Marrakesh Band

Andy first got involved with music at the age of seven playing tenor horn in Thetford Salvation Army, he moved onto cornet and joined the Salvation Army Easten Counties’ Youth Band at age eighteen.

He then joined RAF Honington station band aged 28 and quickly moved into the big band scene, playing with The RAF skyliners, then Swing street big band before joining Marrakesh Little Big Band as it was then.

He also plays Bass with The Chase Band ( 60’s 70’s 80’s 4 piece ) and when he’s not doing that he can be found daubed in green face paint and dancing with Green Dragon Morris from Bury St.Edmunds.

Favourite Song/Piece in Band: Feeling Good. Always feeling good when I play with Marrakesh.

Biggest musical influence: My family. I come from a musical family. Even the sewing machine was a singer!

Enjoys (Hobbies) interests: Collecting and playing vintage drums and percussion instruments. 

What makes you laugh?  The Muppets, particularly Animal.

Musical Story: Started piano lessons when about eight in my native Middlesbrough. My piano teacher introduced me to orchestral music, and I joined a local orchestra playing timpani at about nine. Joined all things musical at school, orchestra, wind band, choir, even joined a high school punk band. in the 70’s. Studies and then work took me around the UK, experiencing as many new musical styles as I could manage including brass bands, concert bands swing jazz, pop & rock, and musical theatre. Finally ended up in East Anglia to start a new job and have now been here over 20 years. My interest in different musical styles continues and I currently juggle playing for Marrakesh (since 1999) with a concert band, orchestra and rock band which still leaves time for occasional pit playing for musical theatre, depping for brass bands and any other  opportunity that comes along. If I am available, the answer is always YES.  I used to say that music was what I did when I was not working but increasingly, working is what I do when I am not playing music.  

Favourite gig or Festival you have attended: No one event comes to mind but I love having the opportunity to play in large ensembles with a full percussion section so I can have all my ‘toys’ out and invite my percussion friend along to help me play them. Still hope one day to have the chance to play The Nose by Dimitri Shostakovich which has 15 percussion parts.

Favourite Song/Piece in Band: Impossible to choose just one. Love the 1940’s stuff and a bit of Latin, but I also love things like Dance the Night Away, Best Years of Our Lives, and I do like a Liquid Lunch.

Biggest musical influence: My clarinet and sax teacher. He could play any genre of music, but he was a trad jazzer at heart. He was passionate about music – performance and interpretation, and passed that passion onto me and hundreds of others. Fantastic memories of him playing the clarinet solo in High Society, Petite Fleur, and a lovely bit of Stardust on the alto sax.

Enjoys (Hobbies) interests: Music, music, music…., playing music with all my musical freinds, reading, gardening, learning new things. 

What makes you laugh? : Having a laugh with friends, sillyness, word play, satire . Thin Blue Line, Detectorists, Raised by Wolves, W1A. …I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. One song to the tune of another, the kazoo and swanee whistle are always funny!!

Musical Story: I have always loved music and have been singing since childhood. I taught myself guitar around age 14, but the lights were really switched on when I started taking my daughter for trumpet lessons. Her teacher commented to me one day that I was obvioulsy musical and why didn’t I learn something. I don’t think I would ever have considered learning a wind instrument without this encounter but it has shaped my life since. Muisc has been one of the best things in my life, giving me so many opportunities, so much enjoyment and pleasure, and bringing me so many fantastic  friends. Music is such a positive force, it always makes me feel better. Favourite gig or Festival you have attended: Folk in a Field. A small music festival in the middle of the Suffolk countryside. Fantastic; friendly, family feel with great music.

Favourite Song/Piece in Band: I have so many favourites – Witchcraft, Love is the tender trap and Ain’t that a kick in the head – I like the way we swing it!

Biggest musical influence(s):

Glenn Miller – stems from my Grandparents, predominantly by Grandad as he played piano in swing/jazz bands.

