Author Archives: Gavin Holman

1. This is a sketch made of George Belton, bandmaster of Kilburn Brass Band in London, during a visit to the Ring O’ Bells Inn in 1870. Kilburn Brass Band (Middlesex) – Active from 1868 at least. Bandmaster George Belton … Continue reading →

Easter cards of the past (before the usual bifold cards in envelopes of today) were usually sent as postcards, with a wide range of pictures representing some aspect of Easter – whether religious or not. As with other topics there … Continue reading →

Having completed the digitisation of the records of the earlier Cambridge Albion Silver Band (1921-1927), I am now working (in the background) on the subsequent volume relating to the amalgamated Town Band. It covers the day to day details of … Continue reading →

This tiny rendition of a slide trombone was discovered near the pad ring on a 1983 vintage Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) 7990 Ethernet controller integrated circuit. The letter “K” in the trombone bell is the surname initial of Stephen Kolbacher … Continue reading →

To mark St Patrick’s Day, as we probably can’t celebrate it as we normally would, here are a few Irish brass bands of the past, together with a few celebratory postcards – which I suspect were not produced by an … Continue reading →

Now that the British regional contests are finished, the qualifying bands will be looking towards the finals in the autumn at Cheltenham and the Royal Albert Hall. Here is the programme for the National Finals of 110 years ago, at … Continue reading →

A recent post in the Australasian Brass Bands Facebook group about Hilda Tansey, leader of the Sydney Ladies’ Brass Band, led Eric Brisse, a French brass band enthusiast, to ask if there had been any French ladies’ bands. The only … Continue reading →