Friary Guildford band, the London & Southern Counties Regional Champions, also currently hold every scaba top section title (Spring, Autumn, Entertainment, Quartet, Ensemble and Solo contests). Friary was named “Most Entertaining Band” at the Butlins Mineworkers Championships in January, and just last week at the British Open Spring Festival qualified for the Grand Shield.
The band is now set to perform to its largest audience ever – around 350,000 – when it will be featured on BBC Radio 2’s Listen to the Band programme tonight. The Band recorded the half hour programme at the BBC’s Maida Vale studios in April. Principal cornet player Richard Straker, the featured soloist in tonight’s programme, commented: ‘It was a real surprise when we were approached to record for the programme. We’ve had a good run of success over the past few years, but Listen to the Band is usually the preserve of bands which are household names so it’s a fantastic opportunity for us to raise our profile and reach a worldwide audience.’
The programme will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 at 11.30pm tonight, and available on the BBC iPlayer for a few weeks.