Musical Director - Andi Licqurish

Andi is well known in and around Herefordshire as a musician and performer. He started his musical adventure at the age of 5, studying the Cornet and the Baritone Horn within the Hereford Salvation Army Band. Progressing through the years, he was an avid member of the Hereford Youth Music Service bands and orchestras, playing Trumpet/Cornet, euphonium and tuba.

At the age of 12 he was noticed playing guitar and invited to go on a brief tour with a Hereford based rock and roll band, which is when his love of performing began. Andi enjoyed the freedom of working in different genres of music and was able to play and learn with many musicians and musical groups. He was invited to join the Hereford Big Band as a Trumpet player at the age of 16.

Having established himself within the Trumpet section, Andi was invited to play a charity concert by John Arnold, the HBB drummer. This gig included performances by Michael and Margaret Morris, both popular and respected instrumentalists, and was to involve, without his knowledge, the unknown art of IMPROVISATION! After many sweaty minutes, the gig started, and a love of Jazz and Swing was ignited.

He was taken under the wing of Margaret and Michael, and spent many hours talking, listening and studying the subject which they all truly loved. This lead to the formation of “Jazzaphernalia” and “Take 5”, two of the most popular Jazz groups to have come from Hereford, featuring Mike, Margaret and Andi, alongside Geoff Collins on Tenor Saxophone, and Ian “Charlie” Russell on Drums.

Andi continued to work with a large number of musicians, covering a variety of genres, from Jazz and Swing, to playing in Horn sections with Soul, Rock, Funk, & Jump-Jive bands. He also played for many years in “CARAMBA”, a world music band, playing instruments from Recorders & Flutes, to Didgeridoos and Surdo Drums. He has also played trumpet with “The Gentlemen Of Jive”, and Bass and Vocals with “The Friends Of Tanqueray”, where he was able to fulfil his dream of playing the music of Louis Jordan.

Whilst working as a freelance musician, he is privileged to have played with some of his heroes, such as Jools Holland, George Melly, and Tom O'Connor, and has worked in Professional Theatre, in productions of Cabaret, Bugsy, Sweetie and My Fair Lady. He has held the Musical Director post in shows including My Fair Lady and Hair, and has performed in productions of My Fair Lady, The Beggars Opera, and Godspell.

Andi has been the Musical Director of The Hereford Big Band since 2001 and still enjoys the challenge the role offers. He leads the band from the front, and also takes on the responsibilities of Male Vocalist within the band, at times, indulging in the opportunity to play a Trumpet solo or three.

Assistant Musical Director – Peter Fletcher

Peter Fletcher (Fletch) was introduced to jazz by an eccentric school chum back in Belfast in 1973, playing flute, sax and piano, and went on to surprise his tutors at Oxford by doing it as special study in his finals – no-one had done that question since c. 1960. Continuing his career as a music teacher, Fletch has always included the history of Jazz and Popular Music in his curriculum as he believes that this is one of the most influential musical forms of the C20th.

Fletch has always enjoyed singing, playing, composing and arranging music in various bands, theatres, (including MD’ing Cabaret and Bugsy Malone for the opening of the Courtyard) schools and even churches and, after an earlier flirtation with the band in the early ‘90s, has been the regular pianist for the Hereford Big Band since 2006 and more recently has been sharing Andi’s responsibilities in rehearsals and on gigs. He has also formed and/or played in a number of local bands mainly aimed at the swing dance market: The Gentlemen of Jive, The Friends of Tanqueray and C Jam Blue to name but three, and runs various music groups at Hereford Sixth Form College including the College Swing Band and Soul Band. Many of the College’s students have developed a love of swing and have made an important contribution to the Hereford Big Band.

For the last ten years, Fletch has been learning Jazz Jive and Lindy Hop dancing and this has greatly influenced his approach to playing and directing swing music. It is not unknown for him to break into dance when conducting (just to check the tempo, you understand).