Brighouse and Rastrick Band

Conductor: Allan Withington

Regents Hall, London
Friday 19th October 2001

The traditional curtain raiser for the National Finals weekend was this year provided by Brighouse and Rastrick under the direction of Allan Withington, who gave a good account of themselves to a packed audience at the Regents Hall.

Brighouse may have had other matters on their mind for the following day (and they did the concert on the back of a rehearsal on the National's test piece), but they nevertheless gave a fine concert, and the effort was very much appreciated by a knowledgeable and cosmopolitan audience.

The work of Salvationist composer Kenneth Downie dominated the first half and gave the audience the chance to hear many of his works for the first time. In addition it coincided with the launch of the bands CD entitled "Purcell Variations" and it proved a welcome approach by Allan Withington that eschewed the more traditional concert formula.

"Bridgewater Intrada" opened proceedings and was followed by the lively "St. Austell Suite" which will be the test piece for the Third Section Regional Qualifiers in 2002. It's a very pleasant work - tuneful and light with a fine middle movement that Brighouse more than performed with style and vigour. Third Section bands will find it a joy to play. They followed this with the hymn tune arrangement, "Lord of all Hopefulness" which was again featured in the Gala Concert the following night and was well worth two helpings, and the march "Choose Freedom" which was lively and witty and very well brought off.

Principal Cornet, Nick Payne was on good form and produced a lovely rounded tone with "Londonderry Air" and the band concluded the first half proceedings with the unusual "Amen" from "Songs for Good Friday" by Peterson, which was very slickly done and gave plenty of scope for the lads on the bass end to put a bit of air in their lungs.

The second half was more of a brass band traditionalists delight with a whip through "Dance of the Tumblers" before Melvyn Bathgate gave a lovely account of "Afton Water". This was written by baritone player Leigh Baker, who is a young man we should keep an eye and ear on judging by this effort. "Erin Shore" got the audience tapping their feet a bit, before Mike Kilroy on solo euphonium gave a superb rendition of "I'd rather have Jesus" by William Hines.

James Garlick continued to impress with a very understated and stylistic "Stardust" before the band played "Where no one has gone before" – a delight for all those "Trekkies" in the audience. Finally, back to the traditional and "Moorside Suite" which was efficiently played and ended a well crafted display from the Yorkshire outfit.

An encore in the form of "Sheperd's Hey" concluded proceedings to fine outing from Brighouse, especially on the eve of such an important contest. Allan Withington should take a great deal of credit for producing two contrasting halves of brass music that in their own way were substantive yet enjoyable. He has been critical of repertoire in recent weeks, and rightly so, but it was a welcome change to hear a concert programme that had been put together with thought and intellectual purpose.

Brighouse however continue to be a bit of a conundrum. The playing was of a high standard throughout and the bass end in particular were outstanding, but they remain a talented group of individuals performing well rather than a compact cohesive band playing as a unit. As the Open and now the Nationals have shown, when they are not quite on top of their game they suffer more than most, but when they are firing on all cylinders they are still one of the very best bands in the business - the problem is that you don't really know which Brighouse are going to turn up.

You were left thinking a full day later, how they would have loved to exchanged the Regents Hall performance for the National Finals.

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