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Last Friday evening’s weather was perfect for the Whit Friday Marches and it brought both the bands and the crowds out in great numbers. In fact, over 160 bands took part in the two districts, Saddleworth and Thameside. For anyone not familiar with the contests, the aim of a band is to try and play at as many villages as possible during the evening. The band arrives at a participating village and registers its entrance where hopefully there are not too many bands waiting ahead. When it’s the band’s turn, they march through the village to where the contest is being held, e.g. the village green or park, where they play a contest march. As soon as they’ve played, then they jump back on the coach and race to the next village. The rules state that a band has to compete in at least six contest to qualify for any prizes awarded.

This year, the GUS Band managed to compete in seven contests in the Saddleworth district and due to the number of competing bands, no band managed more than this in this area. As our MD Chris Bond was an adjudicator at one of the villages, this year we were directed by Richard Marshall, the world-renowned cornet player. It was a long but fantastic evening, with our last performance at Diggle at 11.30 under floodlights and torches and overall, we gained seventh place with some excellent results, including 6th place at Uppermill, 4th at Delph and 3rd place at Diggle.

Although producing a good performance, the GUS Band were awarded fifth place at the recent Grand Shield contest in Birmingham and sadly didn’t qualify for the British Open Championships. However, it’s fantastic to report that our soprano cornet player, Jack Wilson was awarded the Best Soloist prize for his outstanding playing. Well done Jack!

The GUS Band achieved an emphatic win last weekend at the area qualifing contest and have been crowned Midlands Area Champion 2026.  Playing off the number one spot, it was a fantastic performance of Martin Ellerby’s Elgar Variations, which was reflected in the adjudicators’ remarks: Dr Robert Childs commented that it was “A fine performance – always musical” while Andrea Price wrote that the performance was “So musical as well as technically accomplished”.

In addition, Rhys Cave, the band’s fine flugel player was awarded Best Instrumentalist of the day for his beautiful playing and Christopher Bond, the band’s musical director and his first Midlands Area Championship with the band, was awarded the Winning Conductor’s trophy.   This was a fantastic achievement for the band, which was made even more special as it is also remarkably their 30th win at this qualifying contest.  GUS will now, along with Desford Colliery, (runners up) and Derwent Brass, (awarded third place) go on to represent the Midlands Area at the National Brass Band Finals at The Royal Albert Hall in London in October.

It’s the 1st March and signs of spring are appearing in gardens and the countryside here in Northamptonshire. The GUS Band also have a spring in their step as they look forward to a busy calendar over the next few months. First up will be the Midland Area Championships in Bedworth next weekend, (Sunday, 8th March) where the band will be defending its championship title. On this occasion the test piece will be Martin Ellerby’s Elgar Variations and the band has already given this music a run through at the highly enjoyable concert given by them last weekend at the Holy Trinity Church, Rothwell.

GUS will be walking onto the contest stage with two new exciting and highly experienced signings, Ailsa Russell and Ben Smith. Ailsa has joined the band on Solo Horn and her vast playing experience includes the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland and for the last few successful years, the Cory Band. As well as a renowned exponent of the tenor horn, she is also a respected youth educator both here and abroad. Ben has already had a short spell at GUS before leaving school and re-joins the band on Second Euphonium. A graduate of the Birmingham Conservatoire of Music, he has had spells at Grimethorpe Colliery and Hepworth Band and was the successful Musical Director of the Harborough Band. The GUS Band gives them both a big brass welcome!

On Saturday, 10h January, 2026, the GUS Band presented another successful regionals workshop in Eynsham, Oxfordshire. Organised by The British Bandsman, the many delegates who attended from across the country including the Midlands, London, Southwest and Northeast Regions were given the opportunity to discuss and hear how the third and fourth section test pieces for 2026 could be rehearsed and performed. Questions were asked from the floor and the many challenges that these two works, Indian Summer by Eric Ball and Three Haworth Impressions by Gordon Langford, presented for the bands in these two sections were analysed with suggestions and examples provided on how bands can tackle them.  We hope the attendees went away armed with new ideas and we wish all the third and fourth section bands all the very best in their area competitions this year.

A Happy New Year to all our supporters from the GUS Band. After a relaxing Christmas break for the band, it is straight into the New Year with a bang, or rather a test piece or two! This weekend on Saturday 10th January, in conjunction with the British Bandsman we are hosting a Lower Section Workshop for 3rd and 4th section bands at Eynsham Village Hall, near Witney, Oxfordshire. The band will be taken through the regional qualifying test pieces Indian Summer, (Eric Ball) and Three Haworth Impressions, (Gordon Langford) providing the chance for players and conductors to gain a greater insight into how to bring out key aspects of the music and enhance their area contest performances. Then, the following Saturday, (17th) the GUS Band is off to Pudsey, West Yorkshire, to perform a concert at the Civic Hall as part of the Leeds Best of Brass concert series. Details for these two appearances by the band plus all our upcoming concerts can be found on the Events page of this website.