The Elastic Band welcomes John Huggins as new musical director

The band is delighted to announce the appointment of John Huggins as new musical director in September 2025. John has a very exciting vision for the future of the band, to take it to the next level in terms of growth as a community, and delivering great performances.

Introducing John...

John Huggins ARCM psm

John is an ex-Army Director of Music and has served with the 1^st Battalion The Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales’s), serving in Northern Ireland, Gibraltar, The Gulf (Op GRAPPLE), with UN in Bosnia and Herzegovina and later with IFOR in the Former Yugoslavia.

John joined the Army in 1976, and his service continued with postings to the Welsh Depot as an instructor, later completed the Student Bandmaster’s Course at Kneller Hall Twickenham, where he graduated in 1989 winning the Besson Cup for the highest marks on the MOD exams and winning the best Fanfare Award.  He was the last Bandmaster of The 22^nd (Cheshire) Regiment in 1990 and subsequently passed his psm qualifying him for commission.  As well as conducting, he is a multi-instrumentalist, playing tuba, double bass, saxophones, drums and his most prominent instrument being the bass guitar.

On the formation of the Royal Corps of Army Music in 1994, John was appointed Director of Music (DOM) of the Lucknow Band of the Prince of Wales Division, serving at Tidworth, Sandhurst, Cyprus, and Germany and later DOM of The Band of The Royal Logistic Corps where he toured UK locations and a tour to The Falkland Islands.  In 1998 he was appointed Project Officer for Army Music’s Millennium Project Youth in Concert.

In 2001, John left military service to work with London Ambulance Service taking part in the tragic 7/7 bombings as an Ambulance Operations Manager and in 2015.  John returned to Army music as the Secretary for The Royal Corps of Army Music, retiring from this post in 2024.  During this time, he been the Chairman for both the Army Musicians Association and International Military Music Society (UK Branch).  He is also Secretary for the RCAM Trust Enterprises Ltd.

John remains a champion for military and community music, supporting veterans and any budding musician to thrive in the music performance world.  He plays in two local rock and pop bands as well as his commitment as musical director for the St Margaret’s Elastic Band.

John as Director of Music, The Lucknow Band of the Prince of Wales's Division

John directing The RLC Band (c. 1996)

John playing trumpet with the Elastics in Fontainebleau