THE GUS BANDWorld Class Music | Since 1933

For promoters, venues & event organisers

BOOK THE BAND

One of Britain's leading brass bands, playing across the country. Tell us the date, the room and who you're expecting, and we'll build the evening around it.

What we do

MORE OR LESS ANYTHING

Ninety-three years of playing to every kind of room has left us with few fixed ideas about what a brass band concert has to be. We have a championship-section band, a Musical Director who is a working composer, and a library that runs from Elgar to film scores. What we put in front of your audience is a decision we are happy to make with you, not one we made already.

A full concert

Two halves and an interval, programmed around your audience — contest repertoire and showpieces for a serious concert crowd, or something lighter for a bandstand on a Sunday afternoon.

Live to film

The band playing a score beneath the picture. It fills a theatre with families who would not otherwise come to hear a brass band, which is usually the point of programming it.

With your choir or soloist

Brass and voices is one of the great sounds in British music. We have built programmes with male voice choirs, choral societies, organists and guest soloists, and we are happy to work with yours.

Civic and ceremonial

Remembrance, anniversaries, mayor-making, switching on the lights. The occasions a town expects a band at, played by one that takes them seriously.

Something smaller

A quartet, a ten-piece, a soloist and an accompanist. For rooms that cannot take thirty players, and for occasions that do not want them.

Schools and workshops

Side-by-side playing, sectionals and masterclasses, on their own or built around a concert. Often the part that unlocks a funding application.

These are examples, not a menu. If what you have in mind isn't among them, ask — the answer is usually yes.

Brass in Concert, The Glasshouse, Gateshead
With a male voice choir
Whit Friday, Dobcross
Bugle, Cornwall — Royal Trophy, 2026
The marching season

The practical bit

WHAT IT INVOLVES

Most of what a promoter needs to know is the same whatever we end up playing. Anything unusual we will tell you before you commit, not after.

Forces
Around thirty players and percussion, or a smaller group drawn from the band
Typical concert
Two halves of about 45 minutes, with an interval
Stage
Seated brass band formation; we will send a stage plan
Travel
Anywhere in the UK. Distance affects the fee, not the answer
Notice
As much as you can give. New programmes want about six months
Fee
Quoted for each engagement, and generally into four figures

Our Musical Director, Christopher Bond, is a composer and conductor whose work has been performed across five continents and broadcast on BBC Radio 2, 3, 4 and Classic FM. Programmes are shaped rather than pulled off a shelf.

We would rather say the fee plainly than have you find out three emails in. If the budget is nowhere near, tell us anyway — there are occasions we play for less, and we would sooner have the conversation.

Recent and forthcoming

WHERE WE PLAY

Royal Albert Hall The Glasshouse, Gateshead Royal & Derngate, Northampton Burghley House, Stamford Holy Trinity, Rothwell Soham Village College Bugle, Cornwall Saddleworth & Whit Friday

How it works

THREE STEPS

Tell us the basics

Your venue, your date, roughly what you have in mind and roughly what you have to spend. A sentence is enough to start, and knowing the budget early saves us both time.

We'll come back with a proposal

What we'd bring, what it costs, what we need from the venue, and what the day would look like. Usually within a week.

We agree and we play

You get a written confirmation, our technical requirements, press images and programme copy in good time for your marketing.

Make an enquiry

TELL US ABOUT IT

No obligation, and no need to have everything worked out. If you're weighing up options for a season, we're happy to talk it through.

Our Concert Manager, Andrew Rigby, handles external bookings:

andrew.rigby@gus.band

For anything else, enquiries@gus.band

Promoter pack

Technical specification, stage plan, high-resolution press images, biographies and logos — everything your marketing team needs.

Download the pack (PDF)