Jan Smith

Jan was born into a strong banding family. When she looks back at her roots, she feels it was inevitable that she was going to follow suit. She started her banding career at age 7, when she joined her local training band on tenor horn, a band that her Grandfather helped to form and subsequently conducted. After a couple of years, Jan moved away from the horn section and took up the cornet (as it was smaller to carry!).

In 1975, her Great Uncle, Robert Alexander, took on the ownership and editorial responsibility of the British Bandsman and with that position, he inherited responsibility for the Nationals and subsequently the European Championships in 1978. So in 1975, with the aid of her Great Uncle, Jan experienced her first ever taste of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain at age 10, seeing Black Dyke Mills Band (as they were then) sweep to victory. Whilst Jan dreamed of participating at such a successful banding level at this tender age, little did she know then, that years later, she would be sat on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall with the world-famous GUS Band!

In Jan's teenage years, she joined Woburn Sands Band before progressing to her local Championship Section Band, Bedford Town, where she took up a seat on the front row in 1981, under the baton of Terry Hext. In 1984, Jan resigned her position with Bedford Town Band to join the Staff Band of the Women's Royal Army Corp's. As a full-time military musician, Jan toured several countries playing in the concert band, jazz band, Dixie band and several brass ensembles and fanfare teams.

On leaving the army, Jan once again joined her local championship section band in Guildford - Friary Meux - where she started on cornet and eventually ended up on Flugal Horn. It was when Jan moved to Buckinghamshire with her husband Simon in 1999, that Jan and her husband Simon were approached by the GUS Band to join them. An offer they both swiftly accepted.

Since joining GUS in 1999, Jan has been an active member of the band both in terms of playing and with the administration and management of the band. Jan undertook her first 'stint' as Concert Secretary in 2000 to 2002 followed by a small break and then resumed the role once again in 2004, a position she has held ever since! As well as acting as PR and Marketing Manager for the band, Jan personally organises and promotes between 10 and 12 concerts a year herself, throughout the country on the band's behalf, raising much needed funds. All her hard work for the band is undertaken on a voluntary basis and it is a role she manages to juggle between looking after her two children, Toby and Thomas, and working for the world-leading and pioneering Renaissance choral group; THE CLERKS.