In late 2014 a long forgotten store of 78 rpm recordings on shellac and vinyl of the band of the Coldstream Guards was discovered by Simon Vandeleur, the Regimental Secretary of the Coldstream Guards. He has since added to the collection from historic recordings by a number of other British military bands. The earliest of these recodings date back to 1905 when John Mackenzie-Rogan was the Coldst
ream Guards bandmaster from 1896 to1922, and was the first British Army bandmaster to be given commissioned rank. Mackenzie-Rogan became the senior Director of Music of the Brigade of Guards, composer and arranger of music, making the Guards band music well known both nationally and internationally, all before the days of radio, film and television. The Guards bands were amongst the first UK bands to have their music recorded, with the Coldstream band recording their first music in a London hotel in 1898. Simon had the recordings catalogued by archivist Colin Dean, along with the historic recordings of the Life Guards, Royal Horse Guards (also known as the Household Cavalry), and the Grenadier, Scots, Irish and Welsh Guards (also known as the Brigade of Guards or Guards). Music publisher and music advisor to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Tim Hollier , introduced Simon to Metropolis Studios, recognised internationally as one of the leading digital mastering studios. Metropolis took some of the earliest recordings pre First World War, eliminated the hisses and scratches and background noise and illustrated how the music could be brought back to life. This is a slow and lengthy process, using up to seven different stylii depending on the angle of the grove on the vinyl record, some of which were of relatively primitive construction. The very early records were manufactured by a factory in Dresden, Germany. Simon and Tim created the British Military Music Archive to preserve, archive, restore and release the recordings to the public, and to make the product available to film and documentary producers. BMMA aspires to be the leading, if not unique, digital archive for UK military band recordings both past and present, with more historic music being sourced throughout 2015. They will pay any operating surpluses back into the charitable funds of the individual regiments and organisations who have supplied the original historic music.
