Posted on Sunday April 11th, 2021
Whilst it's great that we're gradually moving back towards real-life physical rehearsals and concerts, there's still a huge amount of uncertainty for us and other musical groups about exactly what, when and where we'll be able to perform in public this year.๐บ๐ฅ๐ท
Despite this, we're already working hard to think about what pieces we might be able to play to celebrate a return to live music-making and we've all come up with plenty of suggestions for our music group and Director of Music Claire to consider, covering everything from Mozart to ABBA, and from Elgar to Stevie Wonder! Whenever we get to play live, we'll be ready!๐ต
In the meantime, if you've got any suggestions for what you'd like to hear us play, feel free to pop them in the comments and we'll make sure we include them in our considerations!
Thank you for the music!? ๐ค๐
Posted on Sunday April 4th, 2021
Happy Easter!๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ซ
This week, we held the sixth round of our virtual Great WCB Bake Off with, of course, a theme of Easter! We had no less than 10 entries which were, to be honest, some of the least healthy bakes we've ever seen, featuring lashings of chocolate, heaps of marshmallows and an awful lot of Cadbury's Mini Eggs!
Entries ranged from traditional Hot Cross Buns to an Easter Cheesecake and from Creme Egg Brownies to a highly controversial savoury dish (take a look through the photos to find out what it was...) and it was a tough decision for our expert judging panel! In the end, however, they awarded Star Baker๐ to Sue for her amazing Easter Garden scene (click on the photo to see what all the constituent parts were made from) and 2nd place to Alison for her delicious-looking Hot Cross Buns. Steve also received an honourable mention for his lovely-looking Easter cake - his first ever attempt at baking a cake!
All in all, there were some amazing Easter-themed creations and we had a really fun evening finding out what everyone had made and hearing the stories behind their creations! We hope that you have a great Easter and we'll see you next week for a little insight into our virtual rehearsals...!๐ต
Well done again WCB......which obviously stands for We Can Bake !๐ฅ๐ฃ๐ฅฎ๐ฐ
Congratulations Sue. Beautiful, up to your usual yummy confections standard๐
Posted on Sunday March 28th, 2021
๐ฃBONUS VIDEO! When our brilliant percussionist Katie recorded Another Day of Sun, she was kind enough to film from no less than 5 different camera angles!๐ฅ So...we decided that the least we could do to showcase her amazing drumming was to make an extra video with full-on flying sticks, swinging cymbals and that unmistakeable cowbell!๐ต
PS...Whilst we had sheet music for the piano, trumpet and bass parts, there was no music for the drums so Katie wrote her part from scratch - what a star!๐
Love it. Thank you for continuing to do these videos. They put a smile on my face every time. X
Brilliant love this tune.
That’s brilliant!
Thanks Katie!
Fabulous as always Katie! X
Amazing work Katie Tyler ๐๐๐โค๏ธ
Fantastic!
Amazing!!
Posted on Sunday March 14th, 2021
Time for something lively! La La Land is one of the most iconic musical films of recent years and its Oscar-winning score is filled with memorable songs and toe-tapping tunes!๐ต
Never shy of taking on a challenge, here's the awesome WCB rhythm section with the brilliant opening number to the film, Another Day of Sun (with a little help from trumpeter Gregor too!).๐ It might not feature the glamorous skyline of LA or people dancing on cars but we still reckon it's pretty spectacular - we hope you like it!๐น๐ธ๐ฅ
Love this. Well done all. Going to be humming this all day now! ๐ถ๐ถ
Fab job! Something lovely and sunny โ๏ธ
Love it, especially the concentration from the bass player - I can relate! Keep it up!
Brilliant, well done!
Nice keys John ๐
Love this.
Posted on Sunday March 7th, 2021
Today marks exactly a year since our Spring 2020 concert, "Lights, Camera Action," our last performance before it became clear just how serious Covid was and we entered lockdown. This week, we held our first ever virtual AGM and whilst it's been a very unusual year for the band, we were amazed by just how much we've managed to accomplish despite not being able to meet up. In 2020...
๐ฌ We made 43 videos, including...
๐ 8 Clap For Our Carers doorstep performances,
๐ฅ 5 full band virtual pieces,
๐๏ธ 20 solo, duet and small group pieces,
๐ 12 daily Christmas videos,
๐
and 6 special videos to support Addington School's Christmas concert.
We also managed 2 carolling sessions in Woodley where some of us actually saw each other in real life and got to remember what playing together was like - we were even vaguely in tune!๐ต
In addition to the musical side, we managed to keep our busy social calendar pretty active with...
