Marching band will bring a blast of US razzmatazz to Wembley
THEIR astonishing routines at American football matches and presidential inaugurations have won them millions of fans around the world.
Now the Ohio State University Marching Band are to perform outside the US for the first time — in London.
The 225-piece brass and percussion band, known for their formations based on movies and songs, will show off their skills at the National Football League International Series game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium this autumn.
It will be the first time an American marching band has performed at an International Series match in the UK. The band’s interim director, Christopher Hoch, said they were honoured to be coming to the capital.
He said: “Our students work very hard to put on the best show they can each and every time they take the field, and I am so happy for them that they will get to share that hard work with the people of London. We are all looking forward to representing our great university and the great state of Ohio, and showing off some of our traditions and innovations to a new audience.”
One of the band’s most spectacular displays was a Hollywood tribute, which they performed at a match between Ohio State and Penn State in 2013. They lined up to form a giant Superman, Harry Potter and a T-Rex from Jurassic Park. A video of the show has been watched 18 million times on YouTube.
The same month the band performed a tribute to Michael Jackson, which included a giant moonwalking routine. Organisers said the band’s show would have a distinctly London flavour.
NFL UK managing director Alistair Kirkwood said the organisation was excited to be bringing the band to London. He added: “This will be very different to anything we have done at the International Series games before and we know that the band is planning something spectacular to celebrate and commemorate being in the UK.”
The band, formed on the university’s Columbus campus in 1878, has been honoured with awards and accolades including the Sudler Trophy for most outstanding college band in the US. It has performed in seven presidential inaugural parades — including those of Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
NFL’s International Series has been a fixture of the British sporting calendar since 2007 when the New York Giants took on the Miami Dolphins at Wembley. Since then, the number of games each year has increased from one to three, with the event regularly selling out the 83,000-seat stadium.
The Bills-Jaguars game, which will take place on October 25, is the second of three International Series games at Wembley in 2015. It will be shown on Sky Sports in the UK and on CBS in the Buffalo and Jacksonville regions.