Time for Brass:
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You might imagine, living as we do at some distance and with the ofteninhospitable waters of the Irish Sea separating us, that banding in the Isle of Man was well out of the main stream.

Quality

It is all very well to pride ourselves on having eleven bands in a population of 80,000 people, but what of quality as well as number?

Well, four of those bands now are competing nationally in First, Second and Fourth Sections and the Isle of Man is well and truly on the banding map.

How has this come about?

First by generations of bandsmen (and more recently, bandswomen) and conductors giving their talents and time to the improvement of their skills and to the service of their communities.

Secondly to the enthusiastic support of those communities for whom the texture of society would be the more impoverished without THEIR band and thirdly to constant contact with the wider banding scene.

Visitors

Top class bands are regular visitors, Black Dyke, Brighouse, YBS, Wingates, Fodens, Sun Life (three times), Kings of Brass, all within the past twenty years. This isn’t musical isolation!

Then, with particular acknowledgement to the generosity of the Isle of Man Arts Council regular visits by well-known band trainers and adjudicators providing coaching and advice. And this is no new development.

Alex Owen and Co

Look through the newspapers from the turn of the 19th century and you will find names like Edwin Swift, John Gladney and Alexander Owen adjudicating contests on the Island.

The late Harry Mortimer once recalled to me a particularly stormy trip in the 1920s. First he was afraid he would die; then he was afraid he wouldn’t! But it didn’t stop him coming here – frequently.

And this is a tradition right up to the present day with top-class training being experienced by every band on the Island. Long may it continue.

8th Novmeber

Praise
Wilfred Heaton
The International Staff Band

Rufford Abbey
Drake Rimmer
St. Dennis

The Nightingale
Harold Moss
Black Dyke
Cornet soloist: Richard Marshall

Partita; Postcards from Home
Philip Wilby
Grimethorpe

Bubbles Was a Cheerleader
Williams arr. Ray Farr
Flowers
Piccolo trumpet soloist: Ian Porthouse

Stahl Himmel
Alan Fernie
Cory

Over the Rainbow
Arlen arr. Goff Richards
YBS
Tenor Horn soloist: Sheona White

Mack the Knife
Kurt Well arr. Goff Richards
Youth Brass 2000

The Way We Were
Hamlisch arr. John Golland
Thoresby Colliery
Flugel soloist: Matthew Challender

Star Lake
Eric Ball
International Staff Band