Talbot Corps of Drums, St. John Ambulance

About Us

About Us

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The Talbot Corps of Drums Youth Marching Band is based in Bournemouth, Dorset in the UK. Part of St. John Ambulance, it is a full military Band of approximately 35 members. The average age of the members is 14, and the youngest are aged 8. All of the musicians in the Band are also St. John Cadets, qualified in first aid. In addition to the Band rehersals and performances, they also give up many hours of their free time each year to provide first aid cover at events in Dorset and beyond.

The Band was formed in 1989 by Andrew Kinch who remains Bandmaster to this day, and is a dedicated member of St. John Ambulance.

A member of TYMBA, The Traditional Youth Marching Band Association, the Band takes part in competitions against other youth bands from all over the country, which keeps us on our toes to provide a polished performance!

Bandmaster
Andrew Kinch

As our name suggests, the Talbot Corps of Drums was originally formed just as a marching band and our marching performances range from the simple march and countermarching in a carnival, to the complex pattern routines and crossovers performed during band competitions.
However, as the years have passed we have matured and added a second string to our bow in the form of concert performances. Indeed, some years, about half of our performances have been in the form of concerts and these are now a mainstay to our repertoire.

Concert Performance at
Canford School

The year 2000 was a momentous one for the band as we were fortunate enough to be awarded a National Lottery grant by The Arts Council. This has enabled us to completely re-instrument the band and we now have an excellent complement of instruments comprising the full range of valved brass instruments, woodwind, bell lyres, marching xylophones and marimbas, and drums. In addition to playing their snare drums, the drummers also players also play bugles and form the “Corps of Drums” which the band embodies within its name. In addition to regular performances at many carnivals, fairs and St. John’s events, the Band is active in representing St. John Ambulance at many other prestigious events including:

OK--So Why is There a Dog in our Logo?

The Band is associated with the Talbot Quadrilateral division of St. John Ambulance

which is based in an area of Bournemouth known as Talbot Village.

The dog is a Talbot, an ancient breed of heavy set hunting dog. This dog is often associated with heraldic design and it is often used in the form shown here, where it is known as the “Talbot Passant”

In 1995, the VE Day celebrations in Hyde Park. We also took part in the Lord Mayor’s Show in London appearing on National TV.

In 1997, and again in 1999, the Band was selected to play at the National St John's Day Parade in London. This was the third time since 1989 that the Band had been invited to this particular event

In 1999, one of the highlights of the year was undoubtedly playing for the inauguration of the High Sheriff of Dorset.

Also in 1999, the Band took part in the last ever Royal Tournament at Earls Court, London in a performance to celebrate 900 years of the Order of St. John.

2000 and 2001 were years of transition for the band as we lost a number of older members as they studied for A levels and taking up places at university or other further education, often away from our home town. To replace them, a number of younger recruits have joined, learned the routines, and are now active and valued members of the band who provide a new youthful and polished face to our performances. During these years we added a new string to our bow by including a number of concert performances in our repertoire.

Performing at Home, Bournemouth Square

As well as major public concerts with other bands from the Dorset area, we took part in the National Concert Band Championships, hosted by TYMBA, taking a number of prizes for three years running, including First Prize in 2000 and 2001 for best band up to Championship Class Level.

As an added bonus, the Band also undertaken European Tours. In 1992, 1994, 1997 and 1999 we and have performed at resorts in the Rhine Valley in Germany, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Austria, Italy, Versailles and Paris. During our 10 day 1997 European tour, at Ypres in Belgium, we were priviledged to be invited to take part and play “Sunset” in the traditional evening Last Post Ceremony at the famous Menin Gate War Memorial, in co-operation with the resident Ypres Fire Brigade Band . Our last European Tour in 1999 to Austria was probably our biggest tour to date involving trips to Northern Italy, and Bavaria as well as performing around the Tirol region of Austria.

Neither did 2002 prove to be a quiet year for us. We did a lot of gigs, so many in fact that we decided only to enter one competition that year. Our larger events included a long weekend playing in Aulnay sous Bois and Mezieres, France, and our 2002 European Band Tour to Belgium, Holland and France, where we gave a concert performance at Disneyland Paris, probably our best band tour to date.

Two Views from our Menin
Gate Performance

The youngsters really enjoyed that one as we had the run of Disneyland afterwards!

However, the most prestigious highlight of 2002 was when the Band lead the Queens Golden Jubilee Parade from Windsor Palace and through the streets of Windsor for a march-past the Queen!

2003 proved a really great year for us competitively. We came First in Class three times in succession at the TYMBA contests we entered. To round these successes off, on the 15th November 2003, at the TYMBA National Finals held in Cannock, north of Birmingham, we came Contest Class Runner Up.

Our overall performance throughout the year was good enough to award us the position of
Contest Class League Champions!

As well as taking part in those competitions, we also performed in four carnivals in 2003, led the annual St. Johns Day parade to St. Pauls Cathedral in London and took part in the annual Bournemouth Musicmakers Band Tattoo in Kings Park, Bournemouth on 26th June.

Award of League Championship
Trophy at Cannock

2004 proved to be a busy year for us. We took part in the World Showband Championships. This was something new to us, as we were competing against bands who had different styles of performance to ours, in addition to bands with our traditional style of marching and performance. The standard of the bands was superb with bands as far away as Japan, Thailand and Taiwan competing against us. These were really World Class performers and we were delighted to gain ourselves a Bronze medal competing against them.

Meeting New Friends From Thailand

This was something to be proud of. As well as the contests, we took part in the Bournemouth, Swanage, Blandford and Ringwood Carnivals, and a concert performance special. Well it keeps us busy, if not exactly off the streets! 2005 was a quiet year for us with regard to competitions. Once again we have had a number of new recruits and some members have left for pastures new. Although we took part in the Aldershot TYMBA contest we decided to save what is now proving to be a considerable financial cost to the band and spend our time in bringing our new recruits fully up to speed ready for the 2006 season. What we have not been doing in the way of competitions has been more than compensated for in other events. We took part in more carnivals than usual including the prestigious Taunton Carnival. Also we now have a new home at the St. John Ambulance East Training Centre at Wallisdown in Bournemouth. This is providing us with vastly improved facilities and is a welcome addition.
	2006 was been an interesting year. In addition to the usual round of carnivals, we did a mini tour to Jersey and while we were there we too part in the Battle of Flowers. We took part in two very long parades but it was worth it just to see the the impressive array of flower covered floats, Many of which cost ten sof thousands of pounds to make. We also took part in the European Concert, Parade and Showband Championships held at Bath where we did respectably well and came away with a handfull of trophies.
*The Band Being Led by One of Our More Unusual Aquaintances In Jersey - He Must Have Had a Heavy Covering of Sunlotion For the Day's Outing!*
However, one of our more unusual engagements was taking part in the filming of the ITV series Bad Lads Army. We were asked to provide the musical accompaniment to the Lads passing out ceremony at the end of the series. A most interesting day was had by all, however, as is most often the case for amateur actors, our appearance on the small screen was only too brief for a days work. Oh well, We are always open to be approached for that major TV part comming up!
	On Parade With the "Bad Lads"

2007 was a quiet year with a number of changes to band membership, older ones leaving and new ones joining and requiring training. We are looking forward to a busy 2008. If you would like to join the Band and help us in our future successes there is more information to be found here. More details about current, and future events are available in the Members Page and Gig Guide.

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