Brooke Weston Academy Y10 student Spike Simmons has recently returned from an inspiring  tour with the eight-time Youth National Champion brass band, Youth Brass 2000.

The tour, which took place in Belgium, showcased the exceptional musical talent of Spike and his fellow band members. It included performances in several Belgian cities, including Nieuwpoort, Ypres, De Panne and Oostende, where the band played to enthusiastic audiences.

Highlights of the tour included a performance at the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, where the band had the privilege of accompanying the Last Post ceremony which has been performed at the Menin Gate every day since July 1928, a total of more than 33,000 occasions to date, in honour of the memory of the soldiers of the former British Empire and its allies, who died in the Ypres Salient during the First World War (1914-1918). 

Spike has been a member of Youth Brass 2000; a community of brass band musicians aged under 19, for just over a year, playing the baritone horn. He began his musical career in Year 3 at primary school where he took lessons playing the trumpet after being inspired by his grandfather who played the trombone in a Salvation Army band in the Netherlands. 

Spike said, ‘As well as playing with the Youth Brass 2000 band, I have also been part of the County Training Brass band for the past two years. It was an amazing experience to have been selected to go on the European tour to Belgium and the highlight for me was definitely the performance at the Menin Gate Memorial where we played to a crowd of about 400 people. I am looking forward to next year’s tour, which takes place in Lake Garda, Italy. My aspirations are to attend the Royal Music College in London and be part of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, which was formed in 1917 during the First World War.’