Keep a close eye on the bands website and on our Twitter feed ( https://twitter.com/SnowdownCWBand ) as new concert performance dates will shortly be added to the bands calendar.

The Snowdown Colliery Welfare Band have the following vacancies:

• BBb Bass
• Euphonium
• 2nd Cornet
• 3rd Cornet
• Front Row Cornet
• Percussionist

All players, of any instrument, will be made very welcome.

Rehearsals are Wednesday evenings 19:15 – 21:15 at Aylesham Baptist Church hall.

Please contact the band secretary via Facebook messenger or the band website.

#SnowdownCWBand will be performing at a Pop-up Performance at the Duke of York Royal Military School, Dover tomorrow 2:30pm – 4:30pm

After the enforced break over the last couple of years due to Covid-19 and after two cancelled concerts because of it, the band finally hope to return to St. Bartholomew’s Church at Herne Bay on Saturday 7th May 2022. The concert, commencing at 7.30pm will be a relaxed affair and contain entertaining music from all types of genres.

Tickets can be booked prior to the concert for collection on the night from Ken Skinner on 07957 867062 or they are available on the door. As stated, it is planned to be a relaxed evening of entertaining music and refreshments of wine, tea, coffee and nibbles will be made available.

We look forward to seeing you!!

Firstly, many apologies to anyone who may have viewed the website over the past few months with no updates and current information available. Things are returning to normal and it is anticipated that this website will now be updated on a regular basis with news and other matters concerning the band and our concerts etc.

The past year 2021, was a stop/start affair for the band as a whole with us managing to fulfill some engagements and at least getting back to rehearsing on a more regular basis. Our Christmas engagements were curtailed by the arrival of the Omicron variant but as things seem to be easing off a little, we look forward and confident that 2022 will see some sort of normality returning to the band.

We have been fortunate to have retained almost all of our membership and have good numbers around the band. We are particularly looking for BBb bass players and a Soprano Cornet but anyone who is looking for a friendly band will be made very welcome.

The engagement list for the year is beginning to fill up and we can be seen at a number of venues around the County as well as our trip to Hyde Park Bandstand once more. Further details will be added to the website but these will include concerts and appearances at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Herne Bay, a Jubilee Celebration at The King Ethelbert Inn at Reculver, Woodchurch Church, Deal Memorial Bandstand, a Charity concert for Follicular Lymphoma, Battles for Victory Show at Quex Park, Birchington as well as Hyde Park, London as previously mentioned. More will undoubtedly come in as we go through the coming months.

Thank you for everyone’s continued support and we very much hope to see you at our concerts this year – please keep an eye on the website for further information.

After so many months of wondering when or if, the band will ever be able to return to some form of normality and full rehearsals, we are now pleased to say that we are back rehearsing on a Wednesday evening and back in our village of Aylesham.

We are fortunate to have a rehearsal facility that affords us plenty of room and we are able to accommodate everyone that wishes to play. This is in keeping with current Covid and Government guidelines and with a suitable risk assessment in place, ensuring that we keep all members as safe as is practically possible according to the rules. It is pleasing to say that the rehearsals have been extremely productive and most, if not all chairs occupied.

We are keeping our fingers tightly crossed that most, if not all restrictions are lifted as from the 21st June. The band is now available for concerts etc and enquiries can be made via our website. Depending on any continued restrictions from the 21st June, the band may need to be socially-distanced when playing and therefore suitable room will be required when setting-up and playing.

We look forward to seeing you once more in the very near future at concert locations around Kent – you’ve been missed!!

Well…..what can be said about the year 2020? From the band’s perspective very little, as since the end of March we have only been able to gather in small groups on a few occasions while the guidelines allowed us to play. It goes without saying that not only have we missed each other’s company at rehearsals and concerts, we have also missed our audiences and followers. None more so than during this Christmas period when we are very busy bringing festive entertainment to a number of listeners. There are often ‘moans’ and ‘groans’ from some members of the band when the library is rifled for the Christmas music to rehearse but I think that this year, most would be only too pleased to see a bit of ‘Rudolph’ or hear that Chris Rea was ‘Driving Home For Christmas’.

Whilst what has occurred with the band’s calendar this year cannot be helped, we would like to ensure our followers that we are still very much a band and we are desperate to get back onto the concert stage playing for you as soon as possible in 2021. If anything, the pandemic has brought the band closer together as a unit and the weekly ‘Zoom’ quiz nights hosted by differing members each week, has kept spirits undoubtedly alive!

As we approach what is probably, the most unusual Christmas period and Christmas Day in peoples memory, the entire Snowdown Colliery Welfare Band would like to wish everyone a very happy Christmas and a far better and more enjoyable New Year. Stay safe everyone and we are confident that we will be back entertaining you very soon in the New Year!