Zone One Brass almost had a right Royal spanner thrown in the works for their preparations for Sunday's London & Southern Counties Area contest.

HRH

Arriving for practise at the Royal College of Music on Wednesday night, the band was met by a heavy presence of armed police.

The college's President, HRH The Prince of Wales was on a visit and because of security issues, the band were left stranded outside the building.

After some negotiations led by unflappable Band Manager Mark Probert, the band were eventually let in and escorted by the long arm of the law to the rehearsal room.

Be quiet

Though the band were told that as the college was empty and an awards ceremony taking place, they had to be quiet!!

"That was pretty tough on this piece!" MD Richard Ward told 4BR. "We didn't hold back in the end and hope Charlie was whistling some Bourgeois all the way back to the Palace!".

We didn't hold back in the end and hope Charlie was whistling some Bourgeois all the way back to the Palace!Zone One MD, Richard Ward

Summed up

He added: "It summed up an odd night. We were just being told there would no chance of getting in the building, and as the Royal Albert Hall wasn't exactly an option we did consider going 'al fesco' and playing on the famous steps outside.

Thanks to some cool intervention though we managed to get our practice done and the Prince got to hear a little bit of the Devil!"