Jaco Pastorius– the reason why I have a fretted instrument, an absolute legend in Weather Report and his own band. Listen to The Chicken.

Enjoys (Hobbies) interests: Gardening, Re-enactment and socializing. My cats are a huge part of my life

What makes you laugh? My Friends, banter with my band mates, and programs like Only Fools and Horses and films like Bridget Jones, Love Actually etc.

Musical Story: I wanted to play an instrument – I went for every audition even trumpet/French horn. (my mum was relieved that I didn’t get the trumpet). Finally, probably because no-one wanted to, I was able to learn the Double Bass, I was so happy and then eventually the school got a Bass Guitar and said I was the obvious person to learn it. WOW. I was in every musical group going at school and I loved being part of rock bands, something I hope I will one day go back to. I have been lucky enough to play concerts with the Suffolk Youth Orchestra and go on tours in Europe. These days I am a member of Galaxy Big Band and Marrakesh. Marrakesh has been in my life just on 20 years and it has been quite a journey. The line up now is one of the best it has ever been and there has been really friendships made. During this very tricky ‘lockdown’ period we have all kept in contact (one way or other) and I for one miss the rehearsals so much, not so much for working towards gigs but making music with friends. I was so close as a 12-year-old never to have gone down the musical route, I would never of met so many people, and formed incredible friendships. I have known Andy well over 20 years now and although he collects stage lights he has been a fabulous friend.

Favourite gig or Festival you have attended: Download  2014 – My top two favourite bands ever Avenged Sevenfold and Linkin Park headlining. INCREDIBLY AWESOME.

Tina was 15 and still at school when she joined her first big band. She had only been playing saxophone for a matter of weeks when the leader of a local youth band, Pale Moon Big Band, asked her to complete the all girl saxophone section line up. 

Some years later Pale Moon disbanded but many members, including Tina, were keen to set up a new big band and hence the now well known Horn Factory Band was created. It was here where she met her husband, Ian, who was the bass player.

Tina has also been a member of many local gigging bands, including The Dave Rogers Sound, Souled As Seen, Midlife Crisis and It’s Fete.  

One of her recent highlights was playing tenor sax in “Our House”, a musical based on Madness songs, with SODS (Stowmarket Operatic & Dramatic Society).

Tina plays tenor sax with the RAF Honington Voluntary Band, who can be seen at local events including leading the troops out of the Abbey Gardens in Bury St Edmunds on Remembrance Sunday. It was here where she met fellow members of Marrakesh – Andy, Bob, Chris, Mandy and Mary.

Tina’s favourite thing about Marrakesh is she loves playing swing band music, especially the iconic Glenn Miller numbers! 

Richard started out playing cornet at the age of 9. After playing in several local brass and wind bands, he switched to trumpet and joined the Suffolk Youth Jazz Orchestra (SYJO). There, he worked his way up from 4th trumpet to lead trumpet, the part he most enjoys playing. When he no longer fitted the description of ‘youth’, he left SYJO and helped form a big band called Horn Factory in 1996. He is still a member of that band today. 

Richard joined Marrakesh in 2014, after deputising at a number of gigs when the regular players were unavailable. He soon recruited another trumpet player (Steve Stone) to form the new trumpet section line up for the band.

As well as playing for Marrakesh and Horn Factory, he is also a member of a local dance band called Swing Machine. He also deputises in several other local bands from time to time.

In the early 70’s, a young Steve really wanted to play the saxophone, but his parents bought him a trumpet, as a sax was too expensive… he started playing in his high school marching band, in Oklahoma USA.

When he moved to the UK he was introduced to Brass Bands, where he played with many bands in the Ipswich area, taking part in local band contests, and also in the National Brass Band Finals at the Albert Hall with Clacton Co-op Brass Band.

Steve previously played with SYJO, Suffolk Youth Jazz Orchestra and Pale Moon Big Band and is currently with Horn Factory (big band Jazz), Swing Machine (dance band) and Marrakesh Band.