Moon Pictures

Todmorden Old Band
Conductor: Dennis Hadfield
Doyen Recordings: CD 131
Total Playing Time: 70.44

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Todmorden Old are one of the most resourceful bands currently plying their trade in the Championship Section in the UK. Less than ten years ago they were struggling along in the Fourth Section - a band with a fine history (including 3rd place at the Open in 1886 under the baton of the famous Edwin Swift), but with little prospect of a return to those glory days.

The arrival of Dennis Hadfield saw the band rejuvenated and the following years from 1992 on they rose through the sections with alacrity, arriving with something of a bang in the Championship Section in 1999. They won the Grand Shield British Open Qualifying Contest in 2000 and came 6th at the All England Masters and have since consolidated their position as a top rate outfit in a very strong Yorkshire Area.

"Moon Pictures" is their second CD release and sees the band perform 15 concert items of a dolly mixture variety that includes no less than eight soloists and two separate items from the Broadstone Hall Primary School Band – an accelerated learning group of 18 players aged between 5 and 11, taught at the school by Dennis Hadfield himself. Whether this is an enlightened inclusion or a bit of slick PR work to flog an extra few CD's is a bit of a mute point, but it certainly makes for a change.

The band open with Simon Kerwin's very tricky "Todmorden Centenary March" which is as twiddly difficult as trying to eat spaghetti with a pair of boxing gloves. They do it well though and it certainly shows off the standard of technical playing they can muster.

The first of the eight soloists up is Bernard Lyons, the bands repiano player who does a very competent job of "Georgia on my Mind", whilst the band show off a rounded balanced sound in Stephen Bradnum's arrangement of "The Lord's Prayer" by Alan Woods. Bradnum is the young chap who's "Irish Blessing" has been photocopied a million times in many a bandroom and this is another nice bit of work. Perhaps he may make a bit of money off this if bands actually buy it instead of indulging in a bit of surreptitious plagiarism.

Peter Smith does a fine bit of "basso comedio" in spite it must be said of some fairly sloppy and untuneful accompaniment on "Largo Al Factotum" – by all accounts he's now at YBS and on this showing you can see why he's been snapped up, whilst both Peter Hadfield and John Chalker give a fine account of themselves on the cornet duet, "Deliverance".

Flugel horn player Natalie Beer delivers a nice account of "Share My Yoke" and John Collins on euphonium also performs very well on "Serenade". Karly Thorp is also on good form on the old tenor horn standard "If" – memories of a crooning Telly Savalas come flooding back, but the soloist highlight of the release is undoubtedly Simon Johnson on trombone, who gives a quite superb rendition of "Autumn Leaves". This is a player of very high class indeed with a beautiful clear and pure tone and a technique that's as smooth and enticing as Nicole Kidman dipped in Strawberry yoghurt. Very tasty.

In between things we get a bit of a bash through the old march O.R.B. and some untidy playing in the ubiquitous "Ground Force Theme" – the 1990's banding lollipop for grannies and granddads who like Alan Tichmarsh in tight trousers and Charlie Dimmock in a tight tee shirt on a cold day.

"Hine E Hine" arranged by Peter Graham is not a misprint of the theme tune to the T.V. series that featured Gladys Pugh and the rest of the Maplins Holiday camp cast, but a lovely arrangement of a traditional Moari lullaby that sees some of the bands best playing on the disc, whilst "Brazil" arranged by Derek Broadbent and the popular "Shine as the Light" are nicely handled and show off the bands strengths to the full.

The children's band perform two neat little offerings that will surely ensure bonus sales, and they are helped considerably by a very sympathetic bit of sound engineering, but we aren't wholly sold on the intentions for their inclusion on the release.

"Moon Pictures" is a superb bit of work from the pen of Andrew Duncan that was used by the band when they performed with considerable style at the recent Spennymoor Brass in Concert Contest. It's a work written for both the band and the Broadstone Hall Primary Scholl (but again, this isn't an entirely necessary requirement for it's performance) and is made up of series of movements that reflect the way in which man has been influenced both through nature and technology by the old lump of cheese in the sky.

Thus we get reflections of the effect the moon has on the tide, the way in which man has worshipped the silver disc in the night sky, the celebration of it's eventual conquest by the American Apollo missions and it's enduring mystery to the folks of the Sci–Fi fraternity. At Spennymoor the band incorporated the use of projected images to enhance the overall context of the music, but the piece is strong enough on it's own to provide good entertainment. It is both witty (especially in the section entitled Invasion of the Little Green Men that features that eerie high pitched whine that used to be used to accompany aliens in old crappy 1950's sci-fi movies, and the Stars and Stripes montage) and dramatic, and holds the attention throughout. All we thought was missing was the sound that the doors made when they opened and closed in Star Trek – you know, that "Fshhhhhhhh" when Captain Kirk or someone walked onto the bridge. Still, even without this, it's a super piece and very well brought off.

A good release then from a band that shows off their considerable strengths (especially in the louder up tempo sections) and some of their weaknesses (some tuning and ensemble work), but overall it's a mix that works and shows why the band has prospered and survived against the giants of the Yorkshire area.

Lots of good work to commend (including a nice tongue in cheek resume of the MD in the cover notes) that outweighs some of the more obvious shortcomings on a well-merited release.

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