In August 1650, prior to Cromwell's second invasion of Scotland, Parliament ordered the raising of a Regiment of Horse in Newcastle and County Durham. It was named the Commonwealth Regiment. This Regiment remained intact after the Restoration,but its Parliamentary officers were replaced by Royalists in July 1660. King Charles II re-named the Regiment as 'The Royal Regiment'.

After replacement of the Cromwellian officers the King appointed a prominent Royalist, Daniel O'Neale, as Colonel. Parliament pressed King Charles to disband all Regiments; the 'Royal Regiment' escaped disbandment until late December 1660 when it was paid off at Bath.

Early in January 1661, following the Venner Riots in London, the Privy Council sent Daniel O'Neale to the King at Portsmouth,
to urge the raising of more Regiments. The King signed the Royal Warrant creating the first British Regular Army on 26th January, 1661. The Royal Regiment was re-raised under the name of the Royal Regiment of Horse. Its first Colonel was Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford. Colonel Daniel O'Neale, was appointed to troop commander of His Majesty's Own Troop of the Royal Regiment of Horse. The regiment was soon given the nickname of the Oxford Blues, in reference to to their blue uniforms, and to Colonel, Audrey de Vere, the twentieth and last Earl of Oxford.

It is recorded that from the outset the Regiment had kettledrummers and trumpeters. They wore heavily embroidered and gold laced frockcoats very similar to the present day state dress. The main difference was the hat, then a black broad-brimmed affair adorned with a feather, in keeping with the normal full dress of the remainder of the Army. The present black velvet 'jockey cap' was not introduced until Queen Victoria's reign. Between these two, there was a variation during the Georgian period, pictures of the black trumpeters of the time showing them wearing a three-corned hat.

Our records of the Band really begin in 1805. On St George's Day that year, King George III presented the Regiment with a set of silver kettledrums, and the same year the first recorded bandmaster was appointed by the Regiment. Herr Stowasser, one of the earliest examples of the 19th century trend to employ European bandmasters, served until 1848, the first of a line of long-serving leaders of the Band; between 1805 and its amalgamation in 1969, the Blues were to have just ten Bandmasters and Directors of Music.

Herr Stowasser was followed by James Tutton, one of the founders of the Society of British Musicians, to be succeeded in turn by Charles Boos# in 1859, a brilliant clarinetist who has previously been bandmaster of the 9th (Queen's Royal) Lancers and of the Scots Fusilier Guards. In addition to his instrumental prowess, Boose was an arranger of considerable ability and, having encountered difficulties in getting his music published, had founded the first military band journal in England, writing on stone for lithographing before doing the printing himself. He was later to be awarded the Hessian Order of Merit.

The next Bandmaster came from perhaps the most distinguished family in British military music; Charles Godfrey, who was to remain in his post for more than thirty-five years. Charles Godfrey was the younger brother of Dan and Fred Godfrey, who held similar positions with, respectively, the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards. He was commissioned in 1899 and in 1903 His Majesty the King conferred on him the Royal Victorian Order.

On Lt Godrey's retirement, Mr J Manuel Bilton was appointed. His student career at Kneller Hall had been so distinguished that when the Director of Music, Charles Cousins, died suddenly in May 1890, the recently graduated Bilton took over the reins for seven months until a new director was appointed. His talent for composition was evident the following year at the Royal Naval and Military Exhibition in London, when he picked up three of the four prizes with his entries: 'Te Deum', 'Jubilate' and 'Benedictus' for choir and orchestra; a Grand Concert Overture; and a concert piece showing the instrumentation of a brass, military and string band. His later overture 'My Old Stable Jacket', dedicated to Field Marshal Haig, remains popular. He was commissioned n 1917, and in 1921 the King of Spain created him a Cabellero of the Order of the Military Merit, 1st Class. (A Cabellero is the equivalent of a British Knighthood.)

During the First World War, still under Bilton's leadership, the Band frequently visited France and Flanders, reviving the spirits of many thousands of Blues who were serving as cavalrymen, infantrymen and machine gunners. One veteran of that War was to be Bilton's successor as Bandmaster of The Blues: 'Paddy' Dunn, who had been awarded the Military Cross whilst serving with the 60th Rifles in France.

Another distinguished musician followed, Joseph Thornburrow, the nephew of Lieutenant Colonel Hector Adkins, Director of Music at Kneller Hall for more than 20 years. In 1942, during Thornburrow's time at The Blues, colonel Adkins was court-martialled and his nephew was chosen as his successor. The family connection, however, counted against him and the appointment was not confirmed, Thornburrow staying instead with The Blues, where he remained until his death in 1947.

In latter years the Band became one of the most popular on radio and even appeared in a film entitled The Drum, in which for the first and last time they wore kilts.