This week the bands of the Household Division have been holding their annual 'Music Festival' based at the wonderful Royal Military Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks, just a stone's throw away from Buckingham Palace.

The events featuring soloists, ensembles and bands from each of the regiments based there have proved to be a huge success, with visitors from all over the world able to walk in to hear the music free of charge.

All stars

The festival will be rounded off this weekend with a special 'Perry's All Stars' concert by former members of the Household Division Bands at 5.00pm.

During the week, there have also been performances by The Guards Big Band, the Band of the Grenadier Guards, the Countess of Wessex String Orchestra, the Band of the Scots Guards and Guards French Horns.

Spem in Alium

A centre-piece this year was a performance of 'Spem in Alium' by Thomas Tallis, specially arranged by WO C1 Andrew Porter and Chris Davies of Tredegar Band (above) for a concert given by Guards Brass.

Members of all the Guards bands took part to supply the 40 'voices' — including a quintet form Tredegar which came up from south-Wales to be included in the performance.

The result was stunning — especially in such an evocative venue and wonderful acoustic here at the Guards ChapelArranger, Chris Davies.

Stunning

"It's a glorious work and superb arrangement tailored specially for the slightly different instrumentation the Guards Brass offered,"Chris Davies told 4BR.

"The result was stunning — especially in such an evocative venue and wonderful acoustic here at the Guards Chapel. My thanks go to Andrew and all the players — especially as some had come from being on ceremonial duty during such a hot day in their iconic uniforms.

As one visitor told us, the sound created was spine-tingling."