A LOCAL band created a series of music videos of Christmas songs and carols to celebrate the festive season.

Members of Woodley Concert Band produced a series of 12 musical videos of their favourite carols and Christmas songs and launched its 12 Virtual Days of Christmas on December 13.

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Individual members of the band recorded their parts in their homes and the recordings were edited together to make a series of festive musical treats.

Between them, they created a variety of pieces with everything from Jingle Bells played by one person magically appearing in a room four times, right up to full band virtual recordings of Fairytale of New York and Happy Xmas (War is Over), each with over 30 musicians.

Assistant Director of Music, Owen Lloyd, said: “In a typical year we’re used to performing around 20 concerts, from formal events to bandstands, and from summer fetes to playing carols on the streets.

"When the first lockdown hit in March, we were preparing for our first ever trip to the Finals of the National Concert Band Festival and for a group that typically rehearses for 52 weeks of the year, it's pretty surreal that our last rehearsal was way back on 11th March.”

For the band, made up of around 45 local amateur musicians, Christmas is usually one of the busiest times of the year.

“In addition to our own Christmas concerts we would usually be out and about across Woodley, Reading and Berkshire spreading festive cheer in our community", Owen added.

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"When it became apparent that none of this was going to be feasible this year, we decided that we still wanted to do our best to bring a smile to people's faces and so our 12 Virtual Days of Christmas were born!”

The band's videos have reached more than 28,000 people via social media and have been played for a total of 5,900 minutes.

If you'd like to see Woodley Concert Band’s 12 Virtual Days of Christmas you can find the complete series of videos by searching on YouTube for ‘Woodley Concert Band’.