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!ππ°
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:
πUrsula for the Creativity and Back Story of her fabulous family Christmas cake,
πEthan, Jon & Hilary for the Impressiveness and Attention to Detail of their amazing Gingerbread House, and
πSue 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.
Beautifully played John
Lovely βΊοΈβ€οΈ
Thank you. Was after a very long day's teaching but came out ok.
Juliet Griffiths, you'll enjoy that.
That really is beautiful
Really beautiful John
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!ππ΅β€οΈ
Happy Christmas to my WCB family x πππβοΈπΆπ·
Happy Christmas WCB β€οΈβ€οΈβ€οΈπΌ
Happy Christmas to WCBππ
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!ππ΅π
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!
Really enjoyed all the pieces, thanks to all involved.
Well done Owen, you did WCB proud!
Posted on Thursday December 24th, 2020
Well, here we are! The final video of our 12 Virtual Days of Christmas and we are going out in style!ππ΅π
The biggest virtual collaboration we've ever created, featuring 35 members of the band, 13 different percussion instrumentsπ₯ (can you spot them all?!) and no less than 48 separate audio tracks - here's Happy Xmas (War is Over) in a brilliant arrangement that we know you'll love and which we hope will leave you full to the brim of Christmas spirit.
Thank you *so* much to everyone who's enjoyed watching our daily videos - we set out to bring a daily dose of festive music and maybe the odd smile to our audiences, friends and families and from the reactions and comments that we've received, it's clear that we've done just that. From all of us at WCB, we wish you a very Merry and healthy Christmas and we look forward to seeing you for more music-making, hopefully in person, in 2021!πΆβ€οΈ
PS Missed any videos? You can find our full Virtual Christmas playlist here
(www.facebook.com/watch/202897213075683/664968430843252/),
or catch up with all of our 2020 virtual recordings here
(www.facebook.com/watch/202897213075683/671424900307935/)!
Just wonderful! Happy Christmas all xx
Fantastic all of the 12 days have given us some festive cheer. Wishing you all a very merry Christmas π
Love it! A brilliant set of videos guys and so much work! ππ»πππ₯π·πΊ
Brilliant. Have a lovely Christmas guys
Thank you! π I’ve really enjoyed your 12 days of Christmas it’s been lovely to have these daily doses of festive cheer. I hope you all have a lovely Christmas π and thank you once again for your daily cheer.
I've loved each of your 12 days and spotting so many familiar faces. Thanks so much and Merry Christmas to you all
Thank you for your virtual 12 days of Christmas. We have enjoyed listening/watching these clips very much bringing some much needed Christmas cheer. So professional and can't wait for the outside concerts to start in 2021. Happy Christmas to all at Woodley Concert Band.
Dave π
Posted on Wednesday December 23rd, 2020
We couldn't possibly have had our 12 Virtual Days of Christmas without We Wish You a Merry Christmas! ππ΅π
Back one final time with this most traditional of Christmas Concert carols, here are Gregor, John, Jon, Len, Mark and Phil with our seasonal greetings for you!πΊπ
But why is this traditional Christmas gig finisher appearing a bit early, on Day 11? Well...we are going BIG on Day 12 with something that you definitely won't want to miss...see you tomorrow to find out exactly what we have up our sleeves...π€π
Brilliant! Thanks guys
Posted on Tuesday December 22nd, 2020
Take one very popular Christmas song, four super-smooth saxophones and a sprinkling of festive magic and what do you get? That's right! Day 10 of our Twelve Virtual Days of Christmas!ππ΅π
Here's WCB saxophonist Sarah Parker with a brilliant and sumptuous rendition of a song that's guaranteed to leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!π·πΆπ·
After today, there are just 2 days left of our Twelve Virtual Daysπ - what musical treat will tomorrow bring?! See you then...!
Beautiful, thanks Sarah!
Nice one Sarah xx
Very nice. Well played Sarah.
So lovely, well played Sarah
Wonderful thanks Sarah
Beautiful! Thanks Sarah.
Posted on Monday December 21st, 2020
There are just 4 videos left in our Twelve Virtual Days of Christmasππ΅π
and today is our only trio! This charming and jolly little arrangement of Deck the Halls by Tsuyoshi Yoroiguma features Catherine Piper, Cathy Hughes and Sally on flute - these three WCB members were our first to record a piece virtually during the first lockdown back in May and also the first to get together to play in person (socially distanced, naturally!) once this became possible in July! A rousing way to start your week!
See you tomorrow for something silky and smoooooth!π΅π·
Yay flutes! This is brilliant, well done. Great editing too!
Vert well played but I think the addition of a bass part via bass clarinet would improve it. Just a thought.π€
very nice, humming this all day now
Sounding great. Well done ladies.
Gorgeous!
Posted on Sunday December 20th, 2020
It's Day 8 of our very own Twelve Virtual Days of Christmas and we might be in Tier 4 but we're extremely excited to share our full band virtual performance of the UK's most-played Christmas song of the 21st Century!ππ΅π
Featuring 31 WCB members, 1 marionette and the closest we can get to virtual swaying, here's our awesome version of Fairytale of New York!
See you tomorrow for something effervescent and sparkly...!β¨
-----------------------------
Our performance of Fairytale of New York was first released earlier in December as part of the fantastic Reading Digital Advent Calendar and we're grateful to Reading Culture Live for their donation in support of the creation of this video. If you haven't seen the Digital Advent Calendar, you can (and should!) catch up on all that you've missed here:
www.readingculturelive.co.uk/genre/digital-advent-calendar/
#digitaladventcalendar #rdgculturelive #magicalchristmas
What's On Reading Reading UK CIC
Absolutely brilliant, we loved it!
