Richard Hughes joined Aldbourne Band back in 1991 on second cornet. A big step up at the tender age of 14 from fourth section Ramsbury Band.

His first contest with the band was at Reading Contest at the Hexagon where the Band won on "Year of the Dragon" with Dave Whitson. Since then Richard has spent time navigating the cornet section, with stints on Second Cornet, Repiano, Soprano, Front Row and Principal Cornet where he currently plays.

 

 

 

 

 

Susan first picked up the cornet aged eight and played with the City of Oxford Silver Band until she was 16. Her first banding venture into the West of England was with Swindon Pegasus Band followed by a four year stint with Jaguar Coventry Band where she played until the end of 2010. Susan joined Aldbourne in January 2011 along with the conductor (and now fiance!) David Johnson and has played Repiano for the band since the middle of last year.

Susan enjoys playing cornet in bands, attending band concerts, watching David conducting and playing in bands, watching David conduct at home and listening to bands on David's IPod!

Ian Barnes started playing the cornet at the age of 9 in 1972, joining the Aldbourne Junior Band under Don Keene. Within a year he had played at a solo contest, coming 5th in the under 12s and played at the local Radio Oxford contest and Shaw contest, both with Aldbourne Band.

Moving around the cornet section for many years including spells on Flugel, Repiano and Soprano, Ian fulfilled the life long ambition of most bandsmen, when competing with Aldbourne Band in the Championship Section National Final at the Albert Hall in 1981 as Regional Champions.

  After a spell at Wantage, helping them from 2nd section, to the top of the 1st section, Ian returned to Aldbourne and remains committed to returning to the top level of banding.

With a tolerant wife and three grown children, Ian finds moments of relaxation attempting to train his 2 year old Field Spaniel, Branston. Probably the craziest dog on the planet.

Ali joined the band in 2009 on third cornet and since has worked her way up to the dizzy heights of second cornet.  Despite having a long history of banding in her family, she only joined a brass band whilst at university upon discovery that it had a better social calendar than the wind band, but has been hooked ever since.

Outside of brass band she also plays bass and trumpet (not at the same time) in a jazz band and occasionally finds time to teach Geography in a local sixth form college.

 

 

Claudia Hughes joined Aldbourne Band in 2001 when she moved back to her home town of Wantage. She started playing cornet aged 8 in Wantage Silver Band but moved swiftly onto flugel on the advice of Bill Mellor (Andy "4th Man"'s Dad). By the age of 12 she gained a place in the National Youth Brass Band and junior Guildhall School of Music, the highlight of which was a solo in the School's Prom in the Albert Hall. Claudia also played flugel for Halls of Oxford Band, competing in the Championship section National Finals and the Grand Shield. Prior to her move to Aldbourne she played for Bournemouth Concert Brass which can lead to mixed loyalties at contests!

Claudia is married to Richard and has two children. She is a physiotherapist with her own private practice in Wantage.

Claudia loves shoes and chocolate and really hates people being late! 

Simon Snow joined Aldbourne in 2003 from SWT Woodfalls after moving to Swindon with his job.

He has played in bands up and down the country since the age of 10 and studied music at Salford Uni under such banding luminaries as David King, Peter Graham and the late great Roy Newsome.

Outside of horn playing Simon enjoys watching films and going for a curry and a beer.

 

Rachael started playing at the age of 12 on soprano cornet with Ramsbury Band as at that time Aldbourne did not allow girls into the band. However, after a couple of years, girls were finally allowed in so she joined Aldbourne along with Jill Keene (the conductor's daughter) and for the following 7 years played flugel and second cornet before returning to soprano.

Rachael got married and moved away from the area for 11 years,and had 3 children before returning to the village and re-joining the band. She is now married to Andy Chalk and plays tenor horn which is her favourite instrument.

She is also currently the secretary of the band.

 

Ian first played on the stage for Aldbourne at the age of 8. Son of Don a former Principle cornet player and conductor of the band, Ian played solo Euphonium at Aldbourne for many years sharing in the success of Shining River at the Colston Hall and appearing for Blitz at the Albert Hall. As a young soloist Ian was the runner up at the Pontins British young brass soloist competition in the late 70s.

Having taken a 15 year sabbatical Ian has recently returned to playing in brass bands. He works in the computer industry and can be found occasionally playing sax solos in a corner of a pub near you!

