If you have ever wondered why, amid the rampant consumerism that possesses people at Christmastime, the Salvation Army band continues to turn up on the streets of Hamilton on two of the busiest shopping days of all - the last Friday evening before Christmas and Christmas Eve afternoon - divisional bandmaster Warren Jones has the answer and it is not "background music".

"Every time we are on the street, it is a form of outreach," he says. "It is an opportunity for us to share the Christmas story through music because everyone knows the carols. For us, people's hearts tend to be just a little bit more tender at Christmas hearing the word, even if it is in musical form. We strongly believe that the words of the carols can change lives, so through our bands across the Island we are very active at Christmastime."

Indeed, the sounds of the Salvation Army bands serenading the community is one of the oldest remaining Bermuda traditions that harks back to saner times. Not everyone realises that, in addition to the Hamilton performances, the four bands still play right through the night from Christmas Eve until Christmas day.

"Traditionally, the Hamilton Citadel band is on Reid Street on Christmas Eve, and it also the only one of our four bands (St. George's, Cedar Hill, Warwick and Somerset being the other three) which starts around 8 p.m. on Christmas eve and concludes sometime in the mid-morning of December 25," Mr. Jones says. "The rest of us generally finish between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m."

With work and family responsibilities, these all-night appearances are not only physically demanding, but represent quite a personal sacrifice for band members, yet they are all willing participants because each of them is fulfilling a mission.

"All music making in the Salvation Army is part of our ministry because the founder, General William Booth, believed you used whatever you could to attract attention and get people to hear the gospel," Mr. Jones says. "His ministry took in the roughest parts of London, and to get people to follow and spend time listening to the message he realised he needed something that people would enjoy listening to. Today we continue that mission."

In fact, the divisional band master says that the Hamilton Citadel band's performance on December 20 will again have added personal significance for the musicians.

"In addition to the ministry for the people, it is also a ministry night for each of us because, as a divisional band, it is very much the longest night, so each member gets to pick their favourite carol that they want to play. We tend to start on Court Street at 7 p.m., and play for almost two hours, usually finishing on Reid Street, but we don't take a collection box with us because we feel that on that night our total focus is ministry - to ourselves and the community, and we want them to enjoy the message of Christmas."

As it is in other religions, music is an integral part of the Salvation Army worship service, and the bands are to it what the organ is to other services. Through its Young People's Band (YPB), many talented Bermudians have gone on to become proficient and even professional musicians.

Mr. Jones is a case in point. Through attending the Salvation Army's Hamilton Citadel Sunday school, he became a member of the YPB under the direction of Calvin Ming, playing first the cornet and then the euphonium. By the time he had completed high school in Maine, USA he knew he wanted to be a music major in college. However, it was neither the cornet nor the euphonium which got him accepted by the University of Maine, but the classical guitar - a talent that stretched back to an act of disobedience in his childhood.

"How I remember the story is - and my father might remember it differently - was that he bought a guitar and was taking lessons, and it was a situation whereby, as a small child you didn't touch it. One day he caught me playing it, and saw that I had a real interest in it, so he arranged for me to take lessons with the late Leon Jones," Mr. Jones says. "In fact, I spent many years learning the guitar, and went as far as The Royal School of Music's Grade VI, and I also played in quite a few concerts."

Thus it was that, in 1976 the young Bermudian found himself a freshman at the University of Maine, and a distinguished one at that.

"I was also a member of the University football team, and was the first music major in its history to also play a varsity sport, which didn't set too well with my guitar teacher, or the rest of the music faculty, I might add, because of the time commitment that was required of a music major," Mr. Jones says. "Also, a classical guitarist has to have fingernails, and I was a goal keeper."

As a result of the dissent, Mr. Jones switched to the euphonium, and duly graduated with his Bachelor of Music Education degree before returning the Island in 1980, where he became a music teacher at Warwick Academy with responsibility for the wind and vocal programmes.

Seven years later Mr. Jones took a sabbatical to fulfil his dream of becoming a high school principal, and returned to the University of Maine to gain his Master's degree in Educational Administration. He also reassociated himself with the music faculty, and was involved in jazz and wind ensembles.

By the time he returned to Warwick Academy in 1988 he was responsible for the school's entire music programme, "which meant strings, winds and vocal".

"I loved my time there. The school had a fine reputation, and it gained a wide reputation in the community because its ensembles were very active," the former music teacher says. "I had students whom I knew would be special, and I always told them, `When people ask you where you learned, you tell them `In Bermuda'. Kevin and Kent Hayward were former pupils whose music making was well advanced before they came to Warwick Academy. They were both taught by their father, Winslow. As a matter of fact, Kevin has just been appointed bandmaster of the Canadian staff band in Toronto."

In 1990, Mr. Jones decided to move on, this time to the Berkeley Institute as the instrumental music teacher. A year later he left to become the acting principal at Northlands, and in 1994 left education altogether to become the personnel manager at the Bermuda Telephone Company. By the time he left in December, 2000 he had risen to become assistant vice-president, outside plant. Today, he is assistant Cabinet Secretary for Policy.

For all his career moves, however, Bandmaster Jones never forgot his musical roots in the Salvation Army, although it took time for him to realise just how deep they were.

"During my Master's degree studies the importance of Salvation Army music making really came home to me because at that time my family (wife Joanne and sons Jomal and Kyle) and I worshipped at the Salvation Army corps in Maine, and the Bandmaster at that time, Major Lloyd Scott, was one of the Army's leading composers. He was someone whose music I played, and I had an opportunity to play under him, to listen to him, and to see his witness as a Christian musician, all of which helped me to realise the importance of what we do in the Salvation Army," he says.

Prior to that realisation, Mr. Jones said that, as a musician, he just enjoyed playing music, whatever it was. Indeed, he was in the Bermuda Regiment band for three years, and also played with the Bermuda Philharmonic Society, and Wendell (Shine) Hayward.

Having previously held other offices in the Salvation Army's musical programme, the bandmaster of the Cedar Hill corps and the divisional bandmaster of the combined corps bands since 1997, who is also responsible for the YPB, attributes his success to two things.

"First and foremost is Jesus Christ, and the second is music, because through both of these all things are possible. From the practical side it was music that got me into university. If I had chosen anything else I would not have been accepted."