This is fantastic - loved it! Even had me thinking I should get back to the Clarinet, not sure I should inflict that on my family mind! You guys have done an awesome job. Great production/editing too! Possibly my favourite Christmas song.
Excellent ! The editing is fantastic and the music is, as usual, perfection. Well done all. ♥οΈπ²♥οΈ
Sounding great guys. Fab job on the editing. Just getting better and better. β€οΈβ€οΈπΌβ€οΈβ€οΈ
Amazing, I knew the song but didn’t know what it was called. It was very uplifting on a wet, tier 4, Monday morning! Some good news, Alan has a date for the vaccination!! Hooray!
My favourite so far, well done and Merry Christmas!
Brilliant as usual guys - nice to see everyone together again!
Fantastic playing and editing! Well done WCB
Fantastic job everyone. ππ»ππ
Loved it, thanks!
Absolutely fantastic π π Gave me goosebumps xxxx
I see that you have Rebecca on French horn. Please remember me to her. We used to play together in Thames-Wind.π
Love this! Happy Christmas everyone πβ¨βοΈ
ππ»ππ»ππ»
Spectacular.
Beautiful
Posted on Saturday December 19th, 2020
In at Day 7 of our Twelve Virtual Days of Christmasππ΅π
, the carol most requested when the band's out busking - we once played this no less than 14 times in 4 hours' worth of playing!ππ·π Here's Jingle Bells played by 4 suspiciously-similar looking people in one room...
Make sure that you come back tomorrow for No.8 - you *really* won't want to miss our VERY big version of one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time...!π§π½
Best yet! The theme tune in our house at the moment π Happy Christmas Owen, Louise, James and Laurence
Fab job Owen well done ππβ€οΈ
That’s great! Good work!
Love it! Well done Owen, Owen, Owen and Owen π€£
A triumph! ... but a scary prospect that there are actually 4 Owen Lloyd 's!
Yay Owen the Elf !!
Fantastic! How on earth did you manage the video edit?!
Glad to see the crazy hats finally get an outing this year!
that is fantastic!
Brilliant!!!
Posted on Friday December 18th, 2020
A timeless classic and truly heart-warming carol, the sixth of our Twelve Virtual Days of Christmas is Away in a Manger, performed by Sue and Rose on the clarinet and bass clarinet.ππΌπ Featured in any festive event that you care to mention and synonymous with primary children singing sweetly, it's always a chance for a moment of calm amidst all the noise and excitement of Christmas - a definite favourite!
We'll see you tomorrow for what is easily our most-requested carol when out busking!π π·π
Lovely playing Rose and Sue and very well coordinated with your jumpers!!
I look forward everyday for the posting, thanks Mark and Sue for including us π
Posted on Thursday December 17th, 2020
It's already Day 5 of our Twelve Virtual Days of Christmasππ΅π
and it's time for something fast and lively! When the second national lockdown was declared back in November, we scrambled to record some carols virtually in just a couple of weeks to help Woodley Town Centre create their own online Christmas Lights Switch-On. This is one of the carols that we prepared - here's our brass sextet playing πDing Dong Merrily on High!π
We'll see you tomorrow for one of our favourite carols of all time...!ππΌπ
Posted on Wednesday December 16th, 2020
Something a bit different for Day 4 of our Twelve Virtual Days of Christmas!ππ΅π
In any other year, a video of a few of the band playing carols in Woodley would be entirely unremarkable, but in 2020, it's been something special. After almost 9 months without getting together physically, the last two weekends have seen a few members of the band gather together in Woodley precinct (respecting social distancing and following a comprehesive risk assessment, of course), to spread a little bit of festive cheer to local shoppers. Whilst it's been wonderful to be able to meet up to start making music together again, what's been really special has been all the lovely comments from those who've paused to listen, thanking the band for bring live music back into their lives.
The carol that we've chosen to include, πA Starry Nightπ, is a staple part of one of our usual Christmas performances; the Addington School Christmas Concert - always one of our favourite Christmas gigs. Whilst we haven't been able to participate in this event live this year, we've been delighted to contribute a number of virtual items to help the event go ahead and maintain our involvement with this important fixture in the band's calendar.
See you tomorrow for something fast, lively and with a definite air of bells...!π
I'm sure you're missing being able to play en masse as the full band, but I am really appreciating that bass clarinet/bari sax! Sounding fab π
Great job guys xx
Posted on Tuesday December 15th, 2020
Day 3 of our 12 Virtual Days of Christmas and our first traditional carol! Here are Jo and Rose playing Once in Royal David's City. As you'll have seen, we've got a whole mixture of groups performing in our festive videos and some big suprises coming up too! Make sure you come back tomorrow for a real-life physical multi-person performance!ππ΅π
Beautiful
Looking forward to tomorrow afternoon for the next one ππ
Posted on Monday December 14th, 2020
It's Day 2 of our 12 Virtual Days of Christmas and another Christmas classic - Frosty the Snowman!βοΈβοΈβοΈ Today's video is entirely recorded by WCB saxophonist Sarah Parker on no less than four different saxophones (soprano, alto, tenor and baritone)! Enjoy!ππ΅π
Don't forget to come back tomorrow for more great Christmas music!
Fabulous, thanks so much Sarah
Love it! Well done Sarah. πΆπΆ
So talented! Well done Sarah Parker βοΈ
Sounds great Sarah! βοΈ
Fantastic! Thank you Sarah!
Good job partner π€©....loving the jumper and headwear
Brilliant! Well done Sarah Parker xx
Sarah, that's really brightened up my morning, thank you!
Amazing solo, thanks Sarah Parker
That’s great now looking forward to tomorrow ππ
Excellent, sounds great Sarah! β