Black Dyke Band

The National Champions at Christmas
Conductor: Dr. Nicholas Childs
Huddersfield Town Hall
Sunday 19th December 2004

‘Act Justly & Fear Nothing' is the Black Dyke motto; and over the course of 2004, the Queensbury-based band have taken those words onto the concert and contest platform as well as into the recording studio. The results have been not just consistent, at times they have been quite extraordinary.

Three top rank contesting performances (one which brought the National title, and one which of which at the Open won the 4BR Contest Performance of the Year title but not the Open itself), and CDs from the band and solo discs from Roger Webster, Brett Baker and David Thornton; add to this over forty concerts that included a tour to Philadelphia and Bermuda, concerts in Lucerne and Northern Ireland, along with various towns and cities in England and you get a very busy, but immensely satisfying year.

The band just doesn't settle for second best, and the acquisition of soprano Peter Roberts, is not just a masterstroke, but also a sign of intent that during their one hundred and fiftieth year in 2005, they aim to be the band to beat.

The anniversary year will see the band in some home high profile concerts (RNCM, Cardiff, Bridgewater Hall and York Minster to name just four) along with the guarantee of more CDs, and a very high profile plan for next year's Christmas Concert in Huddersfield, (a plan that hopes to have players from the bands famous past present and possibly playing on the night). It promises to be a year to remember for all concerned.  On this particular night though, Dyke legends Grenville Richmond and James Shepherd, who were present will have been as proud as anything to see Black Dyke on stage with the National Trophy beside them.

Wherever Black Dyke performs, tradition always decrees that they concluded their year with concerts in Dewsbury Town Hall on the Friday before the 25th, followed by Huddersfield Town Hall forty eight hours later.

This annual Christmas concert was on a par with what the banding world has heard and appreciated this year, and whilst the first half was concert repertoire, the second was traditional Christmas Fayre.

Karl King's march ‘The Melody Shop' got things off to a great start, before what for many, is definitive Mozart.  No single work can represent Mozart fully, but perhaps the beginning of ‘The Magic Flute' overture comes as close as any.  Dyke's performance was sublime.  The stately grandeur of the opening chords and the pure joy of the Allegro theme (the best bit of full band playing all night) encapsulated much that is Mozart in a delightful fashion.

Peter Roberts then took centre stage to give a performance of one of his signature solo's, ‘Memory' and after an ovation that tells it own story, the rest of the cornets were all front of stage as they romped through ‘Hora Staccato'.

A recent CD release from the band is called ‘The Golden Swing of Black Dyke' (available from 4BR's shopping area – apologies for the plug) .  To showcase this CD, Dyke have been performing a trilogy of numbers: ‘Opus One', ‘I Only Have Eyes For You' featuring Adrian Hirst and John French and ‘Mack the Knife'.  These popular audience pleasers were performed with great aplomb, and another example of whatever the style, Dyke can adapt and make it sound so simple.

Lesley Howie, the band's principal horn player has given some fine performances of ‘Finale' from ‘Mendelssohn's ‘Violin Concerto' during 2004 and once again Lesley pulled out all the stops with another fine performance.

Percussionist, Paul Lovatt-Cooper has found his way into the nominations for the 4BR ‘Newcomer of the Year', for his composition skills and his ‘Earth's Fury' written for Brett Baker has received numerous plaudits.  Paul stepped forward though to give a demonstration of his xylophone skills in James Curnow's ‘Victors Return'.  Different soloist, but the same story: high quality individual playing with some fine accompaniment.

The popular march from ‘The Pines of Rome' brought the first half to a close in spectacular fashion.  Some powerful lyrical flugel playing from John Doyle was supported all around the stand as the band really did cut loose leaving the audience speechless.

In contrast, the second half was restrained as the audience were treated to ‘Holly & The Ivy', Philip Sparke's arrangement of ‘The Christmas Song' and the traditional ‘Gaudete'.  The audience joined in a couple of carols and Brett Baker and David Thornton maintained the standard of solo playing in the first half. Brett performed ‘When a Child is Born', whilst David presented an arrangement by Pete Meechan of ‘Auld Lang Syne'. 

Another imminent release is the highlights CD from this year's National Championship Gala Concert.  Featuring Black Dyke and the Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, David Thornton is featured performing Pete's arrangement of the aforementioned ‘Auld Lang Syne', along with other items from the concert and Dyke's winning performance of ‘...all the flowers of the mountain...'.  On the evidence of the reception given to David, the audience will be adding ‘Kapitol Brass' to their CD collections very soon.

To conclude (officially at least) there was music synonymous with Dyke:  Gordon Langford's medley of Christmas carols and popular songs, ‘A Christmas Fantasy'.

No one was going home though without more music and a touch of audience participation in the popular ‘Jingle Bells' closely followed by ‘Tossing the Feathers' from Gaelforce gave a fine evening a rousing a warm hearted conclusion. Dyke ended 2004 in fine style and you sense that they are already waiting with baited breath to start 2005 and their 150th anniversary season before their Christmas pudding has had time to digest. They will be one heck of an outfit in 2005 for sure. 

Malcolm Wood.

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