Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band

Dover Town Hall, Dover
Sunday 13th October 2002

It was cheers and tears for the Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band on their first visit to the Southern Counties Amateur Band Association contest held on Sunday 13th October at Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone.

It was always going to be a long day for the South Elmsall based Bandsmen for as well as the contest; Frickley had also arranged to put on a Concert at the Dover Town Hall that evening.

The day went well with the Band performing their chosen hymn tune, Handel Parker's "Deep Harmony" delivered in a simple yet effective style. The band then performed their selected test piece for this contest with Gilbert Vinter's classic "Variations on a Ninth, featuring impassioned and controlled cadenzas from the Band's Soloists, Gary Bates (Soprano), Jane Walker (Tenor Horn), Nick Harris (Baritone), Simon Goodall (Euphonium) and Kirsty Abbotts (Cornet). But there was no time to relax as the Band left before the results to head to Dover to set up for the evening concert in the Dover Town Hall.

Playing to an appreciative crowd, the Band started proceedings with the Fanfare from Carmina Burana, by Carl Orff arr. Bentham and without much ado; they swiftly upped a gear and performed a brisk rendition of the Shostakovich Festive Overture. It then became solo time for the Band's new Principal Cornet Kirsty Abbotts, in the Massanet composition, Meditation from Thais. This received warm applause and firmly demonstrated why this young lady is seen as the rising star on the brass band circuit today. A Howard Snell arrangement of Perpetuum Mobile was next, followed by the Band's second soloist and turn of Soprano Gary Bates, in a beautifully delivered version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Memory from Cats. To close the first set they reprised their earlier performance of Variations on a Ninth by Gilbert Vinter.

After a short interval the band started the second half with John Williams' Olympic Fanfare and Theme. It was at this point the compere and MD of the Band, William Rushworth who had been keeping both the Band and the audience entertained with a mixture of Humour and History, informed the audience and equally the Band, that he had just received a text message on his mobile phone that the Band had swept the board taking the 1st place prize for the test piece, as well as the Best Hymn, the Conductor's prize, Best Instrumentalist award went to Kirsty Abbotts and also the Best Bass section in the contest. Refreshed by the News, the Band launched back into their programme, and featured solos from the Band's Principal Trombone Richard Walker, who delivered a stylish rendition of the popular ballad from the film "Beaches" in Darrol Barry's arrangement of the "Wind Beneath my Wings", and the last solo of the evening with Principal Euphonium, Simon Goodall taking centre stage with a cracking version of Curnow's "Rhapsody for Euphonium". As an encore, he invited his co euphonium player, Lauren Petritz-Watts to join him as they played the famous Duet from the Pearl Fishers by Bizet.

To close the concert, the Band played a new arrangement of a selection of music from the film "Titanic" by Mark Bentham.

The concert was not without its slips and dips but nevertheless, the well documented rollercoaster ride that Frickley have been through in the last months, which saw them withdraw from the Masters, get relegation to the Grand Shield contest, and completely rebuild a new Band from scratch, it is hardly surprising. However, this performance and the morale boosting result in the SCABA contest shows that they are well on the way in their rebuilding programme and earnestly look forward to demonstrating the new Band in the forthcoming Brass in Concert Contest in November. The majority of the progress the Band has made in recent weeks is largely down to the excellent leadership the band is receiving from the well known and widely respected Horn Soloist, Teacher and now Musical Director, William Rushworth. William, a former member of the Frickley band took up the baton after hearing the sad news that the Band were on tough times and has worked tremendously hard to put the Band back on a solid footing and to ensure the Band's former status cannot be far away.

It was then that the Frickley Banders packed their coach and wearily headed North for Home, tired but in high spirits. But disaster loomed when the coach slowed down for their first drop off point on the Motorway at Nottingham some 60 miles from the Bandroom, they broke down and the Band was stranded until the small hours of Monday Morning.

Band Chairman and long standing Frickley member Ray Sykes quoted "What a day, all 24 hours of it!"

Richard Walker

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