Grenadier Guards Band
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'The Grenadier Guards Band' 
The Band of the Grenadier Guards is one of the world's premiere military bands and has a long and distinguished history dating back over 350 years.
The oldest of all the bands of the British Army, the history of The Band of the Grenadier Guards records the entire development of military music. From its formation, the Regiment marched to the then usual accompaniment of drums and fife. In 1685 Charles II authorised the maintenance of 12 Hautbois (an early wind instrument) and this is considered to be the beginning of the band as a distinct entity. Indeed, so significant was the King’s death for the musicians of the Grenadier Guards that from his passing until the Second World War, the bass drummer of the band wore a black armband of mourning.
From the foundation of the band until some time in the 19th Century, the musicians numbered between twelve and nineteen, the make up being ‘one man from each company’. By 1844, this had been expanded to several musicians per company, with thirty-eight in the band by 1848. Numbers reached their peak at the end of the 1970s reaching sixty musicians. Today, the operational strength of the band is forty-nine.
The instruments of the band have changed accordingly. French Horns first joined the band in 1725 and by 1794 the band consisted of one flute, six clarinets, three bassoons, three horns, one trumpet, bass drum, cymbals and tambourine. It was to a similar baroque ensemble that Handel presented the march ‘Scipio’, before the premier of his opera of the same name in 1726. The march can still be heard accompanying the Grenadier Guards at every Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Instruments such as the euphonium, flugel horn and saxophone were introduced as they came to prominence in the wider musical world, until by 1859 the band existed in similar form to that in which we see it today.
Just as the band’s music has been a constant through 300 years of British History, so has its military role. It was not until the 1890s that the musicians were taken out of their battalions where they lived and worked with the regular soldiers and joined the staff of the regiment. Their position then and today was accurately described by George IV (talking about the band in 1803):"These men are to be drilled in their exercise and in case of actual service are to fall in with their companies completely armed and accoutered".
The band has served alongside the Regiment in conflicts throughout modern histories, playing in triumph in Paris in 1815 after Waterloo, when the first Regiment of Foot became the ‘Grenadier Guards’, and gained the now world-famous bearskins after capturing them from Napoleon’s Imperial Guard. Today the band, when mobilised, operates with the Army Medical Services in a chemical decontamination role.
Today’s band plays at the whole range of State occasions: the Changing of the Guard, State visits, investitures, banquets, and with the massed bands at the Trooping of the Colour and the Remembrance Sunday Parade. They also represent Britain and the Crown on innumerable other occasions.
In 2002, the band opened the Commonwealth Games, led the Lord Mayor’s Show, performed a series of concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, and performed at the Swedish International Tattoo.
After being the first British soldiers in Uniform to enter the United States since the War of Independence in 1872, the Band of the Grenadier Guards returned to America in 2003, covering over 16.000 miles and performing at over 60 venues in 40 states over three months. The Band has also recently been to Belgium, Denmark & Australia.
