Gillingham Imperial Silver Band’s recent 'Open Day' proved to be a great success after it attracted plenty of interest from the general public who came along to see what the band had to offer.

Multitude

The fantastic weather really helped, allowing the band to play outside, whilst a steady flow of people enjoyed the refreshments as well as the chance to try out a multitude of brass and percussion instruments.

Entertainer and musician Nick Crump provided his own wonderful performance which captivated the crowd and inspired them to have a go on his unusual instruments – including an old immersion tank beaten into something now called the 'Crumpled Horn', a converted marine public address horn, aptly named the 'Seahorn', and a 'Boghorn' made from lengths of plumbing pipes and an Armitage Shanks toilet bowl.

Boghorn inspiration

It was not only the inspired plenty of youngsters to have a go on the 'Boghorn', but also made them keen to try out the other ‘traditional’ brass band and percussion instruments too.

It was brilliant to see so many youngsters come along to our bandroom and try out a whole variety of brass and percussion instrumentsMD, Paul Williams

Brilliant

MD Paul Williams told 4BR: "It was brilliant to see so many youngsters come along to our bandroom and try out a whole variety of brass and percussion instruments. And it was also great to see so many people from the town come along, have a cup of tea and slice of cake and talk about how the band is doing."

Great day

The band's page on 'Facebook' is already showing a spike of interest with people sharing support and leaving positive comments about the day, whilst the band's website registered over 700 hits on the day of the event.

As one visitor wrote: "Thank you for a great day — we really enjoyed it."