Echoes of Empire is the second of BMMA’s releases to feature remastered historic performances from the Band of the Coldstream Guards.

This selection of music has been arranged as a typical bandstand programme from the interwar period. Wipers, a lively quick march by Herman Darewski, takes its title from the British soldiers’ popular pronunciation of the Belgian town of Ypres, scene of some of the greatest fighting and destruction during WWI. The medley On the March includes a cast of over a dozen marches.

Also prevalent are selections from operas and musicals, including two Gilbert and Sullivan tracks, The Distant Shore and music from Ruddigore. Colouring the album are two novelty numbers, Orth’s In a Clock Store and Jessel’s Parade of the Tin Soldiers, which topples to a close when one of the depicted toy soldiers trips over the last bars.

Captain Robert George Evans took command of the Band immediately after WWI, passing on his baton to Major James Causley Windram, who conducted into WWII.