Festival of Remembrance

Hadleigh Temple
Saturday 3rd November 2007

Hadleigh Temple Band (Ken Hillson), Hadleigh Temple Songsters (Paul Hillson),
Hadleigh Temple Singing Company (Marion Still), Hadleigh Temple Timbrels (Irene Ivory), Royal Naval HMS Nelson Volunteer Band and Corps of Drums (Band Colour-Sergeant Neil Sylvester [RM]), Trillogy 

Following the visit of the RAF Wytton Area Voluntary Band for the inaugural Festival of Remembrance at Hadleigh in 2006, the guests for 2007 were the Royal Navy Volunteer Band from HMS Nelson, under the leadership of their Musical Director Band Colour Sergeant Neil Sylvester (RM).  

They were accompanied by their own Corps of Drums, and were assisted by players from HMS Collingwood and HMS Sultan, deputising for regular instrumentalists who were absent due to holidays or naval duties.  The band marched into the hall as Hadleigh Temple Band, under the baton of Bandmaster Ken Hillson, played the Royal Naval March Past, “Heart of Oak”.  

Once in position, the two bands combined to present the “British Legion March”, taken at a suitably dignified pace as the colours of The Royal British Legion, The Air Training Corps, The Salvation Army and the Union Flag moved onto the platform.

Following the playing of the “National Anthem”, the massed bands, seated side by side in the body of the hall,  continued with Kenneth Alford’s stirring march “Army of the Nile”, the brass and woodwind sounds blending together quite effectively, before Hadleigh’s Commanding Officer, Major Noel Wright, gave some words of welcome to both participants and audience. 

The first solo item from the navy band was “The Music of George Gershwin”, arranged by Lt Col Trevor Sharpe, featuring such familiar melodies as “The man I love”, “Strike up the band”, “Embraceable you”, “They can’t take that away from me”, “’s Wonderful” and closing with an extract from “Rhapsody in Blue”.  

The nature of volunteer bands in the forces is such that the instrumentation varies, dependent on the available players at the particular establishment, and any naval duties which may impinge on the engagement list.  On this occasion the band’s regular alto sax player was deputising on oboe, leaving the tenor sax a little isolated, and the ever-present keyboard was occasionally a little too prominent.

The young members of Hadleigh Temple Singing Company, led by Marion Still, presented two songs which spoke of the confidence and assurance one can feel when one knows that one is cared for by God.  The first of these, the lively “On this rock”, was a setting of words by Philip Coutts to music by Peter Graham, whilst the second, the more reflective “I am His child”, was written by Moses Hogan.

HMS Nelson’s second contribution was entitled “Dixieland Jamboree”.  Arranged by John Warrington and spot-lighting a solo quintet consisting of clarinet, tenor sax, trumpet, trombone and tuba, it linked together three well-known jazz tunes: “Copenhagen”, “Basin Street Blues” and “When the Saints go marching in”.  

The soloists were mainly featured in solo lines accompanied by the full band, although they appeared on their own at the start of “When the Saints”, which also included a rather military-sounding side drum feature, which seemed somewhat out of context.

Having tapped their feet to the previous item, the audience were encouraged to sing along with a medley entitled ”Songs that won the war”.  Arranged by Michael McDermott, who has been responsible for many such items written for the Royal Marines’ Mountbatten Festivals held annually at the Royal Albert Hall, the tunes included were “Run rabbit, run”, “Wish me luck”, “White cliffs of Dover”, “A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square”, “Lay down your arms”, “There’ll always be an England”, “In the mood” – no words for that one! – and “We’ll meet again”.  

Before conducting the opening bars Neil Sylvester warned any old soldiers present that if they knew any other versions of the words they should ignore them, and stick to the official ones as they appeared on the screen!  The combined brass and wind orchestration worked quite well, although there were times when one missed the full French horn section of the original version, the single French horn being somewhat swamped by the tenor horns, baritones and euphoniums of the united bands.

Bob Lowden’s “Big Band Bash” drew together several numbers from the big band era, “Artistry in rhythm”, “Tuxedo Junction”, “Moonlight serenade”, “Take the A train”, and “One o’clock jump”.  On the whole, the Glenn Miller numbers were the most successful, although there was some fine flute paying in the opening “Artistry in rhythm”.  

At the conclusion special thanks was given to percussionist Wayne Alderton from Southend Citadel.  A frequent guest player with Hadleigh Band, he had been roped in at the last minute to play with HMS Nelson as well and did a grand job, sight-reading much of the programme.

There was a change of timbre as Hadleigh Band provided the backing for the dozen members of Hadleigh Temple Timbrels in their display to Dudley Bright’s vibrant march “Assignment”.  Marching smartly to the platform to drum accompaniment, they proceeded to give a scintillating display, matching their movements well to the at times angular and syncopated nature of the music.

The main speaker for the evening was the Reverend Roland Wort, a member of the Chaplaincy team at Portsmouth, who reflected on the nature of peace, and how real peace was much more than simply the absence of war, incorporating such ideals as the removal of poverty, homelessness, abuse and persecution.  

