Admission is £5 only, either at the door or in advance at the venue, and there’ll be tea, coffee and other refreshments available too. There will also be a raffle, so bring some extra change!

Proceeds of this concert will go to fund both the church and the band.

Call 0115 9117556 for more information

We also need percussionists, preferrably tuned percussion players. Our concert and contest musical programmes requires increasing amounts of drums, timps and glocks etc, and so any interested percussionists are encouraged to come for a play on our kit.

Additionally, the band needs a cornet player to sit on the front row plus a baritone/euphonium player.

Applicants are welcome to visit the bandroom during our Monday and Friday rehearsals. See our Contacts page for committee members or contact our Chairman John Bailey on (0115) 9117556 or (0773) 8604528

Tickets are priced at only £5 and will be available on the door.

For further information contact us

The test piece was the rather difficult Pentacle by talented, young composer Graham Cole. Graham had created a piece of music that would have tested most Championship Section bands and comments around the various regionals have shown that many bands have struggled at rehearsals with Pentacle.

Opinion of the piece has been divided. Some people love it and some don’t but the band managed to find enough music in the piece to be adjudged sixth in a field of 16 bands. Despite a wobble during the Fire movement the other four movements featured some good ensemble work and many fine solos that impressed the two adjudicators enough to give us a top six finish.

The band were delighted with the result considering the difficulty of the piece and the quality of the other bands in the section.

Top honours went to Phoenix West Midlands Brass, who will be joined in Harrogate for the National Finals by City of Coventry. Congratulations to both bands. Carlton Brass wishes you well in Harrogate and hope that you show the other regions just how well Midlands bands can play.

The sixth place leaves the band in pole position for promotion to the Championship Section next year. Ourselves and Foss Dyke lead the way taking only ten points each into the 2010 Regional Finals and the talented Forresters Band not far behind.

Carlton Brass will take a lot of encouragement from our performance this year and hope that under the continued direction of Walter Ritchie we can achieve a prize or two in the 2009 contest season.

Pentacle is a very modern brass band piece of music and contains some very clever, if difficult, musical ideas. Most themes are created around the use of fives which makes for some interesting intervals and time changes, however the band has been working hard at rehearsals and will be ready for the challenge.

Once again the area contest is being held in Bedworth with 16 bands competing in the first section. Results from the North-West and Yorkshire regionals have suggested the piece is proving to be a real test for many bands.

Brass band news website 4barsrest is predicting us to come third on Saturday. We will see, but if we do achieve that position we will almost certainly be promoted to the Championship Section for 2010.

Now there’s a prospect even scarier (if exciting) than performing Pentacle.

Steph Graham joins us from our Training Band. Steph is the daughter of BBb bassist Mick and will be providing an extra set of lungs in our horn section.

Also joining us recently is Hannah Prince. Hannah is a student of music at Nottingham University and has previously played with the Hitchen Band. She’s proving to be an excellent addition to the front row cornets.

The band would like to wish both players well during their stay with us and hope that you will enjoy playing with us for a good while yet.

Sadly, we’ll be losing talented percussionist Anneke Praagman after the area contest this weekend. She’s heading back to the Netherlands on Sunday  and the band would like to extend many thanks to her for the effort and talent she has shown us during her stay in Nottingham. We wish her all the best.

Sharing the stage this year were the Alan Johnson Singers (an excellent Operatic group who have shared Christmas duties at Lakeside with the band for the last few years) and the talented crooner Ryan Brodsky.

Carlton Forum was packed, as usual, for the concert which featured an eclectic mix of music: everything from a beautiful euphonium solo by Barry Tupper through a bit of Motown from Ryan, and some wonderfully performed Opera by the Alan Johnson Singers. The evening was topped off my some rousing proms music from the band, ably supported by the many voices (and plenty of union flags) in the hall.

The audience had an extra surprise during the proms – the band appeared in full fancy-dress!

We are delighted to have acquired Barry Tupper on solo euphonium. Barry is a talented soloist with a lot of experience and joins us at a key time in the bands history.

Joining us on the Bass section are Dave Roberts (BBb) and Dave Kirkby (Eb). Dave and Dave (a band really can’t have enough Daves) are bolstering our solid bass line and giving MD Walter Richie some great support towards a rich, creamy band sound.

Dave, Dave and Barry have all previously played under Walter at Foss Dyke. Carlton Brass are delighted to sign these talented gentlemen and welcome them along to our organisation.

Dave Roberts is filling a space left in the BBb by Clive Brocklehurst, who’s Carlton Brass career has taken an unexpected break due to work commitments. The band would like to extend a warm “thank you” to Clive for his commitment over the years – we will miss your humour and peddle-notes and hope to see you back in the near future.

Also joining the band in the last month is Anneke Praagman on Percussion. Anneke has just started a postgraduate doctorate in Astro-Physics at Nottingham University and joins us from the brass band scene in The Netherlands. She is the second Dutch musician to join the band following in the footsteps of our much missed Flying Dutchman Wouter Barten.

Nottingham Trent University has also provided us with a musician in the form of cornet player James Unknown-Surname. James is from Sheffield and completes our front-row cornet section.

The band would also like to offer a warm welcome to Anneke and James.

2008 has seen the band’s ranks improved by the addition of several other players in addition to Dave, Dave, Barry, Anneka and James. Paddy Sears (Euphonium/Trombone/Baritone/Anything you like) and Dave Peck(cornet) signed earlier in the year, as did Mick Graham (BBb Bass). Inconsistent news reporting prevented an earlier announcement but the band would also like to extend a warm welcome to Paddy, Dave and Mick also.

The band are still looking for a permanent second trombone and a back-row cornet player but our band is nearly complete and confident of a successful contest season in 2009, starting with Butlins in January.

This is a good time to catch both the Training Band and senior band playing together so please come down to support us. Once you’ve heard us play Deck The Halls and the like there’s a cornucopia of Christmassy activities to enjoy, including ice skating and a Christmas Market.

There will also be further performances at Lakeside on the 14th, 21st and 22nd December at the same time. Please come down to Lakeside Tower and enjoy some of the excellent food available at this stylish venue while some of Nottinghamshire’s finest musicians provide the musical entertainment.