Since the pandemic, Sax Bandits has showed no signs of slowing down and this year was no exception. I wanted to reflect on the year as a whole, to celebrate the achievements of the band and offer my own personal perspective.
The Music
When choosing the set list at the beginning of the year, I decided to push the boundaries and expectations of what an all-saxophone group could do. I took a gamble to introduce our most ambitious arrangement to date, the heavy metal song ‘Sad But True’ by Metallica. In my mind I thought it could work but I wasn’t sure if our members would enjoy the song or even be able to play it (…it turns out they could)! I further reinforced that it was possible to play heavier rock songs in the band by adding ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ by Muse, a song requested by one of our members which has both rockin’ riffs and an infectious melody. I contrasted these heavier songs by arranging our first dance anthem for the band, ‘This Girl’ by Kungs vs Cookin’ on 3 Burners.
I’m relieved to say these risks paid off and it proved what this band can truly achieve when playing as a collective. These new songs were a huge hit with our members and also with our audience at BunkFest in the summer. As we look to play larger events in the future, I’ve definitely considered the audience more and how individual songs will fit together as a cohesive selection of music.
On a personal level, I feel my arranging skills have improved and I have a greater understanding of what the band is capable of. Arranging is one of the most enjoyable aspects for me, to dissect and then reassemble a song like a puzzle, get it down on paper, and then hear it played ‘in the flesh’. Each arrangement takes me about two days to transcribe, arrange, and engrave. I’ve also invested in some new music software to produce higher quality backing tracks and playalongs (a backing track takes me about a day to transcribe, record, and mix). I’m excited to challenge myself to an increasingly adventurous set of songs in 2024!
Summer Gig
We were due to play at the ‘National Transport Trust Vintage Festival’ in May 2023 (now called the Fawley Hill Steam & Vintage Transport Festival) but the event was cancelled because of poor weather conditions. This was a huge disappointment for the band but fortunately we were invited to return to BunkFest in September and eager to share the songs we had been working on – we even got moved up a slot on the billing of the main stage! A few days before the performance, I was invited to talk James Watts on BBC Oxford about the ‘S** Bandits’.
This year showed off our largest band to date with over 100 saxophonists – this was definitely a proud moment for me! We also expanded our live rhythm section to include guitar and sousaphone, alongside our usual bass and drums. The band was a true spectacle and an immense sound!
BunkFest was also an opportunity to produce our very first Sax Bandits T-shirt, exclusively available to our members. I’m considering creating a new T-shirt every year to commemorate these incredible performance milestones.
I also needed a new conductor’s jacket for the summer which was light-weight but striking. After much pondering and browsing online, it hit me one day… I should design my own jacket in a DIY punk style! I decided to customise it with patches and pins, each one representing a song we performed (see here).
Christmas Gig
We only had four months to pull together a set list of festive favourites for our annual Christmas Busking Bash, relying heavily on Christmas songs we have played in previous years. For our newer members, many of these songs were entirely new to them so this is a notable accomplishment. This included the Rockin’ Saxmas Medley which I first arranged in 2016 for our very first Christmas gig and have subsequently played every year (it’s become a tradition of sorts)!
We were happy to be returning to the Henley Living Advent Calendar for a third time. We were joined by West End drummer (Lewis Jenkins), Sousaphone, and a Bass sax!
As well as the 100+ saxophonists playing together in the band we had a sizeable audience come out to watch us (including the Henley Standard and Henley Herald who featured us) and helped to raise £650+ for charity, beating our previous fundraising milestones.
Workshops
We were happy to invite Snake Davis back this February to lead our highly popular workshop, ‘Make Your Sax Sing‘. It sold out within 48 hours and was well-received by everyone who attended! This workshop followed the Snake Davis Band’s sell-out performance at Sunnyside Jazz Club the previous evening (also organised by me!).
I’ve had a really fun year exploring more adventurous avenues and creating more exciting experiences for our members. I’m really looking forward to seeing what 2024 offers us!
Thanks Rob for all the effort….it’s a great journey which is really enjoyable for us band members. Here’s to 2024!
Really sorry I had to miss the Henley gig due to illness. We really appreciate all you do, Rob, for Sax Bandits – the arrangements, rehearsals, gigs, venue organising and everything we don’t know about behind the scenes. We all love Sax Bandits, it’s unique, I don’t there’s another band like it. Many thanks.