Extremes

Wingates take a peek over the musical edge with their latest release. Time to call the Samaritans then?

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Wingates Band
Conductor: Andrew Berryman
Soloists: John Doyle, Gary Curtin, Andrea Crossley
Music House Productions: CDMHP408
Total Playing Time: 77.19

Brass bands very rarely go to the edge: It’s not in their inherent conservative nature. 

Give them the comfort of the familiar and conventional and in return you get a safety first approach that although pleasing, can have the same narcoleptic effect as an overdose of Horlicks at a pensioner’s whist drive. What is needed every now again is for someone to drop the odd tab of something a bit fruitier into the musical tea urn.

Weird and wonderful

Wingates have done just that with this highly enjoyable release that although not quite ‘tripping’ into the absolutely weird and wonderful, manages to dip a few toes into some distinctly adventurous infusions.

Much of the credit must go to MD Andrew Berryman, who until his recent departure to the sun kissed dunes of the Middle East, brought a distinctly maverick musical approach to Wingates entertainment concert programming.

In addition he has been very fortunate to garner a group of malleable musicians under his command – players with open minds and eager responses. They can play the familiar and the conventional very well indeed, but they also sound very much at home with the more avant garde too.

Exotic flavours

What we get here then is a real mixture – a pot pourri of bon-bons – some very exotically flavoured.

For the traditionalists there are the Everton Mints of ‘Ravenswood’, ‘Festive Overture’, ‘Eternal Father’ and ‘Labour & Love’. For the more adventurously minded, the pineapple cubes of ‘If’, ‘Mambo No 5’, ‘Little Prayer’ and ‘Cute’.

Gobstoppers

Then come the lip smacking gobstoppers – Nyman’s ‘Piece for Flugel’, Lucy Pankhurst’s ‘Wicked’ and Richard Rock’s ‘Kronos’, leaving just enough room for Johan de Meij’s ‘Extreme Make-over’ – an absolute Willy Wonka creation of a piece, and that little tab of happiness that is ‘Uncle Joe’s Mintballs’ to end.  

The playing throughout is robust and vibrant, committed and purposeful, directed with intelligence by the MD.

Sublime

Soloist John Doyle enjoys himself enormously on the Nyman ‘Piece for Flugel’, whilst in complete contrast there is a touching bit of playing by Gary Curtin and Andrea Crossley on Glennie’s ‘Little Prayer’ and a sublime bit of trombone melancholy by the prodigious Peter Moore on ‘If’. 

The traditional concert openers from Rimmer and Shostakovich (in the tricky Kitson arrangement) are played with a sense of aplomb, and the ensemble’s ability to change style is heard to fine effect with the cracking ‘Wicked’, the dislocated ‘Kronos’, a neatly packaged ‘Cute’ and openly camp ‘Mambo No 5’, which counterpoint the more time honoured virtues of ‘Eternal Father’.

Boundaries

The release is rounded off with two pieces from the very boundaries of brass band repertoire  – ‘Labour & Love’ and ‘Extreme Make-over’. 

Fletcher’s work is pickled in aspic (already redundant in outlook and inspiration by the time it was written 1913) – a musical curio from a compositional talent which brass band traditionalists mistakenly revere like a holy relic.

In contrast, Johan De Meij’s ‘Make-over’ is pickled in hydrochloric acid – a Damien Hirst approach of originality and power that knocks the wind out of you lungs. Like Hirst’s ‘Shark’, it also elicits a very wide spectrum of opinion too.   

Both are played with a clear understanding by players and MD alike, if not always with complete technical mastery in the de Meij, which unlike the Fletcher really does live up to its title.

Cheeky

It’s a fine effort though, and just as you sit back to catch your breath, Wingates slip you a tasty little ‘shot’ with the cheeky ‘Uncle Joe’s Mintballs', complete with lyrics that wouldn’t be out of place in a 'Carry On' film.

Not quite over the edge then – but a very enjoyable and risk taking glimpse of a different horizon from a band and MD with a real sense of musical adventure.

Iwan Fox

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