Steve Bailey first played with Desford at the Area Contest in 1994, when he played soprano cornet with only 10 days’ notice, never having played the sop before. After a few years mostly playing principal cornet with Midlands-based bands Banks’ Brewery, Wooley Pritchard Sovereign, and Staffordshire Building Society bands, he rejoined in 2000. Since then, he has played every cornet chair in the band apart from bottom 3rd cornet, and they even let him play flugel once!

Steve studied at the Birmingham Conservatoire with Andy Culshaw, Andy Stone-Fewings, Alan Whitehead and David Blackadder. Whilst there he immersed himself in as wide a variety of music as he could, learning jazz skills, instruments of the baroque and renaissance era, and a wide repertoire of music not intended for brass. He’d happily go again if ever he could afford it.

These days Steve keeps his playing very much as a “serious hobby”. He is in demand as a modern and baroque trumpet player in the Midlands, and often performs with semi-pro orchestras, big bands, soul bands and show bands. He is the cornet tutor for the Birmingham Schools Training Brass Band, and recently broke the finger ring of his cornet playing double Gs whilst marching with Hawaiian Brass at the Whit Friday Marches in 2006 – he doesn’t intend to repair it. Steve lives in Dudley with his wife Ania and works in the IT Dept of Converteam Ltd, an engineering company based in Rugby.