Whitburn and St. Ronan's Band

Conductors: Iain Fleming and David McLeod

Scottish Festival Concert
Innerleithen Memorial Hall
Saturday 24th May 2003

In 1823 Sir Walter Scott's novel 'St. Ronan's Well' was published, in which he associated the well in Innerleithen with the 8th century Saint, and from then on the spring became known as St. Ronan's Well. Today visitors can still sample the waters from the well, however on Saturday 24th May 2003 a capacity crowd sampled another Scottish speciality when the music of the Whitburn Band, who joined St. Ronan's Band, was heard at Innerleithen's Memorial Hall.

Opening with A. E. Kelly's march, "Arnhem," the band, under the baton of Iain Fleming, proved why they have been Scottish Champions on no fewer than fourteen occasions.

The first Whitburn soloist of the evening was James Chamberlain who played "I Got You Under My Skin" on flugel horn, the Cole Porter song was made famous by Frank Sinatra, amongst others. The music was well suited to the mellow laid back style that James rendered in his flawless performance.

This was followed by "Lightwalk" by Barrie Gott a piece that comes from the old Salvation Army hymn tune "Walk in the Light," but this arrangement gives the tune new life and Whitburn, of course, added their own "swing."

"For the Love of a Princess," provided a haunting interlude to some of the more strident pieces in Whitburn's programme. This is James Horner's romantic theme from "Braveheart," and is used frequently throughout the movie to great effect and Horner's idea seemed to be perfectly captured in Whitburn's performance with some great percussion effects in the opening and closing bars.

The next solo item featured Mark Boyd on trombone, playing "Concert Variations" and he played this fine solo, from one of the finest big band trombonists of the last 50 years - Don Lusher, with great style.

"Bill Bailey Won't You Please Come Home" featured the band's fifteen-year old percussionist, Kenny Carlyle who wowed the audience with his amazing xylophone playing and made it easy to see why he had only recently returned from a spell with the European Youth Brass Band.

For the Band's last piece Iain Fleming introduced the March from "The Pines of Rome" by Ottorino Respighi. Widely acclaimed as Respighi's best piece, this is a musical tale of the Roman legions climbing the Appian Way in battle and towards victory and in the Whitburn performance you could almost see the soldiers as the percussionists led the march to a victorious crescendo.

This may have been announced as the finale, but Innerleithen wanted more! As an encore Whitburn played "Stars and Stripes Forever," with a superb obligato line from Gordon Jenkins on soprano cornet.

Earlier in the evening, the host band, St. Ronan's had opened the programme with the impressive "Musik der Stadt Wien" by Richard Wagner and this was followed by Broadbent's rodeo march, "Midwest," which featured all sections of the band.

In a moving performance the Band's principal cornet player, Warren Lindsay, played Phillip Sparke's solo, "Soliloquy" before the St. Ronan's programme incorporated two movie themes. Walt Disney was well represented by "Beauty and the Beast," while the Band also featured "There You'll Be" from the block-buster, "Pearl Harbor."

As a finale to their programme, St. Ronan's played Peter Graham's "Alloway Tales," a selection of three of Burns' best know pieces, "Duncan Gray," "Afton Water," and "The De'il's Awa' Wi' Exciseman." The Band was joined in this piece by Innerleithen Opera member Douglas Forrest, who provided a most effective narration over the music.

The young members of the St. Ronan's Future Band, conducted by David McLeod wer given the opportunity to shine a played a short selection of pieces that they had been working on, including an effective descriptive piece depicting a Fox Hunt, complete with baying hounds! As an encore they played an arrangement of "My Way," which featured young Ross Brotherston in a beautiful solo line.

Following this concert which was sponsored by Catherine Ross and Hector Brown of the St. Ronan's Hotel, Innerleithen, St. Ronan's Silver Band can now be heard performing again in their next concert at St. Michael's Church, Inveresk, Musselburgh on Friday 6 June at 7.30pm. (Tickets will be available on the night).

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