Press Release - 4th May

Senators perform with Gwen Stafani

Members of the Senators Drum and Bugle Corps will be taken on the celebrity trip of a lifetime this weekend as they go on tour supporting Pop superstar Gwen Stefani.

Six members of the corps, accompanied by Director Joe Fitzpatrick and Percussion Head John McNamara, will be backing Gwen as she promotes her new single "Hollerback Girl", the video of which features marching bands and cheerleaders.

The trip begins tomorrow (Thursday) in London as the corps members rehearse 10am-10pm with Gwen Stefani and her dancers to get their performance right - the Senators members will appear in full uniform with Brass and Percussion instruments. They will then live the Rock and Roll lifestyle stay in a Central London apartment before Friday sees them rehearsing and recording Top of the Pops which is broadcast later that evening.

After another night in the apartment, an early start will see the corps recording a performance for CDUK for ITV  and then Popworld for Channel 4.

Once the TV appearances are over, the Senators members will get on the Gwen Stefani tour bus and travel to Sunderland where, after staying in a celebrity studded hotel, they will be performing on the main stage on Radio 1's "One Big Weekend" in front of 20,000 people.

After another night in the hotel, the tired members will then be flown back to Southampton Airport on Monday.

This amazing performance opportunity is just the latest in this year's celebrity appearances which included the brass appearing in Keane's video "This is the last time" and the drums being featured a few weeks ago with Will Smith on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night takeaway.

"It's great to get the opportunity to perform in these high profile events," says Director Joe Fitzpatrick, "Not only for the members that get the experience of a lifetime, but it gets our activity on national, primetime TV, which raises our public profile and helps all marching bands and drum corps in the UK."

The Senators Web Site will be trying to keep everyone updated with progress over the next few days with pictures where possible, together with follow ups and full reports next week.

The Senators performance times this weekend are:

Top of the Pops Friday 6th May 7:30pm-8:00pm (repeated Sunday 8th May 2:10am-2:40am)

CD:UK (ITV), T4 Popworld (Channel 4) over the weekend.

Radio 1 "One Big Weekend" Coverage throughout the Weekend.