The Royal Marines Bands are based in Portsmouth, Plymouth, Scotland, at the Commando Training Centre and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth and their roles are to provide military bands, orchestras and dance bands for state occasions, major national and service events and for ship and shore ceremonial and social functions. The Band Service currently numbers about 400 men and women and its training school (Royal Marines School of Music) is in Portsmouth.

The Royal Marines Museum at Eastney in Portsmouth has got a new exhibition which includes a film about the Bands of the Royal Marines and a variety of pictures, text and other related exhibits. There is also a listening room where you can listen to different Royal Marine Band Music.

This is a small, approximately, 15 second clip of the Royal Marines Band playing Rule Britannia to hear more you will need to buy a CD or tape from the Royal Marines Museum Eastney, or watch one of their displays. The clip is 159 KB which will take 55 seconds to download at 28.8 kb/sec or 24 seconds to download at 68.0 Kb/sec.

The above sound file is available in Real Movie format, this is smaller but of lower quality, it is 64KB which will take approximately 22 seconds at 28.8 kb/sec or 9 seconds at 68.0 kb/sec.

The Royal Marines Massed Bands have perfromed Beat Retreat twice in Portsmouth since their move once in 1996 and once in 1999 before performing it in Horse Guards in London. They have also done many other performances including one at the Royal Marines Museum Eastney which the following sound clip a Fanfare and Drum display is taken. The clip is 416 KB which will take approximately 2 1/2 minutes at 28.8 kb/sec to download or approximately 1 minute at 68.0 Kb/sec.

The above sound file is available in Real Movie format, this is smaller but of lower quality, it is 82KB which will take approximately 29 seconds at 28.8 kb/sec or 12 seconds at 68.0 kb/sec. To play this you need real player which can be found at