Greater Gwent Youth and Intermediate Brass Bands

Conductors: Dr. Nicholas Childs, Sean O’Neill
Soloist: Brett Baker
County Hall
Cwmbran
Monday 2nd January

In these days of financial constraints on local government, there are not too many councils who have continued to take an enlightened approach to the provision of music tuition in its schools. Music Services are often seen as something of a luxury item, and as such they have suffered more than most when it comes to the never ending series of interminable reviews and inevitable cut backs that afflict local government management thinking.

Thankfully, the amalgam of four Borough Councils in South Wales; Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen, Newport and Monmouthshire (the first two amongst the poorest areas in Wales as a whole) has continued to fund a well organised and highly competent music support service since the latest round of local government reorganisation took place in the Principality in 1996. The resultant Gwent Music Support Service is a beacon of good practice, if a little haphazard in thinking at times, but the undoubted benefits of having a well funded service were fully evident when the current crop of youngsters who are benefiting from peripatetic teaching in each of the authorities took to the stage in Cwmbran.  

The concert was the climax to a week long period of preparation for both the main and intermediate bands, and served both as a nice one off concert for the audience of around 300 mams, dads, assorted brethren and interested listeners as well as a marker for the staff in their preparation for future competitive events such as the British Open Youth Brass Band Championships, of which the main band are the current reigning champions.   

Sean O'Neill led the Intermediate Band as they opened the concert with a selection from the six pieces they had worked upon during the week, and it was an encouraging display from the 65 young players who were perhaps over stretched at times by an ambitious selection of music.

'Bandology' got off to an uncertain start but soon captured the right frothy light style before the players got to grips with ‘Indian Fire', an atmospheric and enjoyable evocation of the tribes of the wild west that even included some authentic war chants (albeit with a valleys accent) and some neat playing from Rachel Williams on Principal Cornet. It was evident that the band enjoyed the music and had put a great deal of effort into capturing the style required.

Brett Baker was the featured soloist this year and the Black Dyke man was on fine form with a thoughtful account of ‘The Acrobat' that was performed with noticeable musicianship and style and was made more enjoyable by the lack of the usual crude musical humour that has blighted the piece over the years. It is of course a piece very much of its time, but why it has been treated so badly by so many players over the years remains a mystery. Brett Baker gave it back the respect it deserved.

The final item in the first half was a rather strained account of ‘Queen Rules!' that sounded too ambitious a choice for the players at this time in their development. Stretching young players with choices that encourage understanding of style and development of technique is a very difficult task, but it is also very easy to ignore problems with the basic fundamentals of playing. On this occasion the evidence seemed to indicate that perhaps more time was needed in developing these basics rather than just playing a piece that the mams and dads in the audience might remember dancing to at Newport's Cinderella Rockafella nightclub in the early 1980's! 

The second half was given over to the 70 strong Greater Gwent Youth Brass Band, which was directed with obvious enjoyment by Dr. Nicholas Childs.

The band was obviously full of talented young players (although with the ludicrous rules regarding youth bands these days, there were also a few ‘youngsters' over the voting age and in full time work!) and many of these were featured in an enjoyable programme that started with a committed and detailed performance of Thomas Wilson's ‘Sinfonietta'. This somewhat austere and angular work was very well handled by the band in a broad reading from the MD, and gave the audience the chance to hear an extended original work for brass that even some 30 years after it was written is still challenging to the ear.   

This was followed by Philip Wilby's musical homage to his youth and his ‘Partita for Band' – ‘Postcards from Home', which once more brought some fine individual playing from soprano and solo cornet as well as the excellent horn playing of Angharad Jones and euphonium of James Barrett.  

A short interval gave time for the usual presentations of awards, with the Most Improved Player going to euphonium player Jamie Jones and Player of the Year to tuba Steffan Jones. Meanwhile the Intermediate Band award to their most improved performer went to Principal Cornet Rachel Williams.

The final segment of the concert was given over to the more ‘user friendly' lollipops, but the MD made sure that the fine standard set out at the beginning of the second half was maintained.

'The Thunderer' was given a neat account of itself, before Brett Baker returned once more to perform Paul Lovatt-Cooper's ‘Earth's Fury'. This accessible concerto is an excellent vehicle for a performer such as Brett to explore the full range of his technique and musicality, and even if the accompaniment was at times at odds with both soloist and itself, the trombonist was as slick and as professional as we have come to expect and gave a performance of rich colour and admirable style.  With the hard stuff out of the way he then gave a liquid account of ‘Autumn Leaves' that was a model of understated class.

The finals items by the band also revealed a competent command of style as well, with an upbeat arrangement of ‘Bill Bailey' before an enjoyable and secure romp through ‘Battle of Trafalgar' complete with the stentorian tones of Dyke tuba player and course tutor Matthew Routley on the poop deck.

It is now 200 years since the one eyed philanderer did the biz against Villeneuve's garcons, but it is worth remembering that the old boy was pickled in a cask of brandy after he was shot to preserve his body on the way home, only for it to be found to be partially drained when opened, as many a Jack Tarr had nicked a dram or two in the hope the mixture of corpse and alcohol would give them some elixir of Nelson's courage for future battles. All this and his final words were in fact ‘Drink, drink, Fan, fan, Rub, rub', not ‘Kiss me Hardy' - never quite gets mentioned does it now, but why spoil a good story eh?

Still it rounded off a very enjoyable afternoon's entertainment that confirmed the fact that even in these days of complaints about the level of Council Tax, some local authorities are spending your money in a very fine and worthwhile fashion indeed.

Iwan Fox.

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