Travel of Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

Within the UK many important musical jobs take place at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. During the last week of September the Band of the Royal Corps of Signals, of which I am principle clarinettist, performed on the steps there. The occasion was the Territorial Army Commissioning parade (Sandhurst has a long-standing tradition of producing the best and this was no exception).

We, along with a few members of the Band of the Light Cavalry, arrived at Sandhurst on Wednesday lunchtime and wasted no time by going straight out to practice on the steps of Old College where the parade would take place. For a fair few of the band, it was their first experience of marching up and down steps whilst playing and luckily it was picked up fairly quickly and with no injuries!

Sandhurst had decided the previous week to go into long sleeve order, so the band were on the steps in barrack dress complete with woolly jumper. To say we were hot was an understatement! For the duration of all the rehearsals over the following days we never received the delights of  shade due to the positioning of old college. For those of you who were not in the UK, this last week was the hottest end of a September for over 100 years with highs of 29C  (84F).

Due to the amount of work during the summer season the band had no problems with this. The soldiers however….. did! No fewer than four soldiers on parade were drilled by the Academy Sergeant Major to ensure that they didn’t faint!