RAISING in excess of an amazing £3,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer, the Blushing Brass Charity Concert at the Verwood Hub has been hailed an outstanding success.

It smashed the donation raised by the last Blushing Brass Charity Concert in 2013 by a whooping £2,000.

The story behind the event is that organiser Jan Tiller, who plays the cornet in Verwood Concert Brass, was inspired by the nationally renowned all-female fundraising brass band Boobs & Brass.

Realising that Verwood Concert Brass has a significant number of women in the organisation, enough to form its own all-female fund raising band, she set up Blushing Brass. Buoyed by the relative success of the first modest fund raising concert in 2013, Jan promised a bigger and better event for 2015.

Jan said: “It was bigger. Rather than a village hall event with an audience of less than 100, this time I hired the Verwood Hub, which my wonderful team of helpers beautifully decorated in cabaret style layout with complimentary homemade cakes on each table for the 200+ audience to enjoy. It looked really special.

“And the entertainment was even better. Of course we had Verwood’s very own fabulous Blushing Brass performing, but I was delighted that the band that had inspired it all, Boobs & Brass, agreed to join us to perform a joint concert, with each band performing a wonderful and varied programme of music in each half.

"And the finale piece with both bands on stage together - that’s over 70 players - was just awesome.”

The audience was not only thoroughly entertained by both bands, they were absolutely spellbound by the exceptional playing of the special guest soloist, one of the finest cornet players in the country, Kirsty Abbotts, principal cornet player for the Yorkshire Champions, the Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band.

Jan added: “I could not be more delighted with how the evening went. It was great having Boobs & Brass and Kirsty join us to make it an extra special concert.

"It does take a lot of organising, but I have masses of help and support from so many people and the concert is so much fun to do. Ultimately though raising over £3,000 for a very worthwhile cause is the icing on the cake with the cherry on top too.”