๐บ 8 virtual trips to the pub,
โ 13 online quiz nights, hosted by 7 different band members (and their families),
๐ฐ 3 rounds of The Great WCB Bakeoff,
๐ป plus a sunflower growing competition and
๐ณ the WCB Virtual Bowling Championship.
With no concerts after the Spring Concert, the only way to measure how many people we've reached with our music making is in terms of social media stats and when we tallied up the numbers for this, we were pretty chuffed too! Since the start of the first lockdown...
๐งโ๐คโ๐ง Our videos have been shown to people a total of 89,353 times.
โฒ๏ธ They've been viewed for a total of 23,144 minutes (or over 385 hours)...
๐ ...and received 15,211 clicks, likes and shares!
We're absolutely blown away by how many people have enjoyed our music so if you're one of them, thanks very much! We've got more new virtual music coming up in the not-too-distant future and maybe...just maybe...we'll be able to see you in real life somewhere later this year!๐ถ
Posted on Sunday February 28th, 2021
This week, it was great to hear that there's a prospect of being able to get back together for real-life rehearsals at some point in the next few months. It's clearly a little while off yet, but like all amateur music groups, we can't wait to be able to play music together again when it is is safe and sensible to do so.๐ถ
In the meantime, here's a brand new video from our Spring 2017 musicals concert, A Night in the West End. This is a brilliant arrangement of classic song Shall We Dance from 1951 Rodgers & Hammerstein musical The King and I.๐๐บ
youtu.be/4uwuqBfmGYw
Posted on Sunday February 21st, 2021
It's been almost a year since our last rehearsal and this week, we finally got back together...kind of!๐ต Our first ever Zoom rehearsal included scales, articulations and work on note lengths, just like a normal rehearsal, and we all started to remember what it's like to play music in the company of other people! Due to the technical limitations of Zoom (there's a huge d..e..l..a..y..), we unfortunately can only play with our microphones muted, but it was great for the band to be able make music with each other in some form again. MD Claire took us through the piece which we've selected for our next virtual recording, pointing out pitfalls and the way that different sections should be played, and we had a chance to try out fiddly passages and play along with a recording of the piece too.
Hopefully, it won't be *too* long before we're able to get back together in real life but in the meantime, it was fantastic to get back to some communal music-making and we hope to have another rehearsal soon!
Posted on Sunday February 14th, 2021
This week saw the band's 15th online quiz since the start of the first lockdown back in March last year.๐ค๐ญโ๏ธ Different members of the band have been volunteering to set the questions and on Wednesday, Sue challenged us with some close-up photos of instruments.
Can you identify the instruments featured in these close-up photos? Bonus points are on offer for naming the make of each instrument!๐บ๐ป๐ฅ
Posted on Sunday February 7th, 2021
OK...we confess that it's beginning to look a bit like we're mostly obsessed with cake round here but if we're honest, our recent band quizzes and trip to the virtual pub aren't quite so photogenic!
January's round of The Great WCB Bake Off opted for a healthy theme which this month's entrants interpreted in various different ways, from an egg-less, sugar-less, fat-less cake made with wholemeal flour, to Scottish Tablet, made with 'just' a kilogramme of sugar but served with salad and multivitamins!
After a rigorous judging process, the winner was judged to be Ursula's impressive Marmalade Cake, whilst commendations were awarded to Steve's Stuffed Peppers (for thinking outside of the box), Alison's Wholemeal Cake (for being super-healthy) and Gregor's Scottish Tablet (for the biggest boost to mood)...
To see all the entries, together with explanations of exactly how their creators claimed they were healthy, check out the photos...!๐ง
(PS...sorry if you were hoping for some slightly more musical content from us! We're working on the musical side too but we're always proud of the fact that we're a pretty sociable bunch so we're proud of the fact that we're continuing with our band social scene despite the present circumstances!)
Posted on Sunday January 24th, 2021
Whilst last Monday might have been 'Blue Monday,' our musical offering for this week is anything but gloomy. It may be titled Blue but this quintet arrangement is a brilliant and jolly liittle piece featuring WCB trumpeter Gregor and multi-talented euphonium, trombone and horn player John.๐บ Composed by Thomas Gansch from incredible brass septet Mnozil Brass (look them up if you've not come across them - they're amazing), it's the ideal accompaniment for a laid-back Sunday...well...all except for a spectacular top Eb in the 1st trumpet part - make sure you stay tuned to catch it! We hope you like it...๐ต
Love it guys. Well done. Will share that with my class again
I went to the evening concert at the National Championships a while back and whilst I waited in the foyer a group of musicians came in and started playing amongst the crowd. I was very close to them. They were rather loud at that range but I was transfixed and couldn't move. They kept swopping instruments and played perfectly. I found out later that they were the Mnozil Brass who had been playing on stage during the interval. They were told to move on by a steward eventually for 'annoying' the public. but what an experience! I have seen them twice since from the audience and I remember them getting a standing ovation at one event. It was either at the Hexagon or in the old Town Hall in Reading.
