Grimethorpe Colliery Band

Conductor: Chris Wormald
Coliseum Theatre
Aberdare
Saturday 14th April

It seemed somewhat appropriate that the current National Champions, Grimethorpe Colliery Band should visit Aberdare in South Wales for a concert in aid of the Singleton Hospital Special Care Baby Unit.

The gleaming old egg cup that is currently the trophy awarded for winning the Championship in Kensington sat impressively on the stage at the Coliseum Theatre on Saturday night, a reminder if any was needed, of the bands win at the Royal Albert Hall last October. What the band and guest MD, Chris Wormald may not have known though is that Aberdare is in fact the home of the famous Cor Mawr choral conductor Griffith Rhys Jones (1834-97) or ‘Caradog' after whom the previous incarnation of the National Trophy – the much more ornate and somewhat preposterously Pugin inspired ‘One Thousand Guinea Trophy' is colloquially named.

Now housed in the sterile surroundings of the Welsh Museum of Life near Cardiff, the link to the town that gave the choral world perhaps its finest ever conductor is now remembered by a rather imposing statue of the old man in the town centre. 

Caradog would have been pleased with the standard of musicianship on show on a sultry evening, as Grimethorpe delivered a very enjoyable and entertaining programme under the slick and professional direction of the Smithills MD. This was Grimethorpe in the comfort zone of performance however, although given the awfully warm temperature in the hall and especially on the stage, you did wonder whether the local council had diverted the heat from the local crematorium through the central heating for the night. A few pounds were lost in a good cause on stage.

A fairly straight forward programme had been chosen, with four quality soloists coupled with some easy listening repertoire and a welcome performance of ‘High Peak' by Eric Ball to satisfy the brass band purists in a decent sized audience of around 400 people.

The opening ‘Let's Face the Music and Dance' was neat and tidy to start before a colourful performance of ‘High Peak' brought authoritative substance to the first half.  It wasn't always as safe and secure as a mid summer trek up the local Brecon Beacons and a few musical crampons did come loose in parts, but overall it was a satisfying ascent of a descriptive musical peak.

Roger Webster was the first of the four featured soloists, and his lovely sense of lyrical phrasing was evident in Caccini's ‘Ave Maria', with a special mention to Kevin Crockford's rock solid soprano introduction – all starting on a superbly centered top B start.  Meanwhile, Michael Garasi's enjoyable treatment of ‘Finiculi, Finicula' bobbed along with a frothy sense of the compound style  - all cappuccino and ice cream memories for the audience from the days when every Welsh town had an Italian café on its high street.

Faure's ‘Pavane' was a little too comfortable in dynamic to really set the hairs on the back of the neck on end – at times during the evening Grimethorpe seemed reluctant to really make the most of their unquestioned ability to play really quietly, and Martin Armstrong was a robust lead in the ‘Finale for the Strauss Horn Concerto No 1' which was taken at a fair old lick – at times it didn't quite always knit with the ensemble.

That just left the band to round off the first half by opening up the gunnels with a powerful rendition of Snell's ‘Procession to the Minster' that featured some fine flugel playing from Andy Holmes and Kevin Crockford once more clearing the ear wax of the hard of hearing. 

A short interlude, soft drinks, Welsh banding gossip and raffle tickets later and Grimey were back with a slightly static ‘The New Colonial March' that didn't quite have that swagger really need for it to shine and a somewhat straight laced ‘The Lady is a Tramp' that perhaps paid too much respect to the non conformist Methodists in the audience (Aberdare is in the heart land of the Welsh bible belt).  The local vicar would have enjoyed this one more than the bar fly's in the nearby pubs.

Richard Brown then stepped up to deliver a rather idiosyncratic version of ‘The Acrobat', that would have had old JA Greenwood spinning in his grave, but found great favour with the audience before two examples of top quality brass band playing with the John William ‘Hymn to the Fallen' and ‘Nimrod' from the ‘Enigma Variations' – both played with a superb rich tone, clarity of balance and cultured phrasing.

Michael Dodd then delivered an exceptional piece of controlled euphonium work with ‘Harlequin' where the clarity and precision of the technical work was a joy to behold in these days of bluff and camouflage, before he was joined by Martin Armstrong, Andy Holmes and Bob Blackburn (nice to see him enjoying himself once more) for the ubiquitous ‘Irish Blessing'.

All that was left was for a cracking blast through ‘Entry of the Gods into Valhalla' complete with the bass end rocking the floors of the old hall and a treat in the form of a stylised encore of ‘Death or Glory' that really did have a swagger to it.

A fine night and a fine old band, well directed and in good form, even if they sweated a bit more than they hoped for. Jayne Thomas of Burry Port Band, who organised the evening should be proud of her efforts and the good folk of Aberdare and beyond supported a very fine cause too.

Iwan Fox.   

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