There has been brass bands in and around Southend-on-Sea for about a
century. Old sepia photographs record that there was once a Leigh Town
Band, a Prittlewell Brass Band, a Shoebury Railway Workers Institute
Band, a Shoebury Boys’ Band, motley Mission bands and of course, the
Salvation Army, which came to Leigh and Southend in the late 1800s and
formed their own brass bands. The present-day Southend Band, whilst
not able to lay claim to a direct filial relationship to these old
bands is, nevertheless, certainly one of the oldest music-making
ensembles in the Borough, tracing its direct lineage back to before
the Second World War through the Southend United Football Supporters
Club Band (formed 1953), the Southend Ambulance Band (1946), the 16th
Essex Home Guard Band (brass and reed, 1939), the Southend Local
Defence Volunteer Band (brass and reed, prior to 1936) and the
Southend Borough Military Band (brass and reed).
During Southend-on-Sea’s heyday as an Edwardian holiday resort it
boasted at least four Bandstands, the most famous being the Victorian
“Cakestand” (pictured below) which stood atop the cliffs opposite
Southend’s oldest park, Prittlewell Square. Our town bands entertained
the crowds there regularly (and at both the two structures which
subsequently replaced it) until the landslip of 2002 caused the
closure of the venue.
When the Cliffs Bandstand was finally re-erected in Priory Park in the
Summer of 2008, the honour of opening it went to the Southend Band:
the band which, over the years, had come to fondly regard it as their
spiritual home.
The Southend Band has been the official civic brass band since
November 1985. Since that time they have rehearsed on Thursday
evenings at the Civic Centre in Victoria Avenue. They still have a
large and loyal following of enthusiastic supporters, which augers
well for the future.