Watership Brass wasn’t always known by that name, and it wasn’t always based in Newbury either. Starting life in 1980, it was originally called the rather grand-sounding Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Band and based in Basingstoke.

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The Watership link came later when the band moved to Kingsclere in 1984, first rehearsing in the Methodist Hall, then, when that was damaged by a storm, moving to the Baptist Church Hall in 1990.

 

Have you spotted the rabbit on our logo? Well, Kingsclere is near Watership Down, which was of course the inspiration for Richard Adams’ famous novel of the same name and in turn inspired the band to change its name to Watership Brass.

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So, much like those intrepid rabbits in the novel, the band has moved around quite a bit but has now firmly established its home in Newbury, with Watership Down to the south of the town.

 

As Newbury’s local band, we love nothing more than to share our enjoyment of playing music with our community. Past and ongoing events include fetes, wedding receptions (a particular joy when band members are getting married!), church recitals, charity events, including the Classic Vehicle Show at the Newbury Showground, and bandstand concerts (our own in Newbury and others) and we are always proud to lead the Remembrance Day Parade.

 

In recent years we have even had the pleasure of playing at Downton Abbey, aka Highclere Castle several times and at Christmas we always love bringing some seasonal cheer at local supermarkets, a mental health rehab centre, a school for young people with autism, in the market place and other venues.

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To bring our Watership sound to wider audiences, we like to go on international tours every now and again. In the past we have been to Holland (1991), Germany (1996), Canada (1998), South Africa (2001), Italy (2007), Belgium (2012), a tri-state European tour to Holland, Luxembourg and Germany (2015), Prague (2018) and most recently a return to Belgium (2024). These are always a fun way for band members to get to know each other better and for us to share our love of the universal language of music with other cultures, making us realise that music truly can transcend language and cultural boundaries.

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We are always very thankful for our musical director, Mark Picken. Our success as a band is a great tribute to his hard work at inspiring us, keeping our standards high and making sure we have a wide variety of music to play. We regularly play the traditional hymns and marches typical of brass bands but also popular music, music from films and pieces arranged by our MD and other talented arrangers in the band.

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Family means a lot to the band. Not only are there several sets of members of the same family, spanning 2 or 3 generations, but meeting each week and some weekends and sharing life together means that the family feeling extends beyond the ties of blood, and we have seen each other through the ups and downs of life. The atmosphere is always very welcoming and supportive to established players and newcomers alike and people who join the band have grown in confidence because of this.  

 

We wouldn’t be without our Tuesday evenings – a chance to chase away the stresses of the day and to just enjoy being with other musicians and working together to achieve something good.

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We are always truly grateful for the support we have from family members who support the band and our audiences and look forward to many more years of sharing our love of music with you!