London Citadel Band

A typical year for the Salvation Army's London Citadel band consists of 175-200 engagements. These include community concerts within the corps and at various local churches; traditional band weekends when guest soloists and conductors join the band; participation in Christmas celebrations in and around the city in addition to an annual thank you to the citizens of London for their support of The Salvation Army's work all through the year.

All members are amateurs in the strictest sense in that they are unpaid for their participation in the band. Bandmaster John Lam is a music teacher in the London School Board. Other members are university students, corporate executives, salesmen, factory inspectors, school teachers, a retired Salvation Army officer and several self-employed entrepreneurs.

Live performances and recordings have done much to establish and enhance the
band's international reputation as one of The Salvation Army's most accomplished. This is due in large part to consistency of membership and dynamic leadership continued by the band's current bandmaster who took over from Bramwell Gregson in 1995. Lam served as deputy bandmaster from 1991 to 1995 under Gregson.

The message of the band remains unchanged from when it was first formed in 1883, only the methods of presentation have. In 1971, the corps moved from its original downtown location to a suburban setting. This marked the beginning of the end of traditional open air concerts for which it was known, but opened new avenues of ministry for the band as it concentrated its outdoor ministry on hospitals and nursing homes and began to make recordings.

The band's first long play recording was produced in 1972 to commemorate the
opening of the new citadel. A second recording followed in 1973, with a third in 1974. This recording of marches, hymn tunes and songs from the Songs of Faith tune books was the germ for what would be the band's most successful ministry, the Old Timers series of five cassette recordings with almost 200 hymn tunes and a number of early day marches. More than 12,000 copies of these recordings have found their way around the world to be used in many ways: accompaniment for singing in small outposts; a reminder of home for a missionary on foreign service; and a distraction from the busy working world as one drives along.

The band's first compact disc recording was released in 1991. A 1993 compact
disc releases included "Song of the Brother" featuring renowned euphonium soloists, the Child's Brothers, accompanied by the London Citadel Band and "Excelsior," a wide variety of Salvation Army music presented by the band. Followed in 1995 with "A Christmas Celebration," a joint project with the Amabile Youth Singers, also from London. In 1996, "The New Covenant" was the first release under Lam. "Guardian of Our Way" was released to commemorate London Citadel's Tour of Great Britain in 1997. The newest addition to the band's recordings, "How Sweet the Sound" with Susan Turner was released in October 1998.

The band has traveled extensively in North America, visiting many centers in the United States and Canada, from Maine to Florida in the east and British Columbia to California in the west.