2008 see our 'concert' band hit its 25th anniversary.
We really want to do some positive advertsing and promoting of the band in this year and wondered if anyone had ideas.

We have had bad press in the past from ex-members with a grudge, who have unfortunately been teachers doing the periapatetic(sp) rounds. A current rumour going round is that we are unable to hold on to members which infact is incorrect as about 50% of the band have been involved for over 10 yrs!

I have been with the band 13yrs, the conductor 17 years, and a couple of other players around 11yrs so there is probably over 100 yrs experience combined within the band which might be a good promoting point.

Would a press release be any use or will the locals find it 'non' news?

Any ideas would be well recieved.

A lot depends on what is available in your area. For instance, during the summer here in Newbury local bands etc can perform in the bandstand in the park on Sunday afternoons; this is advertised by the local council as part of what is going on in the town. During the performance the bandmaster can say things about the band, appeal for new members, etc.

Also, some bands here give performances for charity. They write to the local branch of a charity and offer to perform on a given night if the charity will make arrangements and sell tickets. This works fairly well, though sometimes the audience is small, and you can get a write-up of your concert in the local paper.

I think the best form of advertising is to give concerts - if poeple like the way you play, they will want to join you.

We have done afew arranged concerts and found that they were poorly attended. Fetes have been good in the past.
Maybe we should be contacting some of the local charities or even select a couple to support each year.

The Concert Band the girls play in did several concerts this Christmas and the best attended was without doubt the one organised for a local charity. I think that's because there was a bigger pool of people to draw on, parents, Congregation of the Church where it was held, supporters of the Charity and the group that did the organising.

Good luck with your celebrations

I play in a concert band in Essex. We do a series of Garden Shows around South East Essex. Although people do not specifically come to the show to see us they do stop and listen to us. We also do a concert at a bandstand in Colchester. This has a number of different bands each week during the summer season.

We do concerts for charities as well. This is a good way of being mentioned in the local paper - x band performed on Saturday night raising money for x charity. Might be worth contacting a local reporter and saying that as the band is 25 years old you are doing an event and would they like to come along.

Does your band have a website with an email address for recruiting new members? Do you advertise for new members in local music shops? These are all good ways of recruiting new members.