Why is the RAFO Band included in this web site? It’s because the Band has very close links with the RAF Music Services. It has combined with the RAF College Band on several occasions at RAF Cranwell. The RAFO Pipes and Drums have appeared with the Massed Bands in an RAF Beat Retreat on Horse Guards Parade. The RAFO Arabic Music Group performed with the RAF Massed Bands on the 1994 Concert Tour. RAFO students have studied in the RAF School of of Music, and the RAF has been the dominant force in the training of this Band from the beginning.
The RAFO Band always had a Royal Air Force Director of Music from its formation in 1982 until 2004 when the first Omani Director took over. Ian Kendrick was DOM for most of that time with a total of twenty years service, first as a loan service officer and then as a contract member of the Roya Air Force of Oman.
From the late ‘80s, retired Music Service musicians started joining the Band’s training staff as instructors, and it is generally regarded that the RAF input to training resulted in a much more musical approach than would have otherwise been achieved. Some of the familiar names included Bill Millar, Chris White, Gordon Hughes, Mal Harker, Geoff Hart
The Band started with fifty young Omanis who were learning to play in what to them was a alien culture. By the time the Omani DOM took over in 2004, the Band had 165 musicians including a concert and parade band, corps of drums, fanfare team, two bagpipe bands, Arabic (traditional) Music Group, Arabic Pop Group, and Arabic (traditional) Dance Team.
Since 2005, the RAFO Band has expanded to a new total of 350 which includes a new female band. The Director of Music is an Omani, Wing Commander Nassir bin Saif, and all the Band Instructors are now ex-RAF musicians serving in the rank of Warrant Officer.
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