Spring concert coming up for Petworth Town Band

Petworth Town Band are hoping for a big turn-out at their concert at St Mary’s Church, Petworth on Saturday, March 23 at 7.30pm.
Bandmaster Martyn StreeterBandmaster Martyn Streeter
Bandmaster Martyn Streeter

Once again, the concert will also feature the Farlingtonic Choir – the third collaboration between the two.

Tickets will be £8 on the door and a cash bar will serve wine and soft drinks.

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Bandmaster Martyn Streeter and his wife and band musical director Paula are promising an evening of fine music.

“It will be a very mixed programme,” says Paula.

“We are always working on the assumption that if we have a mixed bag, we can appeal to as many people as possible.

“But we are also pleased to link up again with the Farlingtonic Choir. Their ethos is very much the same as ours, but doing with singing what we do with brass and woodwind. They cater for all needs and all abilities.

“They are friends and family of Farlington School. My allegiance with them is that I teach as a peripatetic music teacher there, and this is the third time we have done a concert together at St Mary’s. We are both all made up of like-minded people, and we get a huge buzz from working with them.

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“We do pieces individually and we will do two or three shared pieces.

“We are doing some music from the First World War, a compilation.

“There will be an audience sing-along, and we are also going to be doing some extracts from Les Mis which we did the first time we worked together and it went very well.”

Enjoyment is crucial for both musical groups: “We are all doing it in our free time. For all of us it is a hobby, and if you are not enjoying it, you walk away. But everyone loves it.

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“It is all for the love of it, and we are desperate to promote the band. The people of Petworth will see the odd poster and will say they are lucky to have a town band, but when it comes to it, they won’t find out about the concert until it is too late or they don’t know it is happening.

“We want to be able to show them that there is another side to us. People tend to know us from doing the churchy things and the marching events, but there is this concert side to us too, and we would love more people to be aware that this is what we do.”

Paula and Martyn have both been in their positions with the band for 30 years now, and they thoroughly enjoy what they do.

“It’s great fun. I just love it. Music is my life. I end up waving my arms in front of bands and musical groups and I have always loved it.

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“I am very fortunate that I can do in my life and in my work something that I really love.”

However, for the Petworth Town Band a few new members wouldn’t come amiss.

“We would always want new players. That’s the band life. You end up with holes in certain areas, but you pull through.

“The band will go through tough times, but you soldier on. The youngsters tend to join us and then go off to university.

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“But there are a couple at least who will play with us when they can when they come back on holiday. But we would like to get some more people in.”

Anyone interested in joining the band should get in touch with Martyn at [email protected].