London North East Fellowship Band

Music for Everyone,
Conductor: Geoff Jordan
Guest Conductor Bandmaster: James Williams, MBE
Soloists: Ralph and Lisa Brill; Hadleigh Temple Timbrellists;
Hadleigh Temple,
Saturday 27th January

This year's "Music for Everyone" concert, hosted by the London North East Fellowship Band, was held to raise money towards the Watershed Project, which assists with the provision of fresh water supplies around the world.  The evening opened with a sparkling display by Hadleigh Temple Timbrel Brigade, who performed to a recording of Dudley Bright's march "Assignment", coping well with the somewhat limited platform space available.  This was followed by the congregational song "Praise my soul the King of Heaven", sung not to the more recent up-tempo version, but to a fine arrangement by Michael Babb.

Ray Clarke, the compère for the evening, soon developed a rapport with the large audience, explaining that whilst he is quite used to addressing thousands of listeners over the air-waves, it was still rather intimidating coming face to face with a an audience of a couple of hundred people.  He punctuated his introductions with various anecdotes, many of which were true life incidents.

James Williams may now be in his ‘80s but he is still a commanding figure when on the rostrum, and it was clear that he was paying as much attention to detail with the Fellowship band as he ever did with Enfield Citadel.  Conducting William Himes' scintillating march "Motivation", there was no compromise in terms of tempo, and the band responded well as he encouraged them to bring out the dynamic contrasts.  The familiar melody of "Would you know why I love Jesus" was punctuated by crisp side drum beats and chords from the lower half of the band, and the clear tone of the flugel and horns in both the melody and ensuing counter-melody was very effective.  Despite some untidiness in the scales in contrary motion it made for a good start to the band's contribution to the evening.

Ray Clarke introduced the Watershed Project, linking it with the title of the first solo item, Eric Ball's cornet solo "Clear Skies", played by Ralph Brill, of the Welsh Guards, Redbridge Brass, the Household Troops Band and Enfield Citadel.  Although rehearsal time had been quite limited, the band coped well with the tricky opening bars, James Williams keeping the tempo moving.  Ralph dispatched the variations with aplomb, and produced some fine echo effects in the cadenza.  At times the accompaniment was a little bass-heavy, and the bottom half of the band was a little sluggish on occasions, but Ralph's bright tone carried well across the band.

Many of the songs penned by John Gowans and John Larsson in their series of musicals have found an extended life in works for brass band over the years.  One of the most successful is Robert Redhead's suite from "Hosea".  Based on the Old Testament account of the prophet Hosea, two at least of the featured songs are still in regular use.  "You can't stop God from loving you" featured the trombone section, followed by Dave Martin on flugel horn, and the central section, "What shall I ask of you", was played with considerable flexibility.  The children's song "I nearly forgot to say thank you" was marked by some tidy decorative figures from both the cornet and horn sections, and had many in the audience tapping their feet.

The second soloist, Ralph's wife Lisa, is Principal Euphonium with Redbridge Brass, and for her item she chose to play James Curnow's lyrical "Rhapsody for euphonium".  From the unaccompanied opening, Lisa displayed a full, clear tone across the full range of the instrument, both in the slower sections and also in the more technically challenging sections.  Although there were moments of uncertainty in the accompaniment, the band still provided sterling support in what was unfamiliar music to them.

The next band item saw them in more familiar territory, stepping back in time to present Kenneth Cook's well-crafted suite "Songs of the Seasons", each movement based around a suitable song.  "Summer" is portrayed, in full knowledge of the British climate, by the song "He sends the rainbow", whilst "Autumn" looks forward to harvest time, with "Come ye thankful people, come" leading into a jaunty setting of "Bringing in the sheaves", complete with some neat interjections from Dave Harrison on soprano.  "Winter", featuring "See amid the winter's snow", included some excellent duet work from cornet and euphonium, before "Spring", with "The birdies in the treetops", brought the selection to a joyful and positive close.

A brief Powerpoint presentation gave more details of the Watershed Project, focussing on Magato in Tanzania, explained how women had a three hour walk to collect water, at the risk of attack or rape.  The project has dug a well, which has enabled them to establish a vegetable patch to provide for their own needs, leaving a surplus of produce for sale.  The collection was taken up during the playing of "Mid all the traffic", conducted by Geoff Jordan, and the amount raised was over £840 pounds.

The second timbrel item had been set to a concert band arrangement of "A closer walk with thee".  In authentic New Orleans style, this opened slowly, with the timbrellists singing the words in harmony as they processed up the aisle, before a brisk move onto the platform for the up-tempo choruses which followed.  The second congregational song was Chris Mallet's setting of "To God be the glory", sung heartily by the audience, who were glad of a chance to stretch their legs!

The second items chosen by the soloists were two movements from "The Hymn of the Highlands" by Philip Sparke, "Larg Muir" from Ralph and "Summer Isles" from Lisa.  There was no faulting the contributions of both soloists, but in retrospect it was probably the wrong choice as, despite the band's best endeavours, the atmospheric nature of the accompaniments did not really come across, as the style and exposed nature of much of the writing was not something the players were used to.

Lt Col David Phillips presented the scriptures, reading familiar words from 1 Corinthians Chapter 13, frequently referred to as the "Love" chapter, before a sensitive rendition by the band of Dudley Bright's meditation "The greatest of these".  The music illustrated well the words of Arch Wiggins, which were projected onto the screen behind the band: "Love suffereth patiently; Love worketh silently; Love seeketh not her own. Love never faileth; Love still prevaileth; Lord, in me thy love enthrone!"

Another classic of former days – published when Ray Steadman-Allen was only a 2nd Lieutenant – was "In quiet pastures".  Again this brought some delicate playing from all sections of the band, with Keith Johnston's sweet-toned solo in "Shepherd, hear my prayer" being particularly notable, enhanced by a soaring euphonium counter-melody.

Under the baton of Geoff Jordan, the band played Harry Kirk's fine old march "Comradeship", the bandmaster setting a suitably steady pace which allowed for a lilting bass solo in "God's love is wonderful", and illustrating well the motivation of the Fellowship bands, sharing good musical opportunities together.  The evening was a great success on many levels, and if there were occasional wrong notes and uncertainties they had nevertheless brought much enjoyment to the satisfied audience, and had been given the opportunity to play under one of the real masters of the art.  The musical evening ended on a positive note as band and congregation joined in Ivor Bosanko's setting of "I'll go in the strength of the Lord", leaving everyone looking forward to next year's event. 


Peter Bale

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