AFTER more than a decade of service, the conductor of Wantage Silver Band Phil Bailey has stepped down as he gets ready to start a new career in China.

Fond farewells were said to him on Saturday night, as he performed with the band at Wantage Church for the last time.

The 45-year-old will be moving to Shanghai with his wife and 16-year-old son at the beginning of August after being head hunted for a music teaching job at the British International School.

Mr Bailey said his final concert with the local band was “fantastic”, with the youth band’s rendition of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture proving his favourite.

He said: “When I started, there was a youth band but it was not flowing too well. I’m a director of music so I always look at how a seven-year-old can realise potential before they are 18.

“There are a lot of intelligent people in the band – without them, and without that infrastructure, it wouldn’t work. It’s a long process, it’s not just a quick fix. Some bands just ship in amazing musicians and then they’re an amazing band overnight. We’re not like that.”

Around 150 people turned up at the church on Saturday to watch Mr Bailey conduct for the final time.

At the end of the concert, he was presented with a large photograph of the band on the Royal Albert Hall stage, playing in the national finals last October.

Mr Bailey has just left his role as head of music at the Community College in Leicester and had been commuting there from his home in Bletchley.