Some of the women in the Band of the Island of Jersey

THE Band of the Island of Jersey is celebrating its tenth anniversary of welcoming women into their fold.

After spending more than 100 years as a male-only organisation, the band changed its policy a decade ago to allow women and men to play together – and the organisation say that they have never looked back.

Today the band has 16 female members, aged between 12 and mid-50s, making up almost a third of their ensemble.

The military marching band was formed in 1876 and had an all male membership because of the fact that the forces had no females in those days. When it reformed as the Band of the Island of Jersey in the 1960s it remained male-only because the Island’s military organisations remained male-orientated.

However, the band’s musical director Nick Manning said that ten years ago the committee decided that, to ensure their future prosperity, they should invite females to join.
‘Straight away a few joined,’ he said. ‘It was a fantastic decision, because there are only so many brass players in the Island.

‘We felt it was previously very male chauvinist so we decided to open it up to all Islanders. It has proved to be a great decision. Recently we have had an influx of young girls join from our training band.’