Norfolk Music Works

The KLCSB is an open access community band set up through Norfolk Music Works in 2000 and new members are always welcome. During the foreseeable future band workshops and rehearsals are being run under the umbrella of DeeP Music. Performances are generally being arranged through Norfolk Music Works (tel: 01485 609009). The band performs a few times a year in carnivals and village fetes and has taken part in some large scale community music projects including two in collaboration with The Grand Union Orchestra and Mac Tontoh's Kete Warriors. Members of the group are encouraged to join in with regional and national encounters, gatherings and events known as encontros.

Derek Paice leads the sessions and the band plays a mix of Anglo-Samba rhythms including those known as batucada, Mozambique, samba-reggae and Timbalada, which will be known to other "sambistas" in the UK. The set pieces have been composed by Derek, Lee Higgins (ex-Desfile, the Peterborough Community Samba Band, now a lecturer at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts), sambistas within the East Anglia Region and nationally or through workshops. The KLCSB also play a couple of more unusual crossover rhythms, not known to be played by any other group , Derek's "Samba March" and his taiko-influenced "Mitsouri".

This year several members of the band plan to join in once again with the mega performances of Eastern Bloco, a large samba percussion band drawing players from the groups in Bedford, Cambridge, Hitchin, Ipswich, King's Lynn, Luton, Northampton, Norwich and Peterborough. Eastern Bloco performances last year included Luton Carnival, Cambridge Strawberry Fair, Northampton Carnival, Chatteris Carnival, Peterborough Mayor's Parade, Wisbech Rose Fair and the carnivals in St Neot's and Hoddesden. Follow the link to Eastern Bloco to see details for this year's joint events.

Rehearsals and workshops for the King's Lynn Community Samba Band take place almost fortnightly on a Thursday evening, 7.30-9.00. We meet at Presnell's in Millfleet, King's Lynn. Sometimes we are in the upstairs function room, sometimes the downstairs one. It's best to check both when you turn up. Cost is £5 per person (over 18), £2.50 (under 18). Under 15s are welcome if they attend with a family or designated responsible adult. It is, however, the responsibility of the adult to ensure that their child can cope with the demands of a rehearsal situation.