What is a Marching Band?

About The RDTC Marching Band

Under the direction of:

Band Director – Samantha Barrand MMus, BA Music, AVCM (Hons)

The Romford Drum & Trumpet Corps is a youth military style band, based in the London Borough of Havering. As one of the oldest independent youth marching bands in the country, it has a proud history, with performances throughout the UK. In recent years the band has traveled further and performed in France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Gibraltar and the USA.

Its uniforms, instrumentation and style is closely based upon that of the Armed Forces Military Bands. The band has performed at prestigious venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Wembley Stadium, St Paul’s Cathedral and The London Palladium. It has also had the honour of performing in the presence of every member of the Royal Family including a performance at Buckingham Palace for HM the Queen.  As a registered charity, the band has for nearly sixty years provided the young people of Romford with a rewarding activity. Despite the band receiving no funding, as an organisation, it manages to give a good foundation to youngsters and has continued the ethos of its founder where membership to the band is free of charge. The band has been recognised for its contribution to the young people of Havering with awards such as “The Mayors Civic Award” “The Havering Business Award for Community Projects” and is one of only a few youth groups nationally to achieve a Gold status kite mark from the Assured Quality Youth Project.

On the competition field the Romford Drum & Trumpet Corps has an impressive record of success. It has won the National Championships on seven occasions, including a hat-trick from 1987-89. In November 2003 & 2004 the band achieved the “Double” as the National Champions and National Class League Winners. It remains undefeated in marching competitions since then. In 2006 & 2008 the band entered European competitions and on both occasions were triple gold medalist in both marching and concert performance. In 2012 the band were awarded the “Best Band Overall” in the world famous St Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin against an international field of marching bands.This year the band returned to Ireland to the Limerick St Patricks Day Parade and were awarded to prize for the best musical performance.

The band has become increasingly more diverse and has attracted numerous high profile engagements. In recent years the band has performed the National Anthem at Twickenham for an England Rugby international, the FA Cup final and recorded a charity single with Roger Daltrey from THE WHO, and appeared on TV for the MTV awards. It was also invited to produce a “Band in the Stand” at rugby internationals to get the crowd singing. In 2012 the band were delighted to be asked to perform in the Olympic park on the opening day of the Olympics Games.

In 2013, the band were honoured to play on Horseguards Parade for the Household Division’s Beating Retreat.  They were delighted to be invited to return again in 2015.

If you are interested in booking the band, please visit our “Book The Band” page.

Why not take a look at The Romford Drum & Trumpet Corps in action on our Watch Us page?