Where are they now?

Dave and Kevin Wilson

Kevin and Dave Wilson

Anyone who attended the National Brass Band Championship Finals at the Royal Albert Hall last October, would have seen the RM Band Service represented at that prestigious occasion by the Royal Marines Fanfare Team, joining forces with the world famous Black Dyke Band at the Gala Concert.

Earlier in the day they would have also seen two ex-members of the Band Service, in the shape of Dave and Kevin Wilson (no relation) competing at the contest itself.
Not only did they compete on stage, as members of the Leyland Band, playing the fiendishly difficult new test piece ‘Eden’ by Dr John Pickard, they went on to win the contest, beating various famous names in the world of brass bands, such as: Black Dyke Band, Cory Band, Grimethorpe, Brighouse and Rastrick, along with 15 other top bands to become national champions. Kevin (bass trombone) and Dave (euphonium), attended the same Band Service audition and joined the Royal Marines on the same day in September 1976.

After completing their training they served for a short time together in the RMSM Staff Band, Deal, before Dave was drafted to the Fleet Band at Chatham, and Kevin to the Commando Forces Band, Stonehouse Barracks Plymouth, seeing action in the Falklands War during his time there.
Eight years later they were back together again as Band Corporals in the Commandos Band at Lympstone.
Kevin left for pastures new in 1990 and joined the North Yorkshire Police stationed at Malton. Dave went on to pass his Bandmasters' course and was eventually appointed the Bandmaster of the Royal Marines School of Music, Portsmouth, and finished his time in the Band Service as Bandmaster of the RM Band Scotland.

On his retirement from the Band Service in 2000, Dave returned home to his native Lancashire to work as a brass teacher and joined the band he originally started playing with at the age of eight, the Besses o’th Barn Band. When they needed a bass trombone player he contacted his old mate Kevin, now working as a Police Sergeant in Skipton. After eighteen months in the band together Dave was invited to join the Leyland Band, winning the English Masters contest in 2003 and the North West Area title in 2004. Kevin joined him in the band in 2005, helping them to win the Northwest Area for the second year running and then the big one, the National Championships later in that year.

They are both looking forward to defending both titles later this year and in May, are competing for the first time at the European Brass Band Championships in Belfast.
However, they have made Leyland Band promise that the transport for the band won’t be an armoured personnel carrier like the last time they visited the province as Royal Marines musicians.