The GUS Band

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World class music with a proud history and an exciting future The GUS Band World class music with a proud history and an exciting future The GUS Band World class music with a proud history and an exciting future The GUS Band World class music with a proud history and an exciting future The GUS Band

About The GUS Band

The GUS Band is a world-famous brass band, based in Northampton, England. Originally known as the Munn and Felton Works Band, it was formed by Fred Felton in 1933 in Kettering, England. Since then, the band has gone on to establish itself as one of the leading bands, with a string of titles to its name and regular appearances at the National Brass Band Championships in the Royal Albert Hall.

Listen to the Band

Discover our newest performances and recordings

The President March

William Gerrman
Winner of best march at the the 2024 Dr Martins contest.

Malaguena

Composed by Ernesto Lecuona, arr. Mark Freeh

Jealousy

Trumpet duet featuring James and Thomas Fountain

Composed by Jacob Grade, arr. John Iveson

To listen to more of our music and see our videos go to the Media page

Latest News

See what’s happenning in the world of GUS

2025: See The GUS Band live!

Well, the first two months of 2025 have flown by and already the GUS Band has been busy and hard at work rehearsing and preparing for another exciting year ahead. The Band’s diary is already filling up fast and there will be plenty of opportunities to listen to the band this year.
Helping the band put new and scintillating programmes together are two new members, Matthew Ball who joins us on the cornet front row and Tracey Holford who has joined the band on percussion. Both are highly experienced musicians. Matt hails from Bolton and his early musical experiences included playing with the famous Besses o’th Barn band. On relocating to Olney in Bedfordshire, he became principal cornet of Broseley Brass, (later to become Milton Keynes Brass) and he also plays trumpet in several Oxford ensembles. Tracey gained her early musical experiences playing with the Syston band and through the Leicestershire Arts Music Service playing in all their bands while at school. She then went on to play percussion with the Enderby and Kibworth bands and after finishing university, she became principal percussionist with the BBC Elstree Concert band.
Together with the rest of the team, the GUS Band has already completed its first engagements of the year, firstly on 2nd February, when it presented a regional’s test piece workshop for 3rd and 4th section bands at the Oxford Music Service Centre for Music. Delegates at the workshop were taken through a rehearsal of each of the regional test pieces before participating in a question and answer forum to conclude the sessions. Then, the band travelled to Crawley and made a welcome return to the Hawth Theatre on 22nd February, presenting a highly enjoyable evening’s entertainment. The next opportunity to hear the GUS Band perform will be next weekend on the 9th March, when we will be competing in our own Championship regional contest in Bedworth. Following this, a further date to put in your diaires is 5th April, when the band will be performing a Night at the musicals and movies at Kettering Arts Centre which will feature the bands Wizard and Oz Set from the 2024 Brass in concert programme. So, keep an eye out for concert dates throughout 2025 and come and be entertained by this world-class brass band.

Just what the doctor ordered

On the weekend of 7th September, the GUS Band travelled to Yarm in North Yorkshire, a picturesque market town situated on the banks of the River Tees.  The Yarm School at the top of the Main Street was the venue for the Dr Martin contest, at which the band was to defend its win from last year.  The contest, for champion section bands, requires each band to perform an own choice contest march, solo piece and a test piece.  The GUS Band chose to play the march The President, (William German). James Screaton, the band’s principal cornet performed a stunning rendition of the solo Concertpiece for Cornet, (James Curnow) and the band’s performance was rounded off with the challenging tour de force and previous European Championship test piece From Ancient Times, (Jan Van der Roost).  After a thorough examination, the adjudicator Leigh Baker pronounced the band super fit and well and awarded us Best March, Best Soloist and overall winner!  Dropping only six points out of a total of 250, Leigh Baker ended his remarks with “A cracking show – a real statement of intent from a band on top, top form”.

GUS Summer report 2024

After a busy first half of the year, now is a good time to take stock and review the GUS Bands’ successes over the past six months before it reconvenes after a short summer break to begin preparing for an exciting second half of 2024.

