East Yorkshire Motor Services

Conductor: Gareth Pritchard
The Guildhall, Hull
Saturday 6th November 2004

The East Yorkshire Services Band, conducted by Gareth Pritchard raised more than £500 for the local branch of the St. John Ambulance in a Concert at The Guildhall, Hull on Saturday 6th November 2004 and the band and conductor were in fine form after their recent set back at the Nationals in London. 

The band's "tie-up" with St. John Ambulance comes from the band having use of a room at their Regional Headquarters in Popple Street, Hull.  This, the first venture of its kind, proved to be very successful event for both organisations, with the band gaining a new audience and St. John able to swell their coffers with more than £500.

The evening got off to a swaggering start with the march, 'Viva Birkinshaw' by the March King, William Rimmer.  This was followed by a very controlled performance of 'Jubilee Overture' by Philip Sparke with brilliant 'fanfares' from the cornets & trombones and subdued 'choral' playing from the lower band, followed by an exhilarating 'Allegro' section where the Euphs and baritones sound excelled.  As conductor Gareth Pritchard informed us, this was to be a night of firsts and lasts.  We were then introduced to the first soloist of the night (making her last performance as flugel soloist for a short time while she has some repair work done to her teeth) Joanna Peacham, who performed (just in the right style) an arrangement by the Norwegian Reid Gilje of Chuck Mangione's 'The Children of Sanchez' well accompanied by the Band, with some excellent percussion playing by Mike Godber and (guest for the night) Gavin Pritchard, who then also helped to carry us through an electric performance of Stephen Tighe's 'Paddy's Wake' leaving us "in a spin". 

A complete change of mood then with 'Li'l Darlin'', (Hefti arr. Philip Sparke) where guest principal cornet, Alex Thomas showed off his quality of sound and style (little did we know that we were listening to the next Champion Soloist of Great Britain - a title Alex won just the day after - must have been a good warm-up!).  At this point in the Concert, we were introduced to the newest and youngest member of the band, making her debut sitting on 'the back row' with her dad Stewart, 13 year old Vicki Kennedy. 

Then straight on to another young man quickly making a name for himself on the soprano cornet, Graham Drury, who gave a very tasteful and controlled showing with Allison's 'Silver Threads Amongst the Gold.'  The first half was brought to a close with Dr. Peter Graham's 'Dimensions' with Alex Thomas and the Band's new principal euphonium, Liz Grosvenor excelling in the solo passages.

After the interval, the audience was introduced to the band's new Composer in Residence, Neil Bowden who took up the baton from Gareth Pritchard to conduct one of his own compositions, 'Conquest'.  A very bold piece with lots for everyone especially percussion and all the major soloists - a composer with lots of real talent for sure.  We were then introduced to the next soloist, Mark Unsworth.  Mark is a very experienced player and showed this to the full with a very accomplished performance of Tommy Dorsey's 'Trombonology'. 

Next was Allan Street's arrangement of the music of Henry Mancini aptly entitled 'Mancini Magic' where the whole band seemed to be having great fun, all the soloists, Graham, Alex, Jo, Liz, Mark and the band's solo horn, Alison Grantham all played with class and we all felt like dancing our way to the end during Gareth Pritchard's mood catching interpretation of 'I love you and don't you forget it'.  After the all important raffle (where first prize was a Monopoly board game - Hull version!) the band played a rhythmically and musically strong version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'Love Changes Everything'. 

David Fox, the Band's solo Eb bass player brought the house down with Rossini's 'Largo al Factotum' in an arrangement by Stephen Roberts.  Played with flair - Gareth told us a quote from Rossini that said "Oh how wonderful, really wonderful, opera would be if there were no singers"- Rossini would for sure have confirmed his quote had he heard Dave tonight.

The Band showed off its improving sound with ''mid all the Traffic' an arrangement by Leonard Ballantine of the American Folk Song 'Shenandoah' where Alex and Liz again played beautifully as did the accompaniment before bringing to an end a really enjoyable concert with another of Neil Bowden's compositions, 'Another World'.   Written for David King and the University of Salford Brass Band and first performed by them, this was an excellent piece to finish the concert.  Recently described by David King as "a cracker" we were left in no doubt by the confident playing that the band felt this too.  After a rapturous applause Gareth Pritchard led the band through a 'foot tapping' performance of 'Death or Glory' until he left the stage close to the end with the band finishing on its own.

A really enjoyable experience and full credit to the band for donating all proceeds to St. John Ambulance. 

Angie Graham

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