Believing in the philosophy a busy band is a happy band Geoff Otter was always pleased for the band to take part in musical festivals, especially when they resulted in funds being raised for various charities. A festival in aid of Cancer Research in June 1976 was the first of many such programmes given by the band and succeeded in raising £100.
Other beneficiaries of Band festivals have included the Women's Free Church Council, Rotary Clubs, Boscombe Hospital, the MacMillan unit, the Leslie Condon Trust, the Bournemouth project (for the care of drug dependants), Cheshire Homes, several local churches, nine candidates for the Salvation Army's International Training College, and Boscombe Corps' own New Building fund.
To commemorate the Queen's Jubilee, the Band gave a Celebration festival in the Punshon Memorial Church.
The event packed the church and specially invited visitors included representatives of many aspects of Bournemouth life. The concert was compered by the Rev. Jonathan Copus and featured as a special guest Joy Webb. But the real stars were the band themselves, and it may be doubted if ever in their long history have they played better than they are doing now under conductor Geoff Otter. They were well balanced, disciplined, very musical and expressive in a varied programme of testing music. Putting down their instruments they became a very pure toned male voice choir, and they produced sparkling soloists from their ranks in Glyn Bosanko, cornet, and Graham Lawrence, euphonium.
Recorded for later broadcast by BBC Radio Solent, the festival was so much appreciated that the band were invited to make it an annual event, and six further Celebration festivals were given. Guest soloists were invited to take part on each occasion with Celebration 2 in 1978 featuring trombonist Michael Hext who had recently been voted BBC Young Musician of the Year. Another well known trombone player, Don Lusher, also took part in a band programme in January 1981 in aid of the Boscombe New Building scheme.
The Boscombe New Building scheme also prompted the Band to produce its first cassette in March 1983. Recorded at the Bournemouth studios of Two Counties Radio, the cassette took its title Fisherman's Walk from Kenneth Downie's march and featured a wide range of brass and vocal music, including Daystar, Glory and Brooklyn Citadel. Eric Ball's specially written meditation Brantwood was also included, together with solos played by Roland Wright (cornet) and Graham Lawrence (euphonium).
Over 1000 copies of this cassette were sold, even though it was never made available through shops. In 1985 the recording was rereleased in record form as Priceless Treasure, with the title coming from one of the featured songs. Marching Along was the Band's second recording, produced in both record and cassette form in 1985, and featuring only marches and marching songs. Extracts from these records have often been featured by the local radio stations - 2CR and Radio Solent - but the band has also made a number of recordings especially for the BBC, being featured more than once on Radio 2's Listen to the Band and Bandstand on Radio 3.
When Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip visited Bournemouth in March 1979 the Band were accorded the great honour of being chosen to play for the visit. Assembled in Madeira Road, the band played for two hours while the Royal couple visited the police station and had a walkabout but, due to the vast crowds, few of the bandsmen were able to get even a glimpse of them.
The Band were further honoured by appearances in two major London festivals. At the Royal Festival Hall, 8th October 1980, they shared the platform with bands fron Derby Central, Ilford and Belfast Temple, and played Ray Steadman-Allen's Daystar and at the Bandmaster's Councils festival held in the Royal Albert Hall, 2nd June 1984, they featured another of this composer's major works - The Holy War.
