We arrived to find the car park totally full. Luckily Grace spotted room at the back of Lovibonds Brewery. Jeff and Eithne, the landlords, kindly let us park in their beer garden.

The Band formed up in front of the open topped bus outside the Leander club house. The band then led the bus around the town playing Swing March, Great Escape, Chimes, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Longest Day, Argonaut, Little Bugler, St John Moore and Celebration. 

We were very proud that there was such a good turnout from the band (all but one made it - unable to take day off work !)

We marched over Henley Bridge, along Hart street, up to and along New Street, back to Hart Street and finished outside the Town Hall.

There were speeches from the top of the bus, each rower was congratulated on their win and they waved their medals to the crowd ending with the Olympic Medallists throwing their Leander club hippo mascots to the cheering crowd.We didn’t catch a hippo but some of the children got autographs. We felt very privileged to play at such a special event and the band would like to congratulate all the Olympic medal winners..


The buglers then formed a guard of honour and played a fanfare for the rowers as they entered the town hall, beneath an archway of oars held by representatives of the 4 Henley rowing clubs.


The two drum majors posed for a few photos for members of the public and then we then went for biscuits and squash upstairs in the tourist information centre.

The weather couldn’t have been better; it was gloriously sunny with beautiful blue skies.

Matthew Olds who was playing the bands new marimba (which was bought with a donation from the Chipping Norton RBL branch) managed very well. He said “it weighs a ton but I got my second wind half way around” “well 2nd  3rd then 4th wind”

Natasha Vinall (age 12; nearly 13) said “it was an excellent opportunity for the band to show off their skill” and her brother Peter (age 9) said “It was amazing and it was SUNNY”

Chris Olds said, “It was a really enjoyable parade and I hope we can do the same after the 2012 Olympics”