A group of 55 band members and 17 helpers took part in the tour of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Their two-week visit involved six flights, seven concerts and two musical workshops, often playing in full band uniform in temperatures of 32 degress Celsius with very high humidity.

The tour, which took nearly two years planning, was undertaken because the SNYSB wanted to visit some of the regions devastated by the 2004 Asian Tsunami and see a Rotary Club community centre project, which the young musicians had helped raise funds for.

Musical director Mike Booty said the band had previously toured parts of Europe but had never undertaken such an ambitious trip before.

He said: "The hospitality we received was amazing. We were treated like royalty. When we arrived at one airport, we even had a red carpet welcome with a huge banner with our name and a display by Malay dancers. The whole experience was incredible."

Mr Booty added the band raised a further £40,000 with the concerts it performed while on tour, which will go to the Rotary charities working in the area.

In addition to performing, the band also ran an education programme.

"We worked with two school bands, and also gave a workshop for 250 children, some of whom had travelled for six hours just to be there," said Mr Booty.

"We took recorders and music books to give to one local group and our youngsters helped teach them to play."

The band's venues ranged from a smart concert hall in one of the capital cities where they performed in front of a fee-paying audience including a Government minister, to a community centre in a small coastal village, which had been destroyed by the tsunami.

The band members, whose average age is 14, visited local classrooms and performed for and played with local children, met and stayed with families and saw some of the voluntary work being funded by the Rotary organisation.

"In one of the schools we visited, almost every child was an orphan," said Mr Booty. "Ninety-five per cent of the children in the village had no parents because the children had been safe in the school when the tsunami hit, but their parents were all killed.

"These children owned nothing but the clothes they wore. Everything was provided by charity, but they were all happy and laughing. I think that taught our children that we have nothing to moan about."

On its last night, the party wrote special prayers for those who had suffered in the tsunami and attached them to hot air balloons, which were released into the night sky on one of the disaster-ravaged beaches.

"I think it was a big emotional experience our children will never forget, and we did something for the local people too that money cannot buy," said Mr Booty.

"Some of them had never seen a band play or even seen European people before.