian border to Toronto.

The following year saw the band visit 1st Battalion Welsh Guards in Bosnia for St David’s Day, with His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales in attendance to hand out the leeks. 2007 also marked the closure of Chelsea Barracks, where the Bands of the Irish and Welsh Guards were based, and a move to our current home, Wellington Barracks. In 2008, Major Cresswell was replaced by Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Barnwell as Director of Music.

In 2009, the band made visits to Spain, France and Wales and in 2010 supported 1st Battalion Welsh Guards homecoming parades throughout Wales as they returned from a tour to Afghanistan, which tragically saw the loss of seven men.

2012 was a very special year for the nation, the likes of which may never be seen again, with the London Olympics and Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. The band were involved with both celebrations, performing at the beach volleyball and closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. For the Jubilee, the band played at a National Service of Thanksgiving and several fanfare trumpeters and percussionists from the band were lucky enough to perform at the opening of the Diamond Jubilee concert on the Queen Victoria Memorial.

In 2013, Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Roberts took up the position of Director of Music, leading the band to perform at the 2014 FA Cup Final and a ceremony at the Tower of London to commemorate 100 years since the start of the First World War.

Join us next week as we bring the history of the band right up to date!

(Source - The Band of the Welsh Guards
- A Centenary by Colin Dean)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿💂Marching through the Decades - 1995-2004🎺🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Travel and the turn of the Millenia.

This period began with a trip Egypt in 1995 which included; playing in front of the Temple of Karnac, marching over the Kasr al-Nil bridge, a concert at the Cairo Opera House, a joint televised concert with the Egyptian Army Pharaonic Band, and even parading around the Pyramids of Giza.

The band made its first appearance at the Edinburgh Tattoo in 1995 which also included a separate ceremony, held in the presence of HRH The Princess Royal, to mark the 50th anniversary of VJ day.

Major Terry Davis was appointed as Director of Music in 1997. Sadly, he was only with the band for a year as he passed away after a short illness. A large congregation was present at his funeral and a few days later, prior to a rehearsal for the Queen’s Birthday Parade, an act of remembrance was held at Chelsea Barracks by the massed bands. The role was then taken on by Major Philip Shannon, whose first parade with the band was the Major General’s Review of Trooping the Colour.

1999 provided a significant change for the band as they welcomed their first female musicians to the ranks (Pictured below).

The band’s first event of this millennia took place on 2nd January 2000 with the largest ever live ‘Song’s of Praise’, in which the band had also pre-recored the hymns just incase the ‘bug’ disrupted any transmissions, leaving the artists without a backing track.

The next few years saw the band visit multiple countries including; Washington and Canada (1999), Georgia (2002), Bosnia (2002) and Spain (2003). One of the bands regular abroad trips was to play at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at the Hippodrome de Longchamp in Paris.

State and ceremonial events remained at the heart of the band’s calendar, demonstrated at events like; the 2001 Trooping the Colour (thought to be one of the wettest parades the band has seen), and the State Funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother in 2002. The band’s role in the funeral involved leading street liners along the Mall, before taking up their position on Horse Guards Parade, performing pieces such as Bach’s ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ and Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’.

Join us next week as we explore more highlights from the history of the band!

(Source: The Band of the Welsh Guards - A Centenary by Colin Dean)