Chichester Big Band in action

Beverly Cerexhe-Dickens set the band up in November 2019 and is delighted with the way they have progressed since then despite the huge interruption of the pandemic: “We have done eight gigs this year which have all sold out. We did the Jubilee and we had a fundraising gig for Ukraine. We were already set up before the pandemic and we managed to rehearse when we were allowed to and really we've just gone from strength to strength. We have improved musically and audiences have grown and our aim is just to carry on improving and to get the band out there. We want to attract the lovely older generations and create a lovely nostalgic feeling when they listen to our music. We do all the stuff from the 1930s swing, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, all that old swing music that we love. It is about the nostalgia really and personally I just love that big band sound. Our aim ultimately is to play at the Revival. The Revival is the right event for big band swing era music. We need to approach them but we just want to improve a bit more so that we are top dollar when we get there. We would also like dance band evenings in Chichester once a month. We would love to do that in the Assembly Room which is where we've done a lot of our gigs. It is central and really we're just building up to that. We hope to start doing that next year.”