Band of HM Royal Marines Commando Training Centre

Director of Music: Captain C Burns GCGI PG Dip LRSM RM/Lt Matt Klohs
Bandmaster: WO2 AP Lomas AMusTCL LRSMRM
Drum Major: Sgt Bug G Scollick RM

It’s ‘business as usual’ here at The Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Commando Training Centre; the summer term has been a very busy period for the Band. With King’s Squad Pass out every two weeks here on base to pass out the New Troop of Royal Marine Commandos comes the ‘clang’ of ill fitted magazines hitting the deck on the parade and the ‘early shooter’ on the drill display; it's good times all round at CTCRM!
The Band was overjoyed to hear that finally a foreign trip had come in and was up on the ‘bored’! Now it’s not too often we get to travel to the sunny delights of Wales and see how they do things! My… what an education that turned out to be! At one point we bumped into the Welsh National Rugby Team. Kensington Palace saw the Band ‘Beating Retreat’ for a corporate event, which was well received. Badminton Horse Trials was another fine display from not only the Band but the ‘National Tweed Association’ who gave their finest performance on the day to ‘out do’ each other in the most splendid of outfits, with the most serious of faces!

CTCRM Band during King's Squad

HMS Middleton had a ‘Meet The Royal Navy’ Open Day and a selection of Kenny Ball enthusiasts found themselves on the minibus tearing at a pace of 55 mph over to Swansea to perform with the Dixie Band for a weekend of delights. Turned out the only delight this time was not Turkish but two Spanish girls that a couple of lads met on a Run Ashore! One was called Nets and the other Caster, but for some reason they kept getting them mixed up? Sounds like a load of claptrap to me.

Devon County Show has been part of the diary this term. Also since the closure of The Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Britannia Royal Naval College we have covered many performances there, from Cocktail Parties to Passing out Parades. There is also a rumour that there is still a band in Plymouth (only joking fellas!) but here at CTCRM we are not so sure as Raleigh Divisions have almost become ‘Part and Parcel’ of our monthly diary!

The Big Performance of the summer term needs little introduction from myself. Horse Guards was a real feat for the Massed Bands and may I say what a splendid performance it turned out to be. The final note of ‘Parade Of The Charioteers’ rang around the three great walls of the Horse Guards Parade and in that spine chilling moment when the hairs on the back of the neck are stood to attention, it was understood by all that the Royal Marines, as they have always been, are still a force to be reckoned with.

The School Of Music covered the Band for a King's Squad Pass Out when we were on Horse Guards and were most professional, so well done to them. Even BdCpl Simon Nicholls took a solo in the march Navy Blue!

The Buglers Branch and the String Quartet have been over to Florida for four days to perform for the British Embassy. Also BdCpl Dom O’Connor and Bugler Stu Bartlett have been over in South Africa playing for the Corps Rugby Team, and have even managed to fit in time to go and watch some games played by the Lions! Were David Attenborough’s programmes not good enough for them?

As most of you know here at The Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Commando Training Centre we have had a Lieutenant from the Royal Australian Navy Band, Lieutenant Matt Klohs, who has brought with him a great enthusiasm and a different approach to performance which has worked most effectively. I approached Lieutenant Klohs about doing an interview for the Blue Band Magazine and asking him a selection of questions about his time here in the Band. The interview went ahead, it was a great success, and printed below for all to read!

The Pete Wilson Interview - Living with Klohs

PW) When did you join the Royal Australian Navy Band?
MK) I joined in January 1991 when I was 17 years old!

PW) What made you want to join?
MK) My father was in the Navy Band in the 1950’s so it had always had an impact on me. I did want to join the RAAF Band firstly but alas I had no Degree at that age and that was the criteria. I heard that the Army Bands dug holes and lived under trees half the time and for me that was a big ‘no no’.

PW) What was your instrument category?
MK) When I first started out I was a flute and piccolo player. As time went on I started to double on saxophone, then later on in my career I became heavily interested and influenced by composition.

PW) At what point did you receive your Commission?
MK) It was the first of January 2007! I was thirty three at the time and held the rank of Petty Officer. Over in Australia there are two main dates in the year to receive Commissions, in January or July, and I picked up the former.

PW) How have you found the green and pastured lands of England since you received the ‘Draft of Homage to Military Music’s Mecca’ - The Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines?
MK) In a nutshell? …Mostly wet! ha ha, well at least for the first month though I have to say the longer I have been here in Devon the true beauty of the land has become apparent to me. Especially the Strand Pub and Indian Nights Balti House, no better way to taste the culture!

PW) Very good Sir, may I ask how you have found Conducting the Band and taking to our ways in comparison to back home?
MK) Well… (pulls bottle of scotch out of his piccolo case) I have to say my humour goes down a lot better at home! The brass in both I find to be strong and confident which is great, and the thing I can say which makes me very happy about working with this band here is that you always give me what I ask for and on the night I don’t know where you keep it hiding but you never fail to give me that extra ten percent which really makes for a great performance every time. The morale is good here; you guys really look after each other. Half the Band are quite a young crowd here which is very different from back home; you have a job with us till you reach sixty!

PW) Being stationed on the main Royal Marines base in the UK, how have you found the experience?
MK) Green.

PW) Quite often in the Coffee Boat amongst other places you hear the all too familiar phrase to start a sentence ‘If I was PDM…' So Sir I ask you, if you were PDM…
MK) If I was PDM? (finally polished off that bottle of scotch he pulled out of his piccolo case) Well I love the idea of guys having a job till they’re sixty. I mean all that corporate knowledge and musical experience! Though I understand that promotion prospects would be poor in such a small unit of people.
Lots more Golf! Right? Like what’s life without golf? No really?
I like the Idea of a Draft where one band would be a permanent Show Band or Big Band, the two are close and usually Jazz musicians do the show work anyhow. Last time we used a Big Band at the Exmouth Pavilion the crowd were just wild for it.
The Category of Vocal and another instrument also interests me a lot, I think it’s a very very important category that gets overlooked everywhere, people love a singer and lyrics, and if it is done professionally it is really the icing on a cake.

PW) And my last Question Sir: What is your favourite instrument in the Band?
MK) Oboe…

PW) Sorry sir did you just say Trombone? I thought so… excellent Sir, you can stay another week.
Musician Pete Wilson

Last updated January 2010