Very cool listening to this and watching the snow falling outside. Well done Gregor and John - another triumph!
Loved it well done Gregor and John.
Well done both - cracking!
Congrats - a super performance
Gansch gut !
YEAAAAAAAAAH
Well done Gregor and John.๐บ๐ฏ
Posted on Saturday January 23rd, 2021
Definitely time to replace our Christmassy cover photo - here's the lovely bandstand in Alexandra gardens in Windsor, back in August 2019.๐ Hopefully we'll be able to get back to doing some summery gigs this year and maybe even manage an ice cream or two๐ฆ (what do you mean it's going to snow tomorrow?!โ๏ธ)!
Look out for our latest lockdown recording, out tomorrow (Sunday) - it's a feelgood little quintet number...๐
Posted on Sunday January 17th, 2021
Whilst Christmas seems a long time ago now, it was a busy time for WCB with not only our 12 Virtual Days of Christmas, but also musical contributions to the switching on of Woodley's Christmas Lights, Addington School's Christmas Concert and Reading's Digital Advent Calendar! Despite this, we still found the time to squeeze in a couple of Christmas socials including a festive round of the Great WCB Bake Off!๐๐ฐ
Competition was fierce with no less than 11 entries, with everything from Yule Logs to Christmassy Rocky Road and Marzipan Mince Pies to Swedish Pepparkakor (gingerbread cookies)! In the end, the expert panel of judges awarded prizes to three well-deserved winners:
๐Ursula for the Creativity and Back Story of her fabulous family Christmas cake,
๐Ethan, Jon & Hilary for the Impressiveness and Attention to Detail of their amazing Gingerbread House, and
๐Sue for the Appearance and Finish of her exquisitely-decorated Christmas Cakes
We had a lot of fun showcasing our bakes - take a look at all of the pictures to see what you would have voted for and let us know in the comments! We'll be back for more Bake Off later this month...
Posted on Sunday January 10th, 2021
With enhanced lockdowns and rising virus rates, it looks like it will still be a while before we're able to get together as a band to make music. As a band, we've also had some very sad news this week. So today, we'd like to share this reflective piece, entitled Do You Recall, recorded at the end of last year by WCB member John Deane and written by friend of the band Rob Wiffin.
Thank you. Was after a very long day's teaching but came out ok.
Beautifully played John
That really is beautiful
Really beautiful John
Lovely โบ๏ธโค๏ธ
Juliet Griffiths, you'll enjoy that.
What sad news?
Posted on Friday December 25th, 2020
It's been so long since we had a day without putting a post up on here at 8:30am, we think that we might have forgotten how to do it! Only kidding...we just wanted to take a moment to say a massive and heartfelt thank you to everyone who's watched our 12 Virtual Days of Christmas videos over the last couple of weeks, especially if you've taken a moment to like, comment or share one or more of them. It's been wonderful to see so many people getting so much enjoyment out of the videos (so far, the 12 videos have reached over 24,000 people and been viewed for 5,200 minutes which is pretty amazing!) and we're thrilled to have been able to spread a little Christmas joy in what's been a pretty peculiar year for us as a band and for everyone else too!
On behalf of all of us, we'd like to wish all of our audiences, friends and families a happy and healthy Christmas and we'll see you in 2021!๐๐ตโค๏ธ
Happy Christmas to WCB๐๐
Happy Christmas to my WCB family x ๐๐๐โ๏ธ๐ถ๐ท
Happy Christmas WCB โค๏ธโค๏ธโค๏ธ๐ผ
Happy Christmas to all of you.
Posted on Thursday December 24th, 2020
Well, that was fun! If you were listening to BBC Berkshire at about 8:40 this evening, you'd have heard our Assistant MD Owen talking to Michelle Jordan about our 12 Virtual Days of Christmas! She was really excited to hear about what we've been up to and if you missed it, you can hear the interview again here:
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p090873p
starting at 2:38:45.
If you were listening to the show and want to hear and see our 12 Virtual Days of Christmas, you can find all 12 videos here:
www.facebook.com/watch/202897213075683/664968430843252/
We hope that you like them! Merry Christmas!๐๐ต๐
Really enjoyed all the pieces, thanks to all involved.
As an independent family i.e. not connected to WCB, we’ve been enthralled with the WCB 12 Days of Christmas. Well done Owen and everyone involved, you’ve certainly brightened up all our lives and we can’t wait to see you live in 2021! Merry Christmas one and all!
Well done Owen, you did WCB proud!