KIDLINGTON Concert Brass is blowing its own trumpet, or cornet, after being promoted back into the brass band world’s competing ‘elite’ for 2014.

The 27-strong band – which includes a nurse, an accountant, a hairdresser and a physicist — was demoted from the top class in 2011 after falling results, but is now looking forward to hitting the high notes with the best of them when it is promoted back to the Championship Section (the highest standard category of bands in the UK) from January.

Tom James, 28, an accountant living in Didcot, is the band’s general secretary and principal cornet.

He said: “This will be a great challenge for the band, but we are looking forward to it.

“We were previously ranked in the Championship Section from 1994 to 2011 and while the band has not been ‘unsuccessful’, due to a number of key personnel changes over the last 10 years we have received some mediocre (by our high standards) results at key competitions, which saw us demoted to the 1st section.

“Over the past three years however, the band and its new music director Duncan Wilson have worked hard and recruited and retained high-quality players. Now we will be competing against the best bands in the region and the country.”

Brass bands have had their roots in Kidlington since 1840, and Kidlington Concert Brass was formed in 1992 when Kidlington Silver Band and Oxford Concert Brass merged.

The band has its own band hall in the village High Street and its musicians, ranging in age from 16 to 70, play cornet, flugelhorn, tenor horn, euphonium, baritone, trombone, and basses (tubas), plus percussion instruments such as timpani, the drums and xylophone.

In the past they have appeared on Radio 2, performed for the Brassed Off stage performance.

The band, which is available for bookings, is looking to recruit experienced percussion players.

For more details, visit kidlingtonconcert brass.org.uk