page_title: Military band
section_title: United Kingdom
hierarchical_section_title: Military band / Military bands in Europe / United Kingdom
caption_attribution_description: Lord Mayor's Show, London 2006
context_page_description: A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the title of Bandmaster or Director of Music. Ottoman military bands are thought to be the oldest variety of military marching bands in the world, dating from the 13th century.
  The military band is capable of playing ceremonial and marching music, including the national anthems and patriotic songs of not only their own nation but others as well, both while stationary and as a marching band. Military bands also play a part in military funeral ceremonies.
  There are two types of historical traditions in military bands. The first is military field music. This type of music includes bugles, bagpipes, or fifes and almost always drums. This type of music was used to control troops on the battlefield as well as for entertainment. Following the development of instruments such as the keyed trumpet or the saxhorn family of brass instruments, a second tradition of the brass and woodwind military band was formed.
context_section_description: Since later medieval times and the formation of the first bands, the United Kingdom has had a strong military band tradition. In 1993, Richard Morrison, the chief music critic of The Times noted: "One of the oddest statistics about British cultural life is that the Defense Ministry spends more to maintain military bands than the government spends on all the professional orchestras and opera companies in the country." The oldest military band in the British Armed Forces is the Royal Artillery Band. The Band can trace its origins back to 1557 at the Battle of St. Quentin, although it was not made 'official' until 1762. A series of army reviews starting in 1994 reduced the number of British Army military bands from 69 to 22 bands and the number of personnel from 2,000 to 1,100.
  All Regular Army Bands in the British Army are part of the Corps of Army Music and there are currently 22 Bands in service. These Bands range in personnel number from 64 to 15 and include: Traditional marching, mounted and concert bands, as well as rock bands and a small string orchestra. The bands of the Corps of Army Music are:
  The Band of The Household Cavalry - Hyde Park Barracks, London and Combermere Barracks Windsor
  The Band of the Royal Armoured Corps - Catterick, North Yorkshire
  The Royal Artillery Band - Tidworth
  The Band of the Corps of Royal Engineers - Chatham, Kent
  The Band of the Royal Corps of Signals - RAF Cosford, West Midlands
  Band of the Grenadier Guards - Wellington Barracks, Central London
  Band of the Coldstream Guards - Wellington Barracks, Central London
  Band of the Scots Guards - Wellington Barracks, Central London
  Band of the Irish Guards - Wellington Barracks, Central London
  Band of the Welsh Guards - Wellington Barracks, Central London
  The Band of The Royal Regiment of Scotland - Edinburgh
  The Band of The Queen's Division - RAF Henlow, Bedfordshire
  The Band of The King's Division - near Preston
  The Band of The Prince of Wales' Division - St Athan, South Wales
  The Band and Bugles of The Rifles - Winchester
  The Band of The Parachute Regiment -  Colchester
  The Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas - Shorncliffe, near Folkestone
  The Band of the Army Air Corps - Colchester
  The Band and Corps of Drums of The Royal Logistic Corps - near Camberley
  The Band of the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers - Catterick, North Yorkshire
  The Band of the Adjutant General's Corps - near Winchester
  The Countess of Wessex's String Orchestra - Woolwich, London
  The British Army also has 20 Reserve Military Bands located across the United Kingdom and Gibraltar:
  Band of the Honourable Artillery Company
  Regimental Band (Inns of Court & City Yeomanry) of the Royal Yeomanry
  Lancashire Artillery Volunteers Band
  The Nottinghamshire Band of the Royal Engineers
  The (Northern) Band of the Royal Corps of Signals
  Lowland Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland
  Highland Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland
  Band of the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (Queen's and Royal Hampshires)
  Band of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers
  Band of the Royal Anglian Regiment
  Volunteer Band of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment
  Band of The Royal Irish Regiment (27th (Inniskilling) 83rd and 87th and Ulster Defence Regiment)
  Band of the Royal Welsh - The only Brass Band in the Reserve Army
  Band of the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment (King's Lancashire and Border)
  Band of the Yorkshire Regiment (14th/15th, 19th & 33rd/76th Foot)
  The Band of The Mercian Regiment
  The Salamanca Band of The Rifles
  The Waterloo Band of The Rifles
  Band of the 150th (Yorkshire) Transport Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps
  Band of the Army Medical Services
  The Royal Marines Band Service is, since 1950 and the disbandment of the Fleet Divisional Bands, the only remaining musical wing of the Royal Navy in service. It currently consists of six bands. Without doubt, groups of musicians existed in the Service before 1767, when Royal Marines Divisional Bands were formed at the naval dockyard-bases of Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth and the naval gathering-point of Deal in the Downs, and Marine bands (along with prof
caption: The Royal Marines Band Service is the only musical wing presently active in the Royal Navy.
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix S3Pro", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Digital Camera FinePix S3Pro   Ver2.18", "Image DateTime": "2006:11:10 13:13:03", "Image WhitePoint": "[313/1000, 329/1000]", "Image PrimaryChromaticities": "[16/25, 33/100, 21/100, 71/100, 3/20, 3/50]", "Image YCbCrCoefficients": "[299/1000, 587/1000, 57/500]", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "896", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 3, 0, 2, 0, 1, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2394", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8772", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/350", "EXIF FNumber": "12/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:11:10 13:13:03", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:11:10 13:13:03", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "6", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "17/2", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5/2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/2", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "83/50", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Shade", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "50", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1440", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "960", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R03", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2140", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "630", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "630", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "75", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Hard", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF Gamma": "11/5"}