As many of you will know, the Belvoir Big Band was formed at the beginning of 2015 in Harby with a view to attracting players of both sexes and all talent and skills to play together once a week in the village hall.

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Over the years, personnel have changed and the band has grown, both in its size and in its ability to perform and play. From little acorns, relatively large oaks have grown and whilst the basic idea of starting a big band has remained the same, the condition of the band has been refined over the years together with the variety of venues at which the band performs.

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The ethos was to have a band that performs mainly for charity and fundraising functions, but which also takes on commercial bookings if they arise. We make a relatively small charge for charity /fundraising events to cover the band’s extensive costs – rehearsal room venues, music, insurance etc., etc., - and we all pay £2 per week as a subscription fee to play with the band.

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At the end of each year, we make suitable charitable donations to local and national charities, having donated and raised several thousands of pounds in cash over the last 9 years. No one in the band is paid for playing with us and we all give our time freely.

At the time of writing (2024) the band has 26 musicians and a singer and we play village hall events, school concerts to encourage the children with their music, village fairs, and large specialist events together with concerts and dances in churches and the theatres in Grantham and Melton Mowbray.

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The band takes on no more than 12 performances per year so as to not impinge on band members family or working lives. The arrangement is still working well. We are a friendly group who do not take ourselves too seriously, although we do take the music and playing seriously, aiming to put on the best performance that we can at every event.

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We would always welcome hearing from new players. We can’t guarantee that we could take on any more players instantly, but we have a reserve list of musicians just in case a vacancy occurs. If you play an appropriate instrument and would like to be included on the big band list of players for the future, then please get in touch with us via the band web site www.belvoirbigband.co.uk. Currently (April 2024) we are in urgent need of a competent, reliable and versatile tenor 1 sax player.

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Look out for our future events and see videos of the band on our web site.

Jon Jayes
Secretary / organiser
Belvoir Big Band