Lions Youth and United Co-op (Crewe)
30-Oct-2006Conductors: Katie Smallwood and Jef Sparkes
Sandbach Boys School
Saturday 21st October
On Saturday 21st October, the three bands which form The Lions Youth Brass organisation joined the United Co-op Band, (Crewe) in a joint concert at The Sandbach Boys School.
A capacity audience saw the concert begin with Lions Youth Brass, who gave a varied programme which contained two solo items. The first solo was a new composition, written for Neil Raisbeck, the band's solo horn, who was celebrating his 15th birthday on the night. The new solo, ‘Caprice', was commissioned by Lions Youth Brass, and was composed by their composer in residence, Ian Raisbeck. It is a real test, with a slow melody, 2 Cadenzas, and 3 tricky variations, but Neil gave a marvellous performance.
The other solo saw Andy Welsh, principal cornet of the co-op band perform with Lions, playing ‘The Londonderry Air', by Goff Richards. Andy is one of the most respected cornet players in the North West Area and showed why he has gained such a high reputation, with his lovely warm sound and sensitive playing of this fine arrangement.
The second band to play was the beginners section and they had nine new players who had started playing only in this academic term and several other players who were making their first concert appearance. It was wonderful to see a beginners section at around 25 strong enjoying playing together as a group and full credit should go to Andrew Felton, Christopher Thompson and Hayley Scott, who tutor them on a regular basis.
To end the first half, The Lions Junior Brass, with their musical director, Katie Smallwood, played works by Ian Raisbeck and other popular pieces such as ‘The Floral Dance'. The Junior Brass is really progressing well under Katie's guidance and it is easy to hear why they are always successful at the local music festivals.
The second half belonged mostly to The United Co-op Band, and their musical director Jeff Sparkes, and it was very evident early on in their performance that their recent 3rd place at Harrogate in the First Section finals was well justified.
Their precision, tight ensemble and excellent tuning was a feature and they were so superbly directed by Jeff Sparkes, who had the band under great control.
They played a very lively and entertaining programme which featured ‘Malaguana', ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean' and music from ‘The Muppet Show'. During their programme they were joined by Alex Holsgrove, principal euphonium with Lions Youth Brass, and he played a very musical performance of ‘The Flower Song'. The band finished off their programme with the music from ‘Riverdance', and this featured some superb flugel playing by Sarah Brown.
This was a band at the top of its game and it was very well appreciated by the audience.
The final part of the concert brought all bands together in massed bands to play old favourites such as the ‘Can Can' and ‘Radetsky March' and the whole evening was superbly presented by Roy Sparkes.
The Lions Youth Brass would like to thank The United Co-op band and Jeff Sparkes for undertaking this venture and in particular Carol Mowbray for all her hard work putting the concert together. It is hoped a similar event can be organized for sometime next year.
John Gallaher
