Conductor
Charlie Fleming ARCM
Charlie has devoted his entire life to music and is deeply passionate about brass banding. Charlie is most definitely Lympstone's 'secret weapon' without whom the band would have stood little chance of achieving the level of success they are now enjoying.
Charlie Fleming ARCM, began his musical career in the Rolls Royce Band Derby and at the age of 14 years 8 months joined the Royal Marines School Of Music to study Trombone and String Bass. and studied under Jack Dacombe and Walter Hargreaves amongst others. During his subsequent 35 years service 10 years of which he served as principal trombone in the Royal Yacht Britannia band. The band undertook extensive Royal Tours to countries such as Australia, USA, Canada. Singapore, and exotic Islands such as Pitcairn, Easter Island, Tahiti, Tonga, Samoa, New Hebrides and the Galapagos to name just a fraction of the countries visited.
He has performed at many of the prestigious concert venues throughout the world and undertaken numerous high profile engagements such as the Sydney Australia Easter Fair, the Toronto Canada International Tattoo and our own FA Cup Final at Wembley on 6 occasions as well as other International Fixtures. As a regular soloist in the band he performed at most of the recognised concert venues in the United Kingdom such as the Royal Albert Hall, Assembly Rooms Derby, Colston Hall Bristol and the Free Trade Hall Manchester. In 1982 Charlie gained the ARCM Diploma in Trombone Performance from the Royal College of Music.
During his career his appointments included periods as the Bandmaster of Royal Naval Volunteer Band at RNAS Yeovilton and The RNVB at HMS Drake, Plymouth. He was awarded The Meritorious Service Medal in 1999. Throughout his entire career and now as a civilian Charlie has always maintained a strong and passionate interest in Brass Banding and has very been lucky to perform as a “dep” with GUS Band , The Sunlife Band and Bodmin Town Band amongst others. For a period in the 1980s he was the Musical Director of The Glastonbury Band and for the last 11 years MD of Lympstone South West Telecoms Band. He is now the owner/operator of Reality Recording and spends most of his waking moments plotting Lympstone South West Telecoms musical progress!
In his spare time Charlie enjoys breeding and photographing his birds and other wildlife that visit his garden and other places he visits. He set up a blog called Wildlife in a Suburban Garden - A detailed account of species visiting an Exeter Garden, so other enthusiasts around the world can read his account and view photos of the wildlife in Exeter.