An excellent concert full of festive music and fun was Chalford Band’s Christmas gift to their supporters and fans in Stroud, as the packed Subscription Rooms rocked as the all-age combination of Senior, Academy, Youth and Junior ensembles who splendidly entertained them under the leadership of MD, Steve Tubb.

Combined ensembles

There were 70 players on stage as the combined ensembles opened with the Darroll Barry arrangement of ‘Angels from the Realms of Glory’, before principal cornet Chris Jones donned a military hat to sound the charge to introduce the popular festive pop song, ‘Stop the Cavalry’. 

More serious repertoire came with the Youth Band’s performance of Ray Farr’s ‘Adventures in Brass’, before the Junior Band, billed as ‘the stars of tomorrow’, had their own spot earning a rousing ovation for excellently delivered renditions of ‘White Christmas’ and ‘Jingle Bells’, under the inspiring direction of conductor Bev Godwin.  

Cracking duet

Youth and Juniors joined for ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’, before the Youth Band then spotlighted ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘Christmas Swing’, and a cracking trombone and flugel horn duet ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ featuring sisters Katie and Libby Vacara.

The Senior Band also produced ample evidence of their quality with the fanfare prelude, ‘Into the Sky’, before 8 year old Leah Benfield from the audience was treated to ‘Highlights from Frozen’ especially for her. 

Soprano cornet, Hannah Godwin was the accomplished lead in ‘Little Lord Jesus’ before the Senior Band once again took the lead for ‘Carols of the Bells’ and a lively selection of music from Fred Astaire shows.

Comedy highlight

For three decades a comedy sketches have been an annual highlight of Chalford’s Christmas concerts, and this time Steve and Amy Tubb, Derrick Witts and Bill Williamson gave a brilliant ‘Prehistorically Come Dancing’ routine outside a Stone Age cave. This was the evolution of dance with a difference!

Great evening

A great evening was rounded off with the obligatory ‘Happy’ from the film ‘Despicable Me 2’ (including some excellent minions made by parents Jackie Williams and Tina Baker), ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ and ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’.

The encore of ‘A Fairytale in New York’ rounded things off brilliantly. 

During the evening, the ‘Junior Player of the Year’ award was presented to joint winners, Nathan Parker and Evie Ravenhill, with the Senior Band award going to Andrew Godwin. 13 year old cornet player William Jones was named ‘Young Player of the Year’.

Roland Gardiner