The First Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege Scout Band and Group, renowned for nur­tur­ing gen­er­a­tions of young mu­si­cians and up­hold­ing the scout­ing spir­it, is cel­e­brat­ing a gold­en mile­stone—50 years of the QRC Scout Show. The an­niver­sary con­cert, themed Through the Years, takes place at Queen’s Hall on No­vem­ber 1 and 2, promis­ing a mu­si­cal jour­ney from camp­fire sin­ga­longs to con­cert hall per­for­mances.

This year’s scout show, as tra­di­tion dic­tates, is di­vid­ed in­to two dis­tinct halves. The open­ing seg­ment fea­tures the QRC Scout Band, a 50-plus-mem­ber con­cert or­ches­tra blend­ing brass, wood­winds, steel­pan, and per­cus­sion. The band’s reper­toire spans show tunes, pop favourites, jazz stan­dards, tra­di­tion­al melodies, and Christ­mas clas­sics.

As­sis­tant Group Scout Leader and Mu­si­cal Di­rec­tor Demetrius Fras­er said prepa­ra­tions for the an­niver­sary be­gan near­ly a year ago.

“The amal­ga­ma­tion of a cross-gen­er­a­tional turnout has been very ful­fill­ing,” he said. “Our phi­los­o­phy is to teach young peo­ple to ap­pre­ci­ate mu­sic—its fun­da­men­tals, its tech­niques, and the pos­i­tive en­er­gy that comes from both lis­ten­ing and per­form­ing.”

The sec­ond half of the show brings light-heart­ed the­atre to the stage, fea­tur­ing skits and per­for­mances by age-group bands play­ing con­tem­po­rary hits. Adding to the nos­tal­gia, sev­er­al “old boys” will re­turn to per­form along­side cur­rent scouts—a tra­di­tion that dates back to the show’s found­ing in 1975 by the late Lau­rence Mc­Dowall and cel­e­brat­ed artist and au­thor Patrick Roberts, who con­tin­ues to sup­port the troop to­day.

For cur­rent mem­bers, the Scout Show is more than a per­for­mance—it’s a plat­form for growth. Dakari Noel, a Sixth Form stu­dent and clar­inet­tist, said the band has opened count­less doors.

“The scout band gives you op­por­tu­ni­ties,” he said. “I’m look­ing for­ward to the crowd’s re­ac­tion at Queen’s Hall.

“When we get that round of ap­plause, it feels like I’ve ac­com­plished my goal as a mu­si­cian.”

Shiloh Atwell, a Form Two stu­dent and drum­mer, is equal­ly ex­cit­ed about the com­e­dy and ca­ma­raderie that de­fine the event.

“Over the va­ca­tion, I prac­tised skits with my group—I can’t wait to make peo­ple laugh,” he said. “My moth­er made me join Scouts, and at first, I wasn’t en­thu­si­as­tic. But once I ex­pe­ri­enced it, I learned to love it. Now I en­joy the band, the troop—it’s a broth­er­hood and sis­ter­hood.”

The QRC Scouts have a proud lega­cy of mu­si­cal ex­cel­lence. Over the decades, the pro­gramme has pro­duced some of T&T’s most ac­com­plished mu­si­cians, in­clud­ing jazz and ca­lyp­so pi­anist Michael ‘Ming’ Low Chew Tung, for­mer T&T De­fence Force Mu­si­cal Di­rec­tor Ma­jor Kester Fran­cis, and sev­er­al of so­ca’s lead­ing live and stu­dio horn play­ers.

In keep­ing with a beloved tra­di­tion, the show will close with the en­tire Scout Troop unit­ing on stage to sing their sig­na­ture pieces—Through the Years and Mu­sic Be the Food of Love—per­formed in true camp­fire style.

Found­ed in 1979, the First QRC Scouts March­ing Band be­gan as a mod­est drum and bu­gle corps be­fore evolv­ing in­to a full con­cert band through the 1980s and 1990s, aid­ed by men­tor­ship from the Po­lice, De­fence Force, and Coast Guard bands, as well as the Ger­man Em­bassy.

The band be­came a fix­ture at school pa­rades, pri­vate func­tions, and even shared a stage with The Beach Boys dur­ing a jam­boree in Vir­ginia. Mem­bers and en­sem­bles con­sis­tent­ly earned top ho­n­ours at the Na­tion­al Mu­sic Fes­ti­val through­out the decade.

Tick­ets for the QRC Scout Show 2025 are priced at $200 and avail­able at Queen’s Hall’s box of­fice and on­line at queen­shalltt.com.