Hepworth Band

Conductor: Mark Bentham

Formby Town Hall
Atherton, Wigan
Sunday, 16th November

This concert venue has hosted many top bands over the years and Sunday 16th was no exception. The Hepworth Band has built up a reputation as one of the best concert and contest bands in the movement and following on from their 2nd place in the Championship section at Pontins the band opened with their signature tune ‘Pratty Flowers' which is the unofficial Holmfirth Anthem. Music from Gershwin followed with his popular ‘Strike Up the Band'. The first soloist of the evening was the bands soprano player Mark Smedley who gave a solid performance of ‘La Califfa' by Morricone. This music has a lovely flow to it and both soloist and band were completely at ease in this excellent solo.

A complete change of style came next in music by Massenet in his exciting ‘Le Cid' arr Snell. The band seemed to enjoy this music and some excellent sounds especially from the middle of the band were evident. Alan Catherall is well known for his excellent arrangements for bands and it was one of these that the bands flugel horn player Catherine Booth chose to play in the much loved "Evergreen". This soloist has a lovely round sound and she gave a very musical show in which the band accompaniments were always in control the audience loved it too, a most enjoyable performance.

Back to the music of Morricone in Mark Bentham's arrangement of "Morricone Magic". The film "The Good The Bad and The Ugly" is one of Clint Eastwood's most famous films and in this arrangement we had two of the cornet section acting out a duel in search of the gold with some quick fire cornet playing and a good old gun fight before the haunting melody from "Once upon a time in the West" superbly played on Flugel by Catherine Booth added some sanity to the music before the piece ends with more dramatic playing.

Emma Farrow the bands talented Euphonium player then played Weber's ‘Last Waltz'. At 16 years of age she showed what a bright future she has although at times the accompaniments sat rather heavy it didn't detract from a musical showing that augers well for both soloist and band.

The first half ended with the exiting ‘Dance of the Tumblers' played at a sensible tempo where all the detail was heard. This Korsakov piece arr Ashmore showed the band off in fine style.

‘Troika' by Prokofiev got the second half off to a flyer before the bands principal cornet Rob Westacott treated the audience to the "Russian Dance" by Bohme showing excellent technique and control this was indeed playing at its best and well supported by the band.

The music then took a relaxed approach in Evelyn Glennie's "A Little Prayer" in which the conductor drew some warm and sustained sounds all through the band and was playing out of the top drawer and a welcome addition to the concert. Principle trombone Yvonne Embury then gave a most lyrical performance of Lennon's "Why did I Choose You" .This was followed by music from the film ‘Moulin Rouge' before the final soloist of the concert, Bass Trombone player Graham Starr gave an excellent performance of Goff Richards ‘A Rainy Day in Rio' written for Doug Yeo, the Bass Trombone player with The Boston Symphony Orchestra. This is a difficult solo to pull off both for band and soloist, but pull it off they did with the soloist on top form all through. Well done band and an excellent solo.

The Finale to the evening was the exiting and rhythmic ‘Tico Tico' in which the band and percussion section let off steam in an upbeat performance. As an encore the band finished with Arlen's ‘Get Happy'.

This was a most enjoyable concert with six excellent soloists' and a band who certainly know how to entertain. The large audience gave the band a tremendous reception as thy left the stage.

David Tinker

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