Massed Bands Charity Concert
4-Feb-2005Hathern and Travelsphere Holidays Bands
Conductors: David Newman and David Stowell
Burleigh Community College Theatre
Loughborough
Saturday 29th January.
Burleigh Community College Theatre, Thorpe Hill, Loughborough was the venue for the Massed Bands Charity Concert on Saturday 29th January. The Hathern Band (current champions in the second section) has held a concert in aid of the charity LOROS for the last 4 years, but this year due to contacts within the Travelsphere Holidays Band, it was decided to hold a joint event. An extra bonus was the Barclays Bank £ for £ scheme. This is a scheme open to employees of Barclays Bank which means that the Bank will match pound for pound any amount over £750.00. Both bands waived their fee for the occasion, and there was a mammoth raffle with the first prize consisting of air tickets to any European destination.
The venue was excellent, with tiered seating which afforded everyone a good view of the bands. Hathern opened the concert to a packed hall with Goff Richards ‘Breezin' down Broadway'. This gave the concert a good rousing opening that went at a good lick. There were some nice moments from the percussion, smooth tones from the flugel and the trombone section (not quite 76 of them) did Goff Richards proud. The ‘Post Horn Gallop' followed with the Solo Cornet player from Hathern playing on impressive form. They finished their section with the ‘Irish Blessing' and ‘Hymns of Praise' by Goff Richards. 'Hymns of Praise' was an impressive piece incorporating a combination of favourite hymns chosen by viewers of Songs of Praise, very nicely arranged and Hathern made an excellent job of it.
Travelsphere opened their section with the music from ‘Spiderman' by Danny Elfman, arranged by the bands MD, Dave Stowell. This had a very atmospheric and ethereal opening, with a percussionist hitting a pipe with a hammer – not something I have seen done before but very effective. It was an exciting piece, which ended very abruptly leaving most of the audience out of breath! We were then delighted by some great musical virtuosity with a fine touch of showmanship from Robert Woods on euphonium in ‘All Those Endearing Young Charms' arranged by the great Stanley Boddington. Their programme was brought to an end with the Overture ‘Ruler of the Spirits' by Weber in the old William Halliwell arrangement.
After the interval both bands played together with the two conductors, David Newman for Hathern and David Stowell for Travelsphere taking up the baton for alternate pieces. The bands played well together and there were some fine solos. The two pieces that stood out for me were ‘Titanic' in the arrangement by Andrew Duncan and ‘Gaelforce' Peter Duncan. Titanic was an effectively structured arrangement with plenty of power and atmosphere to depict the huge doomed ship – even down to the engines starting up. This atmosphere was soaked up by the audience and the music took you through several emotions with lovely solos setting the scene.
'Gaelforce' was an inspired choice with which to end the performance, with the bands thoroughly enjoying playing it and with special mention to Travelsphere's flugel player who gave an excellent rendition of ‘The Minstrel Boy'. Bearing in mind that there were two bands playing, the dynamics were very well controlled throughout and we did not miss a note of the solo instruments. The last movement of this piece is a percussionists dream and they really enjoyed it – they do not get many solos and this was one I am glad I did not miss. A fitting end to a fine performance and one, which was obvious, every one enjoyed.
The icing on the cake though was when a cheque for £2178.78, was presented to a representative from LOROS, and this was the highest figure that Hathern Band had made so far. A great night for a great cause – long may it continue.
Maggie Styles
