The City of Hull Band is one of the top brass bands in the world and is probably one of the most successful bands ever during its relatively short history. In soccer terms the band started as a Sunday League team in 1989 and achieved promotion in almost consecutive years through the 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st divisions and then to the premier league! Having been promoted to the North of England Championship Section (the banding equivalent of the Premier League) in 1996, the Band then earned the title of North of England Champions for a remarkable three successive years.
It is at this level that the band regularly competes against famous bands with household names like Brighouse & Rastrick, Grimethorpe Band and the Black Dyke Band, all of whom have many years of success and history behind them.
In 2002 the band were invited to play a new piece of music specially commissioned by them for the opening of ‘The Deep’, Hull’s Submarium. In 2006, another joint concert with the massed choirs from the ‘Friends Northern Schools’ in the magnificent setting of Wakefield Cathedral saw the band perform Vivaldi’s Gloria. The band has recorded several CD’s, and featured on CD’s recorded by the Beautiful South. Highlights in 2007, saw the band again join with the massed 'Friends Schools' Choirs, to perform Karl Jenkins Requiem Mass 'The Armed Man'. The band also commissioned another work, 'Reformers' by Philip Wilby which received its world premiere performance at The City Hall, Hull as part of the 2007 Wilberforce Festival. The band has visited Europe on several occasions, including a tour of the Netherlands in 2007 and competing at The French Open in 2009.
More recently in 2017, the band recorded the soundtrack for “Born on the Tide” a video used in the successful application for funding for Hull’s “Maritime Heritage Project”. This “sowed the seeds” and inspired the band two years later to commission a new work entitled “Anchor for the Soul” by Andi Cook as a memorial to the more than 6000 Hull trawlermen lost at sea. This was