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Autumn News

BBB return to India!

We've just returned from a trip around India - playing at 4 weddings, in 4 different cities, in 5 days (luckily there were no funerals)!

We started in Delhi on 25th November, playing at a very smart wedding (see above), then on to Calcutta, Indore and, finally, Mumbai - the home of Bollywood. It's wedding season of course - there were 1,000 weddings taking place in Mumbai on the day we played there!

We've played at 100's of Indian weddings in the UK, but never before in India; we had a great response so I think we'll be returning before the season is over.

Schools Prom at the Royal Albert Hall

Click here to see video and more pictures.

One Prom leads to another - after the success of the Family Orchestra event for the BBC Proms, Kay (trumpet) was asked to create a piece for the Schools Prom at The Royal Albert Hall on 11th Nov! The event was organised by Music for Youth which is run by Lincoln Abbotts, our Family Orchestra leader.

The collaboration involved 2 groups - The Notorious Dholi's from Windsor Boys School and Berkshire South Youth Brass Band and Kay created a 4 minute medley of Jai Ho and Dil Laga Na from the film Dhoom 2. The performance took place on the huge stage of the Albert Hall and was part of an amazing evening of youth music. Kay is writing an article about the experience for Music Teacher Magazine which will be published in February.

Aaj Ki Raat which is one of the tracks we recorded on Movie Masala (arranged by Kay Charlton -trumpet) has been recorded by a Canadian group called Auto Rickshaw - in an expanded arrangement that Kay did for the Canadian Brass Band Hannford Street Silver Band. Click here to hear it.

September felt like late summer and when we played at Village India and Experience Gujarat in Leicester there was certainly a festival feel. BBC Asian Network were there and took some great pics:

Kay (trumpet) and Jeff (sousaphone)

Click here to see more pictures of the band.

We had a busy summer - click below to see highlight events:

Summer 2009
August - Oslo Mela
August - BBC Proms Family Orchestra
July - standing ovations at gigs!
June - BBC Children in Need

MP3s
Click here to hear Nikki Bedi talking about the BBC Family Orchestra and playing the performance of Jai Ho. Click here to hear just the performance of Jai Ho.

Video
Click here to see Kajra Re and Choli ke Peeche on YouTube from the Golowen Festival in Penzance.

Spring 2009
Ealing World Music Festival
Norwegian Bollywood

Autumn 2008
The BBB Rock Delhi!

Summer 2008
BBB collaboration with singer Rafaqat Ali Khan

We're currently creating a page on our website for audience reviews, so if you'd like to do a write-up please send it off to bollywood@eea.org.uk.

We've recently put some new footage up on YouTube so please have a look. You can see us performing in Gateshead, and there's a slideshow of our trip to Oslo last summer when we performed at the Opera House with Rafaqat Ali Khan.

We are on MySpace. Click here to see our page and listen to some tracks.