Commissioned in 2014 by the Flowers Band and premiered at the Cheltenham Music Festival in the same year, Dear Old Blighty is a creative arrangement of songs popular in 1914 and of those released during the World War I period.  These songs were used to help boost morale both at home and in the trenches being performed by the popular singers of the day.  Although not patriotic songs in the strictest sense they are commonly described as ‘the songs that won the war’.

 

The selection includes; There’s a Long Long Trail, It’s a Long Way to Tipperary, Oh! It’s a Lovely War, I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now?, Pack up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag, Daisy Bell, and Keep the Home Fires Burning, all cleverly tailored together in the composers recognisably distinctive style.