Rocky Top to London Town: University of Tennessee band traveling to UK this summer

In his first year as head director of the Pride of the Southland Marching Band, Michael Stewart had a lofty goal.

“As soon as I got hired to be the head director, one of my goals was for the band to take a major trip every four years,” said Stewart, who is in his 16th year with the University of Tennessee. “I wanted to start that right away. London was in my mind, because I felt that it would be a little bit easier to plan and not have so much of a cultural or language barrier, so they can be immersed in the culture.”

To the best of Stewart’s knowledge, the last time the band traveled internationally was to Ireland in 2007. “This upcoming season will be the band’s 154th; it is one of the oldest bands in the country,” he said.

Once word got out about the intended trip, officials with London Band Week reached out to Stewart and he said it was a natural fit.

“The thing I like about London Band Week is that we will do one performance by ourselves and two combined performances with bands from Europe and another from the US,” Stewart said. “We will perform at The London Tattoo with The Royal Marine Band at the final performance.”

The band will leave for the UK on June 26 and will return on July 3.

“We are going to do two or three practices here in Knoxville with the students that are still here. Some of them may have already graduated,” said Stewart. “There will be one rehearsal in London, but that is about it.”

Student interest in the trip was greater than anticipated. “We have about 300 of our 350 students going; we are going to have one of the biggest contingencies there,” Stewart said. “According to London Band Week this may be one of the biggest bands to perform.”

Since the weather is usually beautiful in June, Stewart said they will have their full uniforms. “Part of this project is not just to see another culture, but to take a little bit of our own,” he said.

Band directors are coming up with their combined performances. “The music will be based around the coronation (of King Charles III), which would have just happened in May,” Stewart said. “There will be a lot of what you hear in Neyland Stadium on a Saturday. The traditional school songs – and they will get a whole lot of 'Rocky Top'.”

The students requested free time. “We will do a boat ride on the Thames River. We had to find a boat big enough for the whole band,” Stewart said. “We are going to go to the Tower of London, take a trip out to Stonehenge and Windsor Castle and watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Place, but there will be a lot of free time to go shopping or to a Broadway musical.”

While London Band Week has been more than helpful with the logistics, Stewart said the UT administration and Chancellor Donde Plowman have been incredibly supportive.

“Instead of asking our students to sell products as a fundraiser, we are asking students to do community events to raise service hours, not money,” Stewart said. “They can work at KARM, with schoolchildren or with their church and they can collect those hours through the Jones Center for Engagement.”

The other fundraising efforts will be through a Volstarter campaign. “They can support the whole band for the trip or a specific student,” Stewart said. All links can be found at UTBands.com and on their social media pages.

Stewart said they are protective of their students’ time. Once the football season is over, the marching band ceases to exist and they focus only on select university and athletic events. There is a basketball pep band of about 100 students, and 25-30 band members have performed for the opening of a new Engineering building. And when first lady Jill Biden visited UT to celebrate the “Grow Your Own” teacher apprenticeship program, they sent 50 students to participate.

“The Pride in particular is really a family,” Stewart said. “Generally speaking, they get along great, and our alumni are a huge part of the process and so supportive.”

The biggest challenge, according to Stewart, is preparing a show for every home game. “We did seven different shows. We try to produce shows that are challenging but also entertaining for the fans on a weekly basis,” he said. “It is the equivalent of a football team changing their playbooks for every game. I think that is the biggest challenge; we want to be innovative and be traditional as well.”