A CONCERT band which plays all over West Yorkshire and attracts players from across the region too is celebrating its 40th anniversary year with a special concert this weekend.

Bradford Metropolitan Concert Band was formed in 1975 as an alternative to brass bands and has gone from strength to strength over the years. The band, which has 30 players, encompasses flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoon, saxophones, French horns, trumpets, cornets, trombones, euphonium, tuba and percussion.

Last year was a busy one for the band, with its members, who range in age from ten to 84-years-old, playing at events such as the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in Ilkley, and a week-long tour to Jersey in conjunction with the Yorkshire Band of the Royal British Legion.

And engagements in this 40th year have so far included the Tour de Yorkshire in May and a Grand Day Out at the Bradford Industrial Museum the same month.

The band's 40th Anniversary Concert is being held at Bingley Arts Centre on Sunday from 7.30pm.

Committee member and French horn player, David Benson said: "We play a huge range of music, anything from classical overtures to popular swing. The anniversary concert is a chance to show off the band and we like the arts centre as we have played there many times."

Of the anniversary year, he added: "It's important to use because we are a long-established band and despite a traumatic period during the Bradford riots when we lost our uniforms, music library, many instruments and equipment, as the band room was fire bombed, we are still going strong today.

"We lost our band room and everything else that year, and it could have destroyed the band too. But we were helped out by donations of music libraries from then defunct bands, and we were also given a set of uniforms by a tailor who had made them for a band that went bust. These were our saviours at the time."

Mr Benson, 71, has been with the band for the past eight years after being the principal horn player for the Leeds Symphony Orchestra, a group he was with for 29 years.

Long-standing member Janette Williams, who plays the clarinet and is the band's treasurer, joined in 1975 at the age of 15, added that they had been involved in many memorable concerts over the years, including venues such as Bradford's St George's Hall, days out in Blackpool and had played in a memorial event at Valley Parade in the aftermath of the fire disaster that hit Bradford City in 1985.

She also recalled when they played on stage in Ilkley at Riverside Gardens as the Tour de France passed through the town last year.

"It was just amazing seeing the masses of spectators present, there was hardly a blade of grass to be seen in the park. We also played at the bandstand in Ilkley this year as the Tour de Yorkshire passed by."

The band, which rehearses twice a week at Baildon Hall in Baildon, welcomes new players of grade 5 and above, aged 16 or over. More information is available on its website at bmcb.org.uk.

Tickets for the anniversary concert cost £8 with concessions at £6, and are available from the arts centre on 01274 567983 or bingleyartscentre.co.uk.