The Hepworth Band

Conductor: Mark Bentham

Morley Town Hall, Leeds
5 October 2002

As part of the Leeds Best of Brass Series this concert was originally scheduled as a Hepworth Band and Sandstorm Brass joint concert. As Sandstorm Brass withdrew at short notice the floor was taken by Hepworth Band themselves.

In front of a large audience, under the direction of Mark Bentham, the Hepworth Band began with the Holmfirth Anthem "Pratty Flowers". This has become the band's signature tune and has been arranged into March form by Mark Bentham himself.

Mike Meadmore compered the evening and he introduced the next item ‘Devil's Gallop' by Williams. Dick Barton was an adventure serial on the radio which ran daily from 1946 to 1951. It featured Dick Barton, an ex-army officer who defeated all manner of villains and saved Britain and the world from many a ‘cunning plan'. Each episode lasted 15 minutes and the theme tune,‘Devil's Gallop', is still widely recognised.

After a stirring performance of the March ‘Wellington' the first soloist of the evening took centre stage namely Mark Rogers principal cornet and he gave an exciting performance of the ‘Harry James Trumpet Concerto'. Harry James had a distinctive style and remarkable virtuoso technique that were the main factors of his success. He could play dolce as well as deafeningly loud when he wanted but his chromatic glissandos were especially noteworthy and this music featured all these attributes.

John Ireland's ‘Elegy' from A Downland Suite requires great control and the band responded to Mark Bentham's sensitive reading with some fine controlled playing.

CATS burst onto the London stage on 11th May 1981 and then onto Broadway on 7th October 1982. It went on to hold the unique position of being the longest running musical in both West End and Broadway history. It closed on Broadway in September 2000 and played its final West End performance on its 21st birthday on 11th May 2002. ‘Memory' the memorable song from the musical featured Soprano Cornet Phil Robertson who gave a strong performance of the Allan Catherall arrangement.

Ennio Morricone has had a revolutionary impact on the way films are scored, especially in his most celebrated genre: the western ‘Morricone Magic' featuring music from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly which gave the band the chance to have some fun and the audience certainly lapped it up.

Phillip Harper's Flugel Horn solo ‘Beneath the Willows' gave the audience the chance to hear Catherine Booth give a quite stunning and moving performance and showed why she is so highly regarded in the band movement as one of the finest Flugel players.

"I'm a fanatic about Irish music. I love its moody, modal and timeless quality. I'm different from some other composers, because I don't look at this as just a job. I think of music as art." Words from James Horner who scored the music for the film ‘Titanic' and it was music from this film that ended an excellent first half to the concert.

‘Pell Mell' by W. Hogarth Lear (Elgar Howarth to you and me) opened the second half of the concert, which was followed by Solo Horn player Mark Wagstaffe gave a quite musical performance of ‘Demelza' by Nash.

Dave Brubecks ‘Take Five', the first million-selling jazz record in modern jazz history, got the band in Jazz Mood before Yvonne Embury their principal trombone player gave a stylish performance of the ‘Londonderry Air'. According to legend, the tune was possibly composed by Rory Dall O'Cahan in the 1600's and the words ‘Oh Danny Boy' written by Frederick Edward Weatherly in 1913.

‘Canterbury Chorale' by Van der Roost brought some excellent playing from the band and the rich, warm sound gave the music the right feel with Mark Bentham allowing the band the space to express itself in this excellent piece.

The sixth and final soloist of the evening was Steven Walsh Hepworth Bands Euphonium Player who gave a breathtaking performance of ‘Napoli'.

‘Get Happy' by Arlen got the feet tapping before the Toccata from Boellmanns ‘Suite Gothique' ended the concert in fine style. As an encore the band played ‘Oklahoma' arranged by Catherall.

This was a very entertaining concert by the Hepworth Band whose playing throughout was of a very high standard and judging by the ovation the band received at the end this confirmed the audience's appreciation.

The band are now preparing for the contest at the Northern College of Music in Manchester on Sunday 13th October 2002 and the further contests looming at Pontins & Wilkinson Contest, St Helens in November.

Dave Tinker

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