Brighouse & Rastrick Band

Conductor: Major Ian D McElligott
Guest Soloists: Rod Franks, Principal Trumpet, London Symphony Orchestra
Gordon Stewart, Borough Organist of Kirkless

Huddersfield Town Hall
Saturday 1st November 2003

In 1968, Paul Simon wrote one of the classic songs of all time, entitled ‘Old Friends' and of course it became a hit for the duo, Simon & Garfunkel. For their traditional annual concert the 2003 Yorkshire Champions, Brighouse and Rastrick welcomed back an old friend, gave an official welcome home to a new one, and said cheerio to an established player. Traditionally, concerts in Huddersfield Town Hall, are a massed band affair for Brighouse, but for Autumn 2003, they decided to ask Rod Franks to return to his roots, and invited the talented organist, Gordon Stewart to join him. In addition, the Guest Conductor was the bands Professional MD, Major Ian D McElligott, who was back in the famous hall for the first time since his days with the Coldstream Guards. The music on offer covered a few miles, with America, Spain, plenty of British delights, and some Saint-Saen thrown in for good measure.

The unofficial anthem of the USA is known as "The Stars and Stripes Forever", and it got the proceedings off to a rousing start. The tempo was certainly influenced by Ian McElligott's background. Brass band tempo this was not, it was certainly military, and initially, it sounded a bit to quick for the band, but by the time Alan Hobbins played the infamous piccolo solo, the band appeared much more at ease.

From America to Spain, and the overture, "The Barber of Seville". Very classical in style this was, with some lovely playing from within the band, a delightful sound, with Mr Hobbins once again displaying some lovely touches on Soprano. From Seville to the UK, and two totally contrasting pieces of music. Firstly, the traditional melodic "Scarborough Fair", which was followed by music from Goff Richards, entitled, ‘Calling Cornwall'. This starts with some lovely euphonium playing (on this occasion by Steven Miles) and then develops into quite a lively piece of music. Here the band displayed their traditional strong, and bold sound, but with just a touch of over-blowing in places.

In terms of distance in the UK, you can't get further apart than Cornwall to the Highlands in Scotland. In 2002, Yorkshire Building Society commissioned Philip Sparke to write a piece that they could perform in the Gala Concert at the European Championships – "Hymn of the Highlands" was the result. Brighouse decided to play two movements: "Ardross Castle", and "Dundonnell". This was in honesty, one of the blemishes of an otherwise super night. "Ardross Castle" started off beautifully with Melvyn Bathgate and Leigh Baker off stage and this movement was very charming. "Dundonnell" on the other hand came across as distorted and just too loud, hence losing some of the detail of the dramatic finale to the whole work. I was reminded of the comment made by John Maines recently when he said ‘music should be in every house, except next door'. The only thing was, I was in the same hall as the band, and whilst the music is written at fff and requires the percussion to drive the music on, it came across as very OTT, and spoilt the movement – other may have different opinions of course.

Rod Franks needs no introduction to world of banding. Rod played with Brighouse in the early 1970's before eloping to Black Dyke, and then of course to do different things, ending up as Principal Trumpet with the LSO. Rod chose "Four Voluntaries" from the Chapel Royal to open. Accompanied on the magnificent organ by Gordon Stewart, he gave the performance a sense of being present at a State Occasion with Rod's beautiful playing on the piccolo trumpet, worth the entrance money alone.

Brighouse concluded the first half with timeless music from the pen of Eric Ball. His "Journey into Freedom" is without doubt one of the all time classics of the banding repertoire. This piece is featured on two or three recent CD releases, but you can never beat the feeling of hearing the music live. It has to be said this was an absolutely breathtaking performance, which was not over-cooked at all - Ian McElligott just let the music speak for itself. Since his arrival at B & R, the Major has brought freshness to his contesting performances with Brighouse, and although this wasn't a contesting performance, it was worthy of 197 points on any day. The final section that commences with the bass section just left the audience drooling, as they had been sucked into an absorbing performance of real merit – thanks band and MD.

The second half commenced with the some Strauss in the form of "Fest Musik der Stadt Vien". – The cornets sitting in traditional form, as opposed to being behind the rest of the band as you sometimes see, when this piece is played. Within "Jupiter" from Holst's, "The Planets", is the patriotic tune, ‘I Vow to The, My Country'. Major McElligott, put together a new arrangement for band and organ which certainly would fit into Brighouse's concert repertoire in the near future. The tune certainly comes out eventually, and it is certainly different to that which appears in Stephen Roberts, brass band arrangement.

Rod Franks returned with trumpet and flugel in hand. Rod performed "Share My Yoke" on the trumpet, and "April in Paris" on the flugel horn. Whatever the instrument, this man is class, and if you have not heard his disc, ‘Saving Face', it is definitely a real delight.

Practically every top class band in the country at the movement is either playing "Cartoon Classics" by Andrew Duncan, or "Harry Potter" arranged by John Williams (some bands play both). Brighouse chose the music from the Harry Potter movie and it was polished off without too much trouble.

This was also the night the West Riding men said goodbye to one of its players. Percussionist Greg Perkin has been involved in the band since he was fourteen. Now aged twenty-one, Greg is joining the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, where he hopes to become a fighter pilot. Greg was sent on his way with a regimental drum salute, and a tankard, as well as everybody's good wishes. Good luck Greg, and don't forget you know which website to log onto for your brass banding news!

Brighouse were bound to conclude the concert with the tour de force for band and organ – The Finale from "Organ Symphony" - Number Three by Saint-Saen. The first words I wrote for reference were ‘balance' – between the organ and band, but the remote control of MD Ian McElligott kicked in, and it brought to an end a very enjoyable brass band concert. The Brighouse anthem, otherwise known as "The Floral Dance" featured as the obligatory encore. This break from tradition of two bands on stage should be done again, and definitely, Rod Franks, should be booked asap, for a Brighouse concert. Next year, B & R will have Sellers International as guests in the Spring, and YBS will join them next Autumn, for a concert that Brighouse should be able to sell out, several times over.

Malcolm Wood

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