The Youth Band

The Youth Band are the last band players in the organization play in before leaving. The age of players in the band ranges from 12 to 19, but all players are of a similar standard. Upon reaching the 'grand old' age of 18, many players leave, mainly due to University, but many try to stay on as long as possible.

The band rehearse at Sandbach Boys School every Tuesday night from 7 o'clock until 9 o'clock.

The band is conducted by Nigel Birch, who is now in his second stint as Musical Director. During his first spell at the helm, he guided the band to consecutive wins in the National Youth Brass band Championships. He has also added a third place to this in 2002.

The band enter many contests, and have won not only the National Finals, but the North West Brass Band Association Contest, Rhyl Festival of Music, and the Newcastle-Under-Lyme Music Festival at varying times in their history. See the About us section for a full list of honours

There have been several recordings produced by the organisation over the past few years, featuring concert pieces, competition pieces and soloists the quality achieved has been outstanding considering the age of the band. The Recordings section of this site contains information on how you can obtain these CD's and Tapes.

You can see the Youth Band perform on the Videos page.

The Junior Band

The Junior Band is made up of players aged between 8 and 15 who have some playing experience. Conducted by Ian Raisbeck, the band is intended to bridge the gap between the Beginner and Youth Bands, introducing players to the concepts of playing in a band at a higher level and performing at concerts and competitions.

The band performs in concerts throughout the year both with the other bands, as well as on it's own. It also takes part in competitions and has been champion of the Newcastle-Under-Lyne festival ensemble class several times in recent years. In 2011 the Junior Band made their debut in the Junior section at the National Youth Brass Band Championships and awarded a Bronze certificate. It is hoped this will become an annual event for the band.

The band rehearses on a Tuesday night at Sandbach Boys School between 7pm and 8pm, with occasional longer practices for special events.

The Beginner Band

The Lions Beginner Band is the starting point of the Lions Youth Brass academy. The band takes in children who are just starting on their journey to learn a musical instrument and grounds them in the basics or music before passing them onto the Junior Band.

The band is conducted by Chris Thompson, who is ably assisted by a fantastic team of tutors: Hayley Scott, Derek Gardner and Ashley Taylor. Since summer 2011 a new system has been introduced where each child is assigned to a tutor and receives lessons on a rota basis. Quiz nights (‘Are you musical than your ten year old?’) are held annually (including both band members and their parents, whilst there are also ‘instrument spring clean’ and ‘how to put up a music stand… without hurting your fingers’ sessions held too. Rehearsals are always a great deal of fun with a lot of hard work going in, and no small amount of laughter involved too!

October 2005 saw the band take part in their first ever workshop, with a concert to conclude the events of the day. This has been repeated every year since, and the band now holds one workshop every term, where Youth Band members come along to lead sectionals. Workshops are always something the band enjoy doing.

In April 2011 the band entered the National Youth Band Training Section for the first time, and will be returning to the competition in early 2012.

Rehearsals take place at Sandbach Boys School, on Tuesday nights, from 6.45pm until 8pm.

Click here to see the special Beginner Band page featuring topics covered and player of the month awards.

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