Southampton’s favourite brass band, the City of Southampton (Albion) Band, have arranged a visit from The Pluederhausen Band from Germany. The Pluederhausen band come from the Rems Murr Kreis region of Germany, which is twinned with Southampton. The band will be arriving in the City on Friday July 9 for four days. You can see the two bands perform in concert at the Turner Sims concert hall on Saturday July 10 at 7.30pm.
The Pluederhausen visit has been arranged by the City of Southampton
(Albion) Band, due to Albion’s special relationship with the Southampton Anglo German Society. The City of Southampton (Albion) Band has been to Pluederhausen five times, and were the major guest band at their Annual Beer Festival on every visit, playing to an audience of over 2000.
The Pluederhausen band will be visiting Winchester on the Saturday,
Stonehenge and Salisbury on Sunday, where they will play in the Guildhall Square at 1pm. On Monday they will have morning coffee with the Mayor of Southampton on before touring the City Walls.
Tickets can be purchased for the Turner Sims concert via the Box office on 023 8059 5151. Tickets are £5.00 each.

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Just a reminder to music fans in Southampton and surrounding areas - The Brook will close for several months following Friday night’s gig with Santana tribute band on July 2 and Saturday’s blast with Led Zeppelin. The venue won’t open again until the end of September while some major improvements take place.
The feel of Southampton’s finest live music venue won’t be altered, but
there will be more room, a higher capacity, a bigger stage, more seating, toilets upstairs at last, plus a chill-out area. Expect some big names when they reopen - watch this space for the name of a major band or artist who will be playing the first gig when the venue reopens.

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Upcoming singer Laura Vane gets a great chance to demonstrate her talent on Thursday 15th July at Southampton Guildhall . She will be appearing as a backing singer with UK soul singer Omar in a musical extravaganza featuring the Southampton Youth Jazz Orchestra. The event is being organised by Dan Mar-Molinero, local music producer and composer. Dan has taken time off from the day job of working in the studio to specially write and arrange a number of well known soul and jazz classics for the evening, to compliment the silky voice of  Omar. Usually you would find him at Mark Hill’s (Craig David, Artful Dodger)
studios, where he has worked with artists such as Lemar, Gareth Gates and Melanie C.
Dan set up the Southampton Youth Jazz Orchestra in 1996. Since then SYJO has become one of the most successful and creative organizations of its type in the UK, winning the national youth jazz festival along the way! This concert sees SYJO returning for the second time, after playing to over 1000 people in a Frank Sinatra tribute concert 2 years ago.
SYJO has established very strong links with many leading British Jazz
musicians, including Julian Joseph, Guy Barker and Andy Sheppard. The band has also toured New York, Boston and Havana, Cuba! Indeed any proceeds from the concert will go towards future tours for these excellent young musicians.
Laura Vane will get to sing a couple of her own songs and a Chaka Khan cover alongside Omar in the show. Get down to the Guildhall and support Southampton’s wealth of musical talent! Tickets for the concert are available from the Guildhall Box Office, 02380 632601, priced from £6 to £35.

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Our good friend Gordon Haskell has got a release date for his jazz-tinged new album “The Lady Wants To Know.” It will come out on August 23 through RandM records.
It’s produced by ex-Average White Band’s Hamish Stuart and engineered by John Gallen. The single ''The Lady wants to know'' is released on September 13.
Both the album and single are a tribute to Gordon’s favourite artist Michael Franks who wrote all the songs.
Featured musicians are Ralph Salmins on drums, Steve Pearce on Bass, Julian Jackson on harmonica, Peter Murray and Tony O Malley on keys, and Robbie McIntosh on guitar. It also features Nigel Hitchcock, Paul Yeung (Saxes), Bosco (Percussion), Neil Sidwell (Trombone), Paul Spong and Martin Shaw (Trumpet), Jim Mullen (Guitar) and Gavyn Wright (First Violin and Concertmaster).

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The Larmer Tree Festival, which takes place on 14th–18th July at the Larmer Tree Gardens on the Wilts/Dorset border, is appealing for more volunteers to help with the smooth running of  this fantastic event.
The Larmer Tree Festival is now in its 15th year so has a large bank of
experienced regular volunteers but there is a need for extra help.
In return for a few hours each day you could receive a free ticket to the
Festival.  This gives you the chance to see eclectic music from around the world, take part in a workshop or simply relax and chill out in the unique
atmosphere of  the Larmer Tree Festival.
Volunteers are still needed to join the Breakdown Crew, which involves
deconstructing the Festival. Litter Pickers are needed during the Festival to help clean this beautiful venue and maintain our recycling programme. If either role appeals the Larmer Tree would love to hear from you.
So, if you are over 18 and interested in making new friends and becoming an essential part of the Larmer Tree team, please call Becca Small on 01725 552300.  You can find out more about the Festival on www.larmertree.co.uk

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THIS summer’s free Sunday afternoon concerts at Southsea Bandstand begin on May 31 with the pairing of Arthur Brown (remember “Fire” by the Crazy World of?) and The Silver Beatles for a cracking slice of 60s music in the sun (hopefully). The line-up for June onwards is as follows:

JUNE 6 - GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA UK (SPECIAL D-DAY EVENT)
13 - PAPA NEOL & HIS AFRO-CUBAN BAND
20 - LOCAL ROCK BANDS SHOWCASE
27 - R CAJUN & ZYDECO BROS + COLVINQUARMBY
JULY 4 - CADILLAC KINGS & JOHNNY GUNNER & THE RAIDERS
11 - TBC
18 - SONNY BLACK & THE DUKES + CLAUDE BOURBON (BLUES)
25 - JAZZ ALL STARS FEATURING CHRIS WALKER
AUG 1 - SIDEWINDER + GLEN ROGERS + THE BUNCH
8 - THE SELECTER + 2-TONIC
15 - ZIMBABWEAN HOHODZA BAND
22 - BOG ROLLING STONES (pictured)
29 - MARMALADE + SHEP WOOLLEY
30 - BANK HOLIDAY SPECIAL TO CLOSE SEASON

Be there by 2pm to get a good vantage point - head for the D-Day Museum on Southsea Front - Bandstand is behind it & there is plenty of parking.

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