Band Sergeant Major: Cllr Osman Dervish

 I joined the band in 2001 at the age of 14, pretty late considering some of the ages that other people had joined at. I decided to join when I saw a presentation about the band, and was thoroughly impressed when I saw them on a Thursday night. Luckily I had already been taking music lessons at school and could play the cornet when I joined, this meant that as soon as I had learnt how to march, I was in.

While I joined at a young age, I became instantly hooked and have enjoyed every moment with my "extended family", both in and out of band. In this regard, the band has offered me the opportunity to go to some truly remarkable events, such as The Lord Mayors Show in London, and meet some unbelievably amazing people, including the former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher.

I have made the most of it through my involvement in the main band and also as a Monday night instructor, grounding the new recruits in the basics of marching etc. I am both happy and proud to be a member of the best youth marching band in not only Great Britain, but in my opinion, the world. I was promoted to BSM in 2011.

Drum Sergeant Major: Mr Alec Tyler

I joined the band when I was nine years old it was round about 1990. I first saw them perform at a school fete and later at the Romford Tattoo. I wanted to joined straight away but my brother and sister wasn't interested (but my mum and dad made them anayway). I have played the snare drum nearly all of my time in the band except for my firts year when they made me play cymbols because I was too small to carry the drum.

One of my most favourite jobs I have ever done has to be when my drummers were booked out to play on the players at the Rugby Super League Grand Final at Old Trafford. There was over 70,000 fans in the stadium that night and I have never had such an amazing buzz from a band show.

Over my time in the band I have won a few awards with in the band incuding the first person to win Sergeant of the Year twice and have beeen promoted through the ranks to Drum Sgt/Mjr for my efforts in the band. I have pretty much had the run of my section for nearly ten years with a little help from various people and it has been thoroughly enjoyable to watch the the section grow in to what they are today.