As reported here, January saw the band present the Lower Sections Workshop in Kings Sutton following their recording of the Area Test pieces for the 3rd and 4th sections, while February included the now regular concert at the Holy Trinity Church, Rothwell.  This church has such a beautiful acoustic and the concert presented the band with an opportunity to include in the programme the forthcoming Midland’s Area test piece, Variations on an Enigma, (Philip Sparke).  So, March saw the band successfully qualify for the National Finals on this piece.  The Band returned to the Stroud Subscription Rooms in April with a highly successful concert and also appeared as guests at the inspiring Northampton County youth bands concert, (NMPAT) at the Spinney Hill Theatre, Northampton.  May included a trip to Blackpool, competing in the Grand Shield contest, a concert in Morley Town Hall and an afternoon performance at Stowe School.  Finally, the Band was back in the recording studio in July and rounded off the first six months of 2024 with a highly enjoyable concert at St Mary’s church, Titchmarsh.

Sadly, we’ve had to say several goodbyes to players but have also welcomed new faces; more to come about these exciting new signing shortly.  It was also with great sadness that we heard of the passing of David Read, former principal cornet player with the GUS Band and member of the famously successful GUS quartet in the 1960s.

That was the first six months but looking ahead, firstly, September sees us travelling back up North to the Doctor Martin’s contest in Yarm, to defend our winning title gained last year.  The band will also be playing in a joint concert with the Harborough Band at the Welland Park Academy Theatre, Market Harborough on the 28th.

The GUS Band will return to the Royal Albert Hall in October to compete in the National Finals, playing the test piece Harrison’s Dream (Peter Graham).  There will also be a concert presented by the band at St Hilda’s Church, Ashford on the 13th.

November will see the band return to the Holy Trinity Church, Rothwell on the 9th to present a Remembrance concert before heading to Gateshead to perform at the Brass in Concert entertainments contest at The Glasshouse.  This is a lovely concert hall to play in and GUS are looking forward to performing a new programme there.

Before we know it, December will have arrived with an exciting, festive live performance of the Snowman planned at the Royal and Derngate Theatre, Northampton on the 1st.  There will also be our now annual matinee concerts at St Peter and St Pauls, Kettering on the 7th and 8th and the GUS Band will round off the year with a family Christmas Concert at All Saints Church, Northampton on the 20th.

Tickets for all the concerts for the remainder of this year can be obtained via this website and we really look forward to seeing you soon at one of our appearances.

See our latest video

We have managed to stay active over lockdown, and had a lot of fun making several new videos for you to enjoy. To see more of our music videos go to the Media page

The GUS Band, we love to hear from you, whether you’re a supporter of the band, a member of our community, a local arts organisation interested in working with us, or a business who sees the value in partnering with an elite group with deep roots in your community. So please go ahead and drop us a line – we promise you a warm welcome!

For any enquiries, please contact us through the webform
Alternatively you can email on our regular email address:

enquiries@gus.band

If you have any images of the GUS Band, video or audio recordings, please contact our website administrator at the email address above.

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    MISSION STATEMENT

    The GUS band — creating world class music with a proud history and an exciting future. Serving our community,
    promoting music education and partnering with local businesses and Arts organisations for the benefit of all.

    What people are saying

    What do you expect?

    Well, it’s the GUS band — what do you expect? They’re one of the best bands in the world!

    Paul Fisher

    Musical Director, Amersham Band

    A refreshing change

    This is an attractive, well-planned and produced release, which will be part of my seasonal listening for sure

    Paul Hindmarsh

    British Bandsman magazine

    What a special album

    I bought the ’80 Years in the Making’ album and it is such a pleasure to listen to the high standard of musicianship

    Doris Smith

    Ex bandsman

    One of the best brass bands

    The GUS Band are one of the best brass bands I have seen — and I have seen many

    Paul

    Musician

    What people are saying

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