The Brass Monkeys Quintet

New November bookings!

2006-09-08T07:30:00.000+01:00

A quick post to update that we have also been booked for two more appearances at The Saville Garden, Windsor.

Two Wednesday evenings in November, 22nd and 29th from 6-8pm both nights, we will be playing our usual popular selection of Jazz and Blues numbers, liberally interspersed with Christmas classics to amuse and entertain during the Saville Garden's late night shopping experience.

We hope to see lots of people there!

P.S. We are also hopeful for our usual Christmas Sunday afternoon spot later in December to accompany The Saville Garden Restaurant's Turkey Roast afternoon meal. More details to follow...

Next Gig - 10th Sept: St Matthew's Church, Ashford, Middlesex

2006-09-08T07:21:00.000+01:00

This coming Sunday, at 1930, the Brass Monkeys will be performing a short (40 minute) recital at St Matthew's Church in Ashford, near Staines.

The programme wil consist:

Overture to the Royal Fireworks - excluding opening
The Roaring 20's
Ave Verum Corpus (Mozart)
Toreador Song (from 'Carmen')
Die Bankelsangerlieder
When I'm 64

A interesting selection we're sure you'll agree, taking music from the Renaissance right through to the Beatles!

We hope to see you there...

Next Public Gig - The Saville Gardens 23-7-06

2006-07-18T18:18:00.000+01:00

Following a highly successful and enjoyable week playing at Royal Holloway, we are now looking forward to our next gig this coming Sunday, 23-07-06.

This will be at one of our favourite venues, The Saville Garden, Windsor, part of The Crown Estate.

Entrance is free (just remember to pay for your parking!), and we are playing from 1230 until 4pm.

As usual, we'll be presenting a full and varied selection of music from our library, stretching from popular classics such as Bizet's 'Carmen' and Mozart's 'Ave Verum Corpus', through to modern numbers such as Tony Christie's no.1 hit '(Is this the way to) Amarillo' and Jim Parker's 'Ground Force' theme tune...!

We will be sadly missing Katie (Trumpet) and Mark (Trombone), but have the ultimate pleasure of Paul Speed (Trumpet) and Matt Harrison (Trombone) to fill in for them - two of our favourite deps for one of our favourite gigs (and the weather should be good too!)

Something for everyone - more info at the Saville Garden events page

We hope to see you there!
bM5q

Royal Holloway Graduation Updates

2006-06-27T13:08:00.000+01:00

We finally have confirmed lists for those players forming the quintet over the 5 days of this year's graduation ceremonies for Royal Holloway, Uni of London.

We are pleased to announce that for the first time ever for this booking we have 2 (count them: 1, 2 - yes two!) core members doing the whole week! Mark Rudland (Trombone) and Matt Rumble (Tuba) will be there all week.

Joining them to form a full 'fab five' will be:

Mon 10th July
Guests: Ben Godfrey (Trumpet 1), TBC (Trumpet 2) and Martin Grainger (Horn)
bM5Q Members: Mark Rudland (Trombone) and Matt Rumble (Tuba)

Tues 11th July
Guests: Bill Cooper (Trumpet 1), Simon Sturgeon-Klegg (Trumpet 2), and Martin Grainger (Horn)
bM5Q Members: Mark (Trombone) and Matt (Tuba)

Weds 12th July
Guests: Paul Speed (Trumpet 1), Stuart (Trumpet 2),
bM5Q Members: Rob Thrower (Horn), Mark (Trombone) and Matt (Tuba)

Thurs 13th July
Guests: Stuart (Trumpet 2)
bM5Q Members: Katie Hodges (Trumpet 1), Rob (Horn), Mark (Trombone) and Matt (Tuba)

Fri 14th July
Guests: TBC (Trumpet 1)
bM5Q: Ruth Thrower (Trumpet 2), Rob (Horn), Mark (Trombone) and Matt (Tuba)

We are really looking forward to playing with so many great and varied guests, and this engagement always results in some great discoveries, (both personally and musically!)

Englefield Green Fete appearance cancelled...

2006-05-30T13:42:00.000+01:00

Bad news we're afraid...

Unfortunately the organisers of Englefield Green Village Fete have just advised us that they have had to cancel our appearance at this year's fete.

There appear to be issues around sponsorhip for this year's fete, and a late date change to Sunday 18th June seems to have removed more of the money available to pay for groups such as us to appear.

Sorry to those of you who were coming to see us - we hope to be able to renegotiaite a mutually acceptable fee for next year...

Brass Monkeys MySpace site!

2006-05-30T13:38:00.000+01:00

We are now on MySpace!

Visit www.myspace.com/brassmonkeysquintet to hear some of our tracks, and see some more photos of the group, as well as information on our forthcoming gigs and appearances.

Highlight of these is 10th September in St Matthew's, Ashford, Middlesex, where we'll be putting on our own recital.

Please do come along if you can!

2006-03-13T20:17:00.000Z

Just a quick post to update for our forthcoming gigs:

Sunday 11th June - RHUL Garden Party (afternoon)
Saturday 17th June - Englefield Green Fete (afternoon)
Saturday 17th June - Egham Choral Society Summer Concert (evening)
Tuesday 11th - Friday 14th July - RHUL Graduation Ceremonies
Date TBC - Summer Concert at Saville Garden (afternoon)

More info when confirmed...

Forthcoming Public Concert - Sun 18th Dec

2005-11-24T08:00:00.000Z

The Brass Monkeys next public concert sees a welcome return to the Cafe/Restaurant of The Saville Garden, Windsor, Surrey. (For information on the venue, see The Saville Garden website)

The concert will see us performing our popular mix of Christmas tunes and carols, light classics and blues, with the added bonus of a full carvery service of turkey and all the trimmings!

Why not come along and join us, experience the splendour of the wonderful surroundings and enjoy the good food (even just a coffee and a cake!).

We play in the afternoon of 18th December. We hope to see you there!

2005-11-21T23:11:00.000Z

Finally we get some pictures on the blog!

From left to right:
Ruth Thrower (Tmpt), Rob Thrower (Horn), Matt Rumble (Tuba), Matt Harrison (Trombone - guest on the day of the photo) and Katie Hodges (Trumpet).

Photo was taken at The Saville Gardens during September 2005.

Congratulations!

2005-02-28T17:45:00.000Z

Thought it should be said on here that the next outing for The Brass Monkeys will be a special one.

We are playing for a wedding, but this isn't just any wedding (then and again any wedding at which The Brass Monkeys play isn't, by definition, just any wedding!).

No, this wedding is the special joining together in Holy matrimony of Rob and Ruth, our Horn and 2nd Trumpet players respectively - and I would like to say on behalf of the rest of the group how pleased we all are to be able to contribute to such a special day.

Well, Mark and I are anyway - Katie (1st Trumpet) is to be involved in the wedding itself as a bridesmaid (I believe!), so for this momentous occasion we will be joined by no less than three deps! But having a significant number of guest players has never stopped the 'Monkeys from giving superb performances before (indeed, I believe that one of our best performances was when I couldn't make it...).

So bottoms up, and raise your glasses to the future golden couple of The Brass Monkeys - Rob and Ruth!

Well here we finally are - The Brass Monkeys on the web!

2005-02-23T17:56:00.000Z

After six years we're finally here - The Brass Monkeys on the web!

Feel free to contribute, comment, request and keep up-to-date with what we doing and where.

Check back later to see what we've accomplished so far...

Matt