Lydbrook Band hosted this entertaining ‘Night at the Movies’ concert to a packed audience - complete with complimentary popcorn, ice-cream selling usherettes and the timeless joys of Pearl & Dean style adverts.

There was no better way to start than with the famous 20th Century Fox ‘fanfare’, which provided the familiar prelude to an exciting opening set from the band of the iconic theme from ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘Fanfare and Flying Theme’ from the classic film ‘ET’, as well as Philip Harper’s arrangement of ‘Let it Go’ from the Disney animation ‘Frozen’.

Sister Act

Guests, the Allegra Ladies Choir added to the enjoyment in the first half with ‘This is Me’ from the 2017 hit ‘The Greatest Showman’, ‘Buck Privates’, ‘9 to 5’ and ‘Rock of Ages’ - an unexpected medley of songs from Journey, Bon Jovi, Guns & Roses and Def Leppard.

Lydbrook returned with ‘I Will Follow Him’ from ‘Sister Act’, featuring sparkling contributions from Tracey Moss on flugel alongside Nigel Howard, Carolyn Chandler and Wendy Jury on trombone, before rounding things off with ‘Tara’s Theme’ from ‘Gone with the Wind’.

Star Wars to Happy

During the interval donations were presented to the Orchard Trust, Poppy Appeal and PCC Aston Project Cheltenham local charities as a result of the band’s successful ‘Proms in the Park’ event held in the summer, before the Universal Film Studio theme opened the second half, with a neat segue into ‘Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope’, followed by a nostalgic ‘Dam Busters’ and an atmospheric ‘Jurassic Park’.

Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy’ was the perfect encore to a night of entertainment every bit as good as anything J Arthur Rank at the local Odeon cinema could have put on.

Meanwhile, the choir added ‘Sun Valley Serenade’, ‘Baba Yetu’ from ‘Quest for Camelot’ and ‘Joyful Joyful’ from ‘Sister Act 2’ - perhaps the most unusual setting of Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ ever.

It was left to Glyn Williams and the band to bring the curtain down with ‘Police Academy March’ - with a rousing trumpet fanfare from principal cornet, Phil Storer and ‘The World’s Greatest Story Teller’, featuring impressive solos from Glen Carroll on soprano, Phil Turner on cornet and Joanna Ainsworth on euphonium.  

Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy’ was the perfect encore to a night of entertainment every bit as good as anything J Arthur Rank at the local Odeon cinema could have put on.

Jack Lythaby