About the Ockbrook Big Band
The band has been playing for around 15 years. Our regular venue is the Royal Oak at Ockbrook, Derby.
We are a traditional 17 piece big band with two regular singers, Colin Haslam and Michele Humphries. The line up is 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, 5 saxophones, keyboard, bass, rhythm guitar and drums.
Click on the musicians tab for more information about the players.
For themed party evenings we dress in 1940s style uniform and have a large repertoire of Glenn Miller numbers. For weddings and dinner dances we usually wear dinner jacket and black tie and play from a repertoire of over 250 well known songs from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
The band is fronted by Mr Glenn Martin - a first class trombone soloist and brilliant master of ceremonies.
To quote Glenn:
We've been asked to play something out of the charts ... well this number has been out of the charts for 50 years.
See Glenn's weblog about his experience with the Ockbrook Big Band and related things ... (click here for link to blog)
Feedback from recent events
For more tributes click on the tributes tab.
Just wanted to let you know that my wife and I thought your
Fri show was brilliant.
The whole event was exceptional!
We travelled up from London - but kept imagining it was a village hall
somewhere in East Anglia in 1943!!!!
Thanks to you and your team for creating such a wonderful evening.
[Keith - WW2 B17 Flying Fortress project]
Please extend our thanks to all those who took part in Saturday
evening's concert which was certainly enjoyed by all who came along. We have heard
nothing but good reports about the entire evening and I will contact you at some
future date about another concert appearance.
[Stephen - Barton Music & Art Festival 2007-2008 Season]
Many thanks to you and all your band [The Ockbrook 12]
for a superb evening. You really made the party go with a swing and
everyone had an absolutely fantastic time - me included! I will
certainly be contacting you again should I require a band for any
event.
Hopefully see you regularly through the Bromage Webster school of
dance, though unfortunately not on 8th December as I am running
another event then.
Best wishes,
Maxine [event organiser]
What can I say, it wouldn't be the same without you guys. A great night once again and
everyone was raving about it all. Please pass on my thanks to all the team and we'll see you all again
next year if not before.
[David Pratt - Victory Show]
We all thought last night's concert [at the Heather Music Festival 4th August 2007]
was superb as usual.
As I mentioned to you last night, I have been booking the band now
since 1997 - 10 years! - starting with a gig that year at Hanbury Village Hall
as part of the Tutbury Arts Festival (of which I was the founder member),
through further bookings for the same group, then a couple dates at the
Brewhouse Arts Centre, now three appearances at the Heather Music Festival.
The OBB never lets me down - I know I can book the band - or recommend
them to others as I have frequently - knowing you'll always be on top form.
[Simon - Mercia Arts, Festival Organiser]
To the Ockbrook Big Band,
What a wonderful evening everyone had on Sunday at The Royal Oak in Ockbrook, the room was packed with people and the
pleasure on their faces showed through.
Being a Glenn Miller theme night, I think everyone went away with a little more information about the great musician
than they had learned just from seeing the film.
It was the best evenings entertainment my husband and I have had in ages, I would like to take this opportunity to
congratulate all the members of the band for their fine performance.
Dancing at Nunsfield House to the Ockbrook Big Band sound is something else not to be missed,the dance
there on 10th June,the band played brilliant and of course I can't wait for the next one.
Please accept my greatful thanks to you all, and never stop giving us that wonderful Big Band Sound ever !
Best wishes,
Joan.
Everyone who has spoken to me or I them have said what a good night it was.
They thought the band was exceptional.
Please forward our thanks to all the members of the band for their performance. Be in touch.
[Organisers of Edith Weston Vintage Fayre June 2007]
Thanks Glenn the OBB did a fantastic job last Saturday, I have received lots of feedback and everyone enjoyed your band and the rest of the evening.
If I get the chance I will of course book you again,
Regards
[Organiser, Charity Dinner Dance May 2007]
Winston Churchill likes the Band
Ken Roseblade gets around a huge number of 1940s events as a Winston Churchill impersonator. This is what he has to say about the band ...
All the people I have talked to agree with me that although there are many good Glenn Miller tribute bands about (and many more bad ones), the Ockbrook Big Band sets the gold standard.
You can contact Ken at ken.roseblade@virgin.net
How is your mouthpiece?
Or don't panic Mr Mannering ... This is the summary of a note about bugs found in mouthpieces written by Christopher Woolnough-King of Newcastle University. It is not for the faint hearted. The paper does not appear to have been published in a peer reviewed journal.
Swabs were taken from a range of musical instrument mouthpieces and from the instrumentalists' nose and throat. The swabs were vortexed in maintenance medium then plated onto blood agar and mannitol salt agar culture media then incubated at 37C. The quantitative and qualitative information obtained during the survey was compared to the length of time elapsed since the instruments were last used.
Viable b haemolytic streptococci were present in high numbers (>10^5 cfu/ml-1) 96 hours after use of the mouthpiece and viable staphycocci were present in high numbers (11x10^4 cfu/ml-1) 72 hours after use.
The target organisms were found in higher numbers in a soprano saxophone mouthpiece at four and twelve hours after use than immediately after use.
Seventy representative strains of presumptive staphycocci were identified using the tables contained within Cowan and Steel's Manual for the Identification of Medical Bacteria (1985). The prominent Staphylococcus species isolated from the mouthpieces were Staphylococcus capitus, Staphylococcus cohnii, Staphylococcus epiderminus, Staphylococcus hominis and Staphylococcus saprophyticus.
It was evident that growth of staphycocci and b haemolytic streptococci occurs within the mouthpieces after they have been used and stored, and that potentially pathogenic bacteria can remain viable for relatively long periods inside musical instrument mouthpieces. High infective doses of these pathogens, caused by growth inside the mouthpieces, may explain why musicians suffer frequently from throat infections.