Ed Latham joined Aldbourne Band in 2010 having moved into the area from Norfolk. He started playing cornet at age 8 with his local school band but upon taking lessons with local cornetist Bob Baggot started on 3rd cornet with Coventry School of Music Band, then in the championship section, at age 13. Over the next few years he moved to 2nd Horn, 2nd Euphonium and then on to 1st Baritone with Coventry. Ed joined the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain aged 17 and became principal baritone for 3 courses. Having met Bob Childs through the NYBBGB he joined IMI Yorkshire Imperial Band, then one of the country's top bands, whilst studying engineering at Leeds University. The highlight of this time was playing 1st baritone in their Yorkshire Area win of 1993.

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Following a move back down south Ed played solo euphonium for his old band in Coventry for a couple of years and then a short spell on 1st baritone with GUS Band before moving to 2nd Euphonium with Redbridge Brass whilst working in London. 10 enjoyable years were spent with Redbridge winning multiple Area contests and appearances at the National finals in the Albert Hall.

Whilst with Redbridge Ed met his wife, Kathy and they moved to Norfolk. After a short stint on solo Euphonium with Norfolk Wherry Brass the family moved out to Adelaide, South Australia to spend a couple of years with Kathy's family. During this time Ed played with Salisbury City Band and also attained the accolade of 'Champion Euphonium of South Australia 2009'.

On moving back to England in 2010 Ed and his family relocated to Wiltshire to 'settle down' and bring up their two children Hayley and Peter.

When not practising Ed enjoys DIY projects and tinkering in his garage.

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Lionel has been with the Band since around 1957 and currently plays on baritone. He is married to Sue who is a keen supporter of the Band, and they have two sons, one of whom also plays with the Band on percussion. Lionel is also the longest playing current member of the Band with over 50 years of playing experience.

Other interests include tennis, cycling and walking and Li can often be seen pounding the roads around Ramsbury!

Li works in the long established family coach business - Barnes Coaches
01793 827631.

Simon learnt to play trombone in the Boys Brigade Band before his arms were long enough to play all 7 positions, playing alongside Chris Davis OBE. After playing solo trombone with the Hampshire County Youth Band and principle trombone with the Hampshire Youth Orchestra, and a very short stint in the Grenadier Guards, Simon studied classic music at Trinity College of Music with Roger Brenner and jazz with Bobby Lamb, with a post grad year specialising on alto trombone also with Roger.

After a 10 year break from music Simon started up again with the Swindon Big Band before joining Aldbourne in November 2004 as solo trombone, a surprising move considering his then, dislike for Brass Bands! Simon now loves Banding, but still enjoys jazz and classical music and can be seen virtually every night of the week playing somewhere within a 50 mile radius of Aldbourne.

Andy Fielden has been an amateur trombonist since the age of 10, and learned to play in the brass band heartland of Yorkshire. He started with his school band, and has played for Wakefield Metropolitan, and Yorkshire Evening Post bands.

His playing career with Aldbourne started in 2007, with a win at the Leicester BBA contest. Andy's other musical interests include bashing drums, and when not making loud noises on trombone, he makes even louder noises with a local rock band. He's also really popular with the neighbours!

To pay the mortgage and other bills, Andy spends his day writing software and trying to get computers to do useful things

 

Martin joined Aldbourne Band in 2000 from Wantage Band and had a change of instrument from Euphonium to 2nd Trombone. At various times Martin has been on all 3 positions in the section and currently plays Bass Trombone. He has been voted Aldbourne Bandsman of the year twice and received the Rick Bendell Memorial Trophy. Martin also enjoys Swing, Jazz and Big Band and often plays for Apollo Big Band and Swindon Concert Band
The other hobby he is passionate about is cars – and on a sunny day can be seen driving through Axford in a Triumph Stag convertible with his top off.

 

Ben Newton started playing in 1997 with Hungerford Town. After stints on Cornet and Tenor Horn, started playing Eb Bass in early 2000.

After having a 3 year association of deputising in concerts and a couple of contests winning both Leicester in 2007 and Blackpool 'Senior Trophy' in 2011 with 'Benvenuto Cellini', Ben finally joined full-time as a member of the Bass section in 2011 after the Blackpool contest.

Ben also is a trained Precision Machinist which helps with his families hobbies of steam traction engines and fairground organs.

James joined Aldbourne Junior Band in the 1970s and started on the trombone and eventually ended up on an Bb Bass. He believes that the instrument finds you rather than you choosing the instrument!

The Sheppard family have close connections with the Band – his great grandfather conducted it and both grand parents were presidents of the Band. His father also played in it for many years and is now Chairman of The Friends of Aldbourne Band

Brass Banding brings people from all over the world together and whilst in New Zealand James played for the Waikato Times Hamilton Brass Band. He runs the family farm on the Marlborough Downs and has a 5* Farmhouse B&B www.poultongrange.com which keeps him quite busy along with his other hobbies of golfing, shooting and NFU business.