About Us

We are Britannia Music Shop Ltd.
Our shop is at 156 Hatfield Road, St Albans, Herts. AL1 4JD.
Our Company Registration Number is 6588024. 

Our business was founded in 1989, as a specialist reed manufacturer. We added our music shop in 1994.

Amongst our staff we have a wide-ranging knowledge of the instruments we handle and their related items. As a specialist in instruments for students our aim is to provide high quality advice and hire services for students in the early stages of playing, followed by favourable discounts on suitable instruments to purchase later on. 

David Blyth B.Sc. (Hons)
Oboe, Saxophone, Clarinet, Flute
Managing Director, Oboe & Sax Specialist

Taking up the oboe at the age of twelve, David never expected it to form an important part of his future life. Later, torn between a professional playing career and his other great interest, science, he decided to read Genetics at the University of York, giving him a scientific training which he has often used in his approach to reed design and making. He also spent a few years in Retail Management where he gained useful business skills.

Apart from running the company, David is responsible for oboe reed design, over-sees reed production, and also personally tests all the oboe reeds made at Britannia.

Hobbies: cycling, running, swimming, playing jazz sax, mountain walking, reading, cooking.

Damian Brasington B.A. (Cantab), Dip.RAM 
Modern, Classical, Baroque & Contra Bassoons 
Bassoon Expert

Damian is a professional bassoonist playing free-lance throughout the UK. He studied at the University of Cambridge and afterwards at the Royal Academy of Music. He has played with the Birmingham Royal Ballet, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Northern Sinfonia, and the London Philhgarmonic Orchestra. Damian remembers well the times in 1989 when our company started-up. At the time Britannia was producing his first bassoon reed design as its only product. It was immediately almost too successful, and the rest is history.

As a busy professional player he is not always in evidence at Britannia. He is responsible for bassoon reed design, and also personally tests all the bassoon reeds made at Britannia.

Hobbies: skiing, decorating, psychology and his children.

Lorraine Blyth GRSM (Hons)
Soprano
Reed production & Mail-Order dept. since 1989

Lorraine discovered music at the late age of 16 and was so taken with it that she started learning the viola, and had obtained grade 8 piano and was on her way to the Royal College of Music to study singing within 18 months. She enjoyed the life of a professional Soprano in her early career, but eventually chose to quieten down and raise her family. As a busy mother of three she has little time, but did manage to get some of her compositions published and onto the Guildhall Exam syllabus over the past decade.

At Britannia she is involved in reed production and administration of mail-orders.

Hobbies: hill walking, reading, and bringing up three teenage children.


Tom Beauchamp B.Sc. (Hons)
Trumpet, Guitar, Keyboard, Music Technologist
Shop manager since 2006

Tom studied trumpet at school and obtained a degree in Music Composition & Technology from the University of Hertfordshire in 2006.
He plays with Jazzwave - a Hertfordshire based jazz swing and Latin band, and hopes to develop full recording studio facilities at Britannia when time allows. 

Hobbies: Playing jazz trumpet, web design, live bands, sunbathing and pizza.
 

Rose Blyth
Guitar & vocals
Shop & Mail-Order dept. since 2005

Rose has been working for us part-time whilst studying for her A-levels. Her quick mind and natural interest in music have helped her greatly in developing her knowledge of a wide range of musical products. She is currently studying Business & Economics, Psychology, Geography and German, and hopes to continue with her business studies at university. 

Hobbies:  Art, playing guitar, eating out, reading, travel, and live music festivals.