The Dean Heritage Centre in Soudley will host a weekend celebrating the rich history of brass bands in the Forest of Dean this month.

As well as live performances there will also be an exhibition of Forest brass band history as well as opportunities for members of the public to learn how to play a brass instrument and join one of the many brass bands in the Forest of Dean.

The Cinderford Brass Band, who have been entertaining audiences since their formation 1879, will be performing over both days of the event, which gets underway on Saturday 18th August. Mike Weaving, who plays in the Cinderford Brass Band, says he’s been looking forward to the weekend for a long time. Mike said: “We’re very proud of all the brass bands here in the Forest of Dean. For a rural area we punch well above our weight, there must be close to a dozen brass bands in the area which is great when you consider some cities only have two or three.

“We’re really looking forward to playing at the upcoming Heritage Weekend. Any time we get together and perform is really special. We’ll be playing a real mixture of music, from songs from musicals like Les Miserables right through to songs from films and we might even throw in a bit of more modern pop music as well.”

Mike, who joined the Cinderford Brass band when he was eleven years old, recently re-joined the group after an absence of over 40 years. Mike continued: “I was very young when I first joined the band and I’ve got so many wonderful memories of the early days. Back in the 1960s and 1970s we were one of the best brass bands in the country, in fact we were the first brass band from the Forest of Dean to be invited to play at the Royal Albert Hall. That was a very special concert, the Royal Albert Hall is one of the most famous music venues in the world. During the late 1960s and early 1970s we competed in the lowest section, but we soon rose right to the very top standard, the Premier League for brass bands I suppose.

“There’s 25 of us in the band. We’re a very good concert band, we all love performing and practising every week. We’ve got a great mix of ages represented with some very talented up-and-coming youngsters as well as more senior members like me.”