Sunday 29th September 2024 saw the inaugural launch of the Battle of the Bands which included Sax Bandits’ six regional bands. We arrived with our two guests, tenor sax, alto sax, music stand, two sax stands, a meat platter and some sandwiches. Helpful Sax Bandits members in high-vis vests directed us into the car park from where we and other band members and their guests made the walk to the venue.
Inside the venue more volunteers registered our arrival, gave us name labels (in case we forgot who we were), issued voting counters, and directed us where to unpack our saxophones and place our food contributions. A wonderful buffet was already on view and more yet to arrive – our very own Sax Bandits food mountain! This picnic feast included everything from sandwiches, crisps, sausage rolls, dips, fruit, etc.
The Berkshire band set up their music stands first, which were to be used by all the other bands too. During the battle, a selection of drinks and home-baked cakes and cookies were available from the kitchen, staffed by yet more smiling Sax Bandits volunteers.
Our compère for the day was Andy Young who carried out all the initial formalities and entertained us between the performances. Our band leader, Rob Digweed, dressed fetchingly in a Viking Helmet and plaits, was conducting all the bands.
Three knockout rounds were planned:
Berkshire vs North Surrey
Performing ‘Stop’ by Spice Girls.
South Oxfordshire vs West Oxfordshire
Performing ‘Sk8er Boi’ by Avril Lavigne.
East Oxfordshire vs West Surrey
Performing ‘Madness Medley’ by Madness.
After each round, votes were placed and counted. Each band had guests and other band members toe-tapping in their seats or dancing on the spot, with each performance receiving an encouraging and well deserved round of applause. The winning bands from the initial three rounds went through to the final. Songs for the final contestants were then randomly chosen from three songs by a child on the front row (to allow the compère to remain impartial).
The final round was set:
West Surrey
Performing ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson.
West Berkshire
Performing ‘Let’s Groove’ by Earth, Wind & Fire.
West Oxfordshire
Performing ‘Tragedy’ by The Bee Gees.
After all three performances, votes were placed by the audience and duly counted. There was a tense atmosphere as Rob announced the winners in reverse order:
3rd place: West Surrey
2nd place: Berkshire
1st place: West Oxfordshire
One of the members of the West Oxfordshire band received the Battle of the Bands trophy as they posed for photos, who also happened to be celebrating their birthday that day!
Then it was time to demolish the food mountain. We did our very best but I suspect there were leftovers. While eating we were entertained by professional saxophonist, Robin Porter, who set us all a target to aim for in our sax playing. It was a great event and thanks are due to all those volunteers involved from set-up to clear up. Special thanks to Rob for his work in organising the event and to Robin for entertaining us.
You can see all the photos from the event on our facebook page here:
Great write up!