Sellers International Band

Conductor: Phillip McCann
Morley Town Hall
Compere: Dr Simon Lindley
Saturday 11th December

It's that time of the year again, and as Christmas approaches those retrospective look-backs to the year are given and the thoughts and hopes for a new year begin to come to mind.

When looking back at 2004, Sellers International Band should be more than happy with what they have achieved during the year.  They missed out by the narrowest of margins on a place at the National Finals in London finishing behind YBS, Black Dyke and Brighouse but took that good form to the Grand Shield where they qualified for The British Open by winning in fine style.  Not content with that, at the aforementioned ‘Open' they raised more than a few eyebrows by coming an excellent fifth, and then in November, became runners-up at Brass in Concert, whilst picking up individual awards in various categories as well.

One thing is for sure, the band under Phillip McCann has become one of the most consistent in the Championship Section and the only disappointment was a low placing at the All-England Masters in May. The band will go into 2005 wanting to build on this year's achievements in good heart, and they could well be on the verge of something very big indeed, and that has been in no small part to the inclusion on soprano of Kevin Crockford.  Kevin is not only a cracking player, but has the experience as well, and this has rubbed off on the band in a big way.

This latest concert in Morley Town Hall promoted by Leeds Leisure Services was testament as to why Sellers have been so successful in 2004 as what was on offer was a good mix of Christmas music and concert items that demonstrated the bands strength in all areas.

The band clearly works hard and enjoys themselves an awful lot.  This was evident in the arrangements by Goff Richards of ‘Breezin Down Broadway' and ‘Disney Fantasy':  Up-tempo, and good playing from within the band but with a vibrant sense of entertainment also on view. 

At Spennymoor in November, not only did the band take the ‘Best March' prize, they added the ‘Best Percussion' and ‘Most Entertaining Band' to the list of honours.  The percussion section worked hard all night and was in sparkling form in a number of items including ‘Be a Clown' – featured on the band's new CD release – ‘Somewhere In Time'.   The band featured Andrew Duncan's music regularly in its programmes and ‘Reunion and Finale' from Gettysburg featured some fine opening off-stage ensemble playing before bringing the first half to a close in rousing fashion.

All of the soloists on the night were in top form.  Principal Cornet, Darren Stott set the standard with a confident rendition of ‘You Raise Me Up', whilst trombonist, Rebecca Lundberg demonstrated her own individual talents in the classic, ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square'.

‘Silver Threads Amongst the Gold' is one of those solo's where bands feature either there principal or soprano cornet.  On this occasion though, Sellers and Phillip McCann gave the spotlight to Leah Williams on Tenor Horn, whose control and expression of the instrument was first class.

Mark Bousie is one of Sellers' longest serving players with nearly eight years service under his belt and Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without ‘O Holy Night' and Mark performed Ray Farr's arrangement on the euphonium with real ease and class.

The biggest ovation of the night for the soloists went to percussionist Louise Emms.   Louise brought the xylophone to the front of the stage and brought the house down with a different take on the Rossini classic, ‘William Tell', that began with the infamous solo passage with Mark Bousie and not long afterwards, Bass Trombonist, Alex Hohenkerk who threw in one of those low notes that raised more than a chuckle from within the band and audience.  It was Louise though who was the real star with her command of the xylophone - and she loved every minute of it.

The band's Christmas items certainly got the audience in a seasonal mood.  Anderson's popular ‘Christmas Festival Overture', was an early item in the concert, and indicated that the band were in fine form (although the tempo's were a bit too slick towards the end to get the audience chiming in with words).  No Christmas programmes would be complete nowadays without Howard Blake's ‘Walking in the Air' and ‘White Christmas' and Gordon Langford's ‘A Christmas Fantasy' always goes down well with audiences.

Traditional carol's were also in evidence with the audience being invited to join in and they certainly were humming along in Richard Phillips' clever arrangement of the ‘Twelve Days of Christmas' that keeped you on your toes with numerous musical snippets of famous tunes such as ‘Scotland the Brave'.

The compere for the night was to Dr Simon Lindley, the talented arranger and organist, who was succinct and informative where he needed to be.  Dr Lindley has featured on many recordings involving Phillip McCann and he duly accepted Phillip's invitation to conduct the encore, ‘Jingle Bells'. 

Through winter and spring, Leeds City Council promote brass band concerts in their town halls, and West Yorkshire folk (and from further a field, visitors from Chicago and Australia on this night) royally support these events, and they are already looking forward to Grimethorpe and BAYV in early 2005.

This concert though was about Sellers International.  The band has a packed Christmas schedule around West Yorkshire having already accompanied the Huddersfield Choral Society for two nights and in addition, concerts in Bradford, Halifax and Huddersfield are rapidly on the horizon. When they put their instruments away for the Christmas break, they will no doubt drink a toast to sponsor David Armitage and MD Philip McCann who have done so much to bring this fine band back to the top of the banding tree this year.

Malcolm Wood

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