Yeovil Town Band

Conductor: David Hayward
Guest Soloist: David Morris, World Champion Whistler
Octagon Theatre, Yeovil.
Saturday 14th May

Last weekend my daughter and I, both Londoners, went to stay with my mother in Somerset.  Rather to our surprise, as she is a classical music aficionado, she had booked tickets for the Yeovil Town Band at the Octagon Theatre, Yeovil's premier cultural venue.

What value those tickets were! We hadn't known what to expect, but what we got was a wonderful programme whose underlying theme was a kind of homage to D-Day, with a programme based around the great soundtracks of films about World War II – the ‘Dambusters', ‘633 Squadron', ‘Great Escape' etc. The programme was a double delight.  Not only were we lucky enough to hear the excellent Yeovil Town Band, brilliantly directed and conducted by David Hayward, who did a great job of mc-ing the event with some pithy dialogue, but also the World Champion Whistler, David Morris from Saddleworth in the North of England.

Anyone who hasn't had the joy of hearing world-class whistling accompanied by a quality brass band, take note! The seemingly effortless liquid sound of the whistle is perfectly counter pointed by the richness and range of the brass.

David Morris performed two spots which provided ample evidence that the human whistle is indeed a musical instrument. Throughout his magnificent rendition of the technical complexities of ‘Czardas' by Monti (part of his world championship winning programme), the heart-wrenching ‘Sunshine of your Smile' (dedicated to his friend, the late Brian Evans), the laughter- inducing ‘Posthorn Gallop', the rousing ‘Stars and Stripes Forever' March including his amazing piccolo obligato or any of his other pieces, the whole audience was transfixed.

And the band played on. David Morris is a maestro with a unique talent, which is best showcased by an excellent brass band. The Yeovil Town Band were more than equal to the task, and both when accompanying him and in their other numbers, they played with a combination of technical accuracy and flair which delighted the listeners.

Truly, three winning tickets!

Gin Dunscombe

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