Last night, we spent a very enjoyable evening at the Salvation Army Hall in Reading. We were there to hear the 20th Anniversary concert of the Household Troops Band, who were in the area as they were playing in the Lord Mayors Show this morning. The reason we went along was that it was a great opportunity to meet up with our friends Vicki and Martin, as Martin is one of the members of the band. As Vicki and Martin are as involved in their local Salvation Army in Peterborough, as we are at the church in Finchampstead, meeting up has always been difficult, and with them coming to Reading it was a great opportunity.

Although we’ve been along to Salvation Army events a couple of times, this was the first time we’d heard this particular band playing. It was probably also a good event to go and hear them for the first time, as it also formed a bit of a retrospective of the first twenty years of this particular band. The band is drawn from all over the country, and their main work during the year is a summer tour, what is notable is how little chance they get to play together – for example since all of the members volunteer for this in addition to their usual commitments, members of the band were arriving at the same time as the audience, having rushed from all corners of the country for this Friday evening concert. What was even more impressive, and a testament to the skilled musicians that the Salvation Army can produce, to our untrained ear they sounded excellent.

The programme was pretty varied, with some religious influence, but also a number of more secular arrangements, including an arrangement of John Williams music from Saving Private Ryan – very appropriate for Armistice Day. Also, although we weren’t aware of it before we arrived, Martin did a tuba solo.

I’m afraid in the picture above, you don’t see much of Martin behind the tuba, this being because we were sat with Vicki, who in common with soloists partners and spouses the world over, sat in a carefully selected slot where he couldn’t see her as she went through the solo with him! Having said that, in common with the rest of the concert we thought his solo was great.

After Martins solo, we heard from one of the non-playing members of the band, Executive Officer David Phillips, who possibly marks the band out as being a tool for evangelism rather than entertainment. It is his role to be out in the crowd listening to the band at their open air concerts, talking to the people about what they are hearing and about the Salvation Army.

The second half of the concert was slightly different, in that any previous members of the band who had brought their instruments were invited to come and join the current members on stage. Essentially nobody had any idea who was going to turn up, however it did seem that there was a good mix of different instruments. It also didn’t show that there were a number of musicians in this second half who hadn’t played in the band for a long while, aside from their being a number of people on stage not in uniform!

All in all it was a great way to spend an evening. It was excellent to catch up with Vicki, Martin and their family, and to hear Martin play. It is also good to see and hear how other Christian organisations do things – and I have to say for certain hymn tunes, a church organ cannot match a good Salvation Army Band…