January 2026

A big thank you to all who supported our various performances in December which is a very important month for the Band. During December we support several community events by providing the music for Church services at St. Francis and Holy Trinity and we helped to raise nearly £1,000 for good causes including St. Francis Hospice, Maggie’s Cancer Charity (in memory of Holly Miller) and St. Nicholas Church.

In addition, we had a group providing carols, for one day, for those families enjoying trips on the Ongar to Epping Steam Railway and Classic Bus rides. However, the focal point of our December was our Christmas Crackers Concert at Theydon Bois. This was an outstanding success with nearly all tickets being purchased in advance, with a wonderful audience who were in excellent voice singing the Carols.

After the few well-deserved Mondays off, we resumed full rehearsals on 5th January and are currently very busy preparing music for our Baking with Brass concert at St. Francis in April, where all proceeds will be donated to the Church, and for the National Brass Band Championships Regional Heats which will be held in Stevenage in March. For the latter we enjoyed a very productive one day workshop with Michael Fowles who is the Musical Director of Foden’s Brass Band, a historic Band who are one of the best in Europe. We have worked with Michael for many years now and really benefit from his knowledge, skill and guidance, and it is a credit to the Band that after working every week with a Band of the highest quality Michael looks forward to his day working with us.

We have, once again, been invited to present “Brass on the Grass” at St. Nicholas Church on 4th July, and also looking forward to a private performance to celebrate the 80th birthday of Euphonium player Colin Handley. Colin was the first brass teacher of myself and many of the players who attended Fairlop Junior School and other schools across Redbridge, and we are all so pleased that he still has the desire to play with us.

A final thanks to all those who have renewed, or purchased for the first time, a share in our 100 Club. This long-standing fund raiser is an important part of the financial income that is required to run the Band and has helped us to start the process of purchasing a more casual uniform for those performances on hot days – we hope to have these available for our summer concerts.


Kevin Jordan
Musical Director
Fairlop Brass