East Coast Pictures

The Leyland Band
Conductors: Michael Fowles and Phillip Littlemore
Soloists: Rob Westacott, Bill Millar, Andrew Porter, Shelley Ball
Faber Music: CD - ISBN 0-571-52109-6
Total Playing Time: 68.15 mins

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Fancy trying something a little bit different? These are hopefully the type of words that would send shivers of delight and a bit of apprehension if your wife or girlfriend uttered them for sure, but they are not usually something you would readily associate to when contemplating a purchase of a brass band CD.

Still – in for a penny…….

We say something different, because Faber Music has decided to launch a new Brass Band Catalogue using the Leyland Band to highlight its wares to the shell like ears of the average brass band punter and on this evidence it's something we liked very much indeed. It's the brass band CD equivalent of a quick visit to an Ann Summers shop – a bit of an eye opener, a little bit risqué, but in terms of pleasure – very, very nice indeed. There are plenty of you out there who have cast a beady eye on Miss Summers shop front, but who haven't just had the guts to actually go in and find out what all the fuss is about. Faber Music has done you a favour and you don't have to wear a dirty mac to find out about their pleasures within.

15 items of various sizes and themes and with the exception of just the one (the last track) all of them are new to us. Michael Fowles and Phillip Littlemore direct Leyland through the eclectic mix with a tight ensemble and balanced sound and all the soloists are one fine form. There may be a few items that may not quite take your fancy (a bit like the Ann Summers shop) but there is more than enough on offer here to spice up any two hours spent with twenty five adults in a practice room or just for enjoying by yourself in the company of your own home.

"Our Flirtations" (starting to sound like a Carry On film if we aren't careful) makes for a very interesting opener – especially as it's not your average run of the mill Sousa march and this is followed by Phillip Littlemore's super arrangement of the Nigel Hess "East Coast Pictures" from which the CD takes it's name.

These are a trio of musical portraits of the area of the United States that encompasses New York, the Catskills mountains and the beautiful remote are of Long Island and it makes for a very unusual yet satisfying series that capture the moods and colours of the Eastern seaboard.

Robert Westacott is the fine soloist on "The Bells of Peover", which is actually a pub and not a church (see what I mean about slightly unusual) and it's a very easy listening item that comes across well, whilst Shelley Ball exhibits a beautiful lugubrious style in "'Tis the last Rose of Summer" – a neat and thoughtful transcription from the pen of Gary Westwood. Bill Millar and Andrew Porter also do justice to Phillip Doe's delightful "Lullaby".

The two real meaty pieces however are "Masque" and "Danceries" by Kenneth Heskey – both very well played and two pieces that deserve more exposure than baby doll nightie can provide.

"Masque" is an exciting driving scherzo that will demand a good band on good form to make come off, whilst "Danceries" are a set of four seventeenth dance variations cleverly mixed and developed to form a fine band set that although not too difficult would still for us make an ideal test piece for the First or Second Section. Great tunes and plenty of twiddly bits to test all sections and with titles such as "Quodling's Delight", "My Ladies Rest", "Lull Me Beyond Thee" and "Catching of Quails" – enough to get the old imagination running especially as one takes it's tune from a piece called "Poor Robin's Maggot" – Oh erh? Missus!

"The Foggy Dew" a traditional Irish air arranged by Philip Doe is perhaps an Irish tune too far for us (can there be any more traditional Irish tunes left out in the Emerald Isle that haven't been arranged for brass band – soon we'll be having "traditional" U2 tunes arranged for bands), but that's a minor quibble and Phillip Littlemore's clever arrangement of Nigel Hess's homage to the world of the fictional detectives is imaginatively entitled "The TV Detectives" is something any band can use to fill a 8 minute spot in a concert. Grannies will love it.

And for that special climax moment at the end of any two-hour worth of entertainment there's a thumper of an arrangement of the "Coronation Scene" from Boris Godanov by Mussorgsky by Mr Littlemore again. He's a talented chappie.

Faber Music are testing the waters with this offering and have shown us plenty of goodies to tickle the fancy. Leyland are the well shaped models on the centre spread and are good value, whilst Faber's catalogue of naughty but nice items should we think sell very well indeed. Spice up your lives and have a listen to the CD (with excellent insert notes) and have a peek at the catalogue – there will surely be something there that will excite you.

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