He closed by quoting Jesus’ words recorded in the sermon on the mount, extolling the merits of the peacemakers, reminding the audience that Jesus was speaking as his listeners were suffering under occupation by a hated foreign power, and pointing to the need for peacemakers today in the home, the workplace and in the community.   

Introducing Les Condon’s festival march “Celebration” which followed, Bandmaster Hillson referred to the chorus featured in the final section, “We’ll keep the old flag flying”, suggesting that on this occasion the audience could think not only of the Salvation Army flag, but of the freedom to fly ones own national flag, won at such a cost.

Under their leader, Songster Leader Paul Hillson, Hadleigh Songster Brigade presented two songs in contrast, Ian Robinson’s sparkling “He is exalted” and Richard Smallwood’s gospel style “Total Praise”, which gradually built up through the final section to a resounding “Amen”.

The female vocal trio Trillogy are frequent visitors to Hadleigh Temple, and never disappoint with their professional approach and presentation.  On this occasion, only two members were able to appear, prompting Ken Hillson to suggest they should change their name to “Duality”.  

Although this necessitated a slight change in the advertised programme, Hilary Pell and Vanessa Couzens nevertheless proceeded to enchant the audience with their singing and professional presentation.  Dressed in matching turquoise dresses, they sang a duet version of “Lullaby of Broadway” – complete with quote from “Give my regards to Broadway” - before Hilary’s idiomatic solo rendition of Jerome Kern’s “Can’t help lovin’ dat man”.  

Their first set concluded with Gershwin’s “I got rhythm”, including the little known verse.  Sterling support was provided by their pianist Andrew Palmer, and they were joined in some items by Christopher Carter on bass guitar and Anthony Sommerville on drums, both members of Hadleigh Band.

The HMS Nelson Corps of Drums are currently the six-times champions at the Royal Navy’s annual festival which draws together the nine volunteer bands, eight shore-based and one ship-based, and are hoping to go for an unprecedented seventh consecutive victory.  

Marching in to W Zehle’s march “Trafalgar” they took their places on the tiered platform, bass drum and lead side drum to the rear, with the remaining four side drummers in front.  Following their display to the march they proceeded to further demonstrate their skills, beating a sequence of “Mess Calls”, with some particularly crisp playing from their lead player, the effect heightened by the tight heads used on the drums.  

As they marched off to R B Hall’s “New Colonial” they were warmly applauded by an appreciative audience.

Following a brief Service of Remembrance, led by Major Wright, the “Last Post” was sounded by a bugler from the HMS Nelson Band, at which point poppy leaves descended from the ceiling.  

After the period of silence, “Reveille” was sounded by Hadleigh’s Principal Cornet Keith Johnston, before the HMS Nelson band rounded off this part of the evening with an arrangement of the hymn “All through the night”.  This setting by Sammy Nestico, best known through his work with the Count Basie Orchestra, but also at various times Staff Arranger with both the US Marines and the US Air Force, preceded the band’s final contribution, a symphonic suite based on Klauss Badelt’s music for the film “Pirates of the Caribbean”.  

For this, the players each donned a paper pirate’s hat, Neil Sylvester prefacing their performance with the comment: “Why are we going to play it? . . . Because we aaargh!” to accompanying groans all round.  

The selection itself, incorporating five themes from the film – “The Medallion Calls”, “The Black Pearl”, “To the pirate’s cave”, “The last shot” and “He’s a pirate” – produced some of the best playing of the evening from the band, with solos from French horn and tenor sax, and a real sense of growing excitement as the music moved through various changes of metre and pulse.

Trillogy’s final set commenced with a version of “Falling in love again” that almost eclipsed memories of Marlene Dietrich, followed by a change to the printed programme, as Vanessa presented a sultry solo version of Gershwin’s “The man I love”.  They ended with a lively duet rendition of “Chattanooga Choo Choo”, complete with movement that would have done the Andrews sisters proud.

Band Sergeant John Ashcroft delivered a vote of thanks to those who had organised the event and taken part, making particular mention of the mastermind behind the evening, Robin Bryant.  He also acknowledged the presence of Majors Malcolm and Margaret Watkins, responsible for the Salvation Army’s Red Shield work providing support to the forces in the UK, Germany and the Falklands.  

The final speaker was the Chairman of Essex County Council, Councillor Gerard McEwen, and there was an emotional moment as he recalled his family receiving the news that his 20 year old cousin had been shot by a sniper during the Second World War.  He also spoke of having attended a thanksgiving service in Colchester for the safe return of troops who had served in the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and reinforced the call for people to do what they can to work for peace in the world.

The final item from the massed bands was Captain Shillito’s “Britannic Salute”, combining “Rule Britannia” with a verse of “Land of Hope and Glory”, before the flags made their exit to a reprise of the “British Legion March”.  The evening seemed to have struck just the right balance between Remembrance and Celebration, and looks set to become a regular feature on the corps calendar.

Peter Bale

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