Greater Gwent Music Service Annual Concert

Greater Gwent Intermediate Band; Greater Gwent Youth Band
Conductors: Chris Turner & Ian Porthouse
Guest Soloist: Steven Mead
County Hall, Cwmbran
Wednesday 2nd January

It’s always nice to start off the brass band year with a concert that puts a smile on the face. 

A packed main auditorium at the County Council’s County Hall in Cwmbran saw the annual concert of the Greater Gwent Youth and Intermediate Bands under the direction of Chris Turner with guest conductor Ian Porthouse and featuring soloist, Steven Mead.

Now fast approaching its 50th year, the concert features the talents of children and youngsters brought together under the auspices of the Gwent Music Support Services led by Alun F Williams and his team.

It is perhaps one of the best music services in the UK. Four individual council authorities – Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen, took the sensible decision to pool resources at the time of local government re-organisation to ensure that an already impressive peripatetic service was maintained and enhanced.

Councillors (and there were more than enough gold chains on display to fill a Jim’ll Fix it convention on the night) know its one of the better decisions they have made over the years – especially when certain parts of each of their individual domains has areas of quite acute economic and social deprivation. It’s a bit of a vote winner.

As always at an event like this, the audience was made up of the great and the good, (very nice to see Robert Morgan MBE of the BFBB making a trip over the Severn to enjoy himself) the proud (parents and grandparents by the bucket full) and the tearful (just about everyone else).

The ‘aah’ factor was provided by the Intermediate Band, packed to the gunnels with dwts (a very Welsh word to describe the smallest of kids) who sprung up like early season daffodils and were knee high to a timpani.

Led by the personable Chris Turner (who is usually seen on a concert platform as bumper up with Cory) they provided the audience with an intelligently chosen programme of pieces that allowed them to both show off a little, as well as provide evidence that they had been pushed towards their limits too.

Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s circus march ‘The Big Top’ was a cracking little opener, and was followed by a warm ‘Hine e Hine’, dedicated by the MD to his new born daughter Carys.

Guest soloist Steven Mead romped on to the stage to deliver a thoroughbred run through ‘Blaydon Races’, before the band rounded off their programme with a stirring ‘Magnificent Seven’, compact ‘Festival Suite’ and the colourful, percussion led, ‘African Funk’.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable series of items, with a number of individual players in particular catching the ear. There was also a noticeable precision about the ensemble too – sometimes a little wayward of course, but overall a credit to the MD and his team of tutors.

With the audience already wanting more, six of the dwts raced away to return marching in time for the encore, ‘Mickey Mouse March’, complete with choreography and authentic high pitched vocals. The result was the audience going bonkers and a deserved standing ovation.

With a short break to catch your breath (and for those proud parents of the Intermediate Band to embarrass their off spring by kissing them to death in public) it was back for the second half.

The Greater Gwent Youth Band has gained itself a fine reputation over the years, and although the current band is yet to reach its potential (the turn over of players lost to university etc in the past year has been huge according to Alun F Williams), there was enough evidence on the night to show that the immediate future is bright indeed.

At least 16 of the current band will play with the National Youth Brass Band of Wales with a further 10 on the reserve list, whilst later this year the band will travel to Poland for a series of concerts with the combined forces of Gwent’s youth orchestra and choir. 

Ian Porthouse proved to be a popular choice as guest MD for this course and his rapport with both his players and the audience led to an enjoyable, if extended, second half of entertainment.

A bold Fanfare Prelude on ‘Lobe den Herren’ was followed by a warm and balanced ‘Canterbury Chorale’ and a well controlled run through Peter Graham’s tricky ‘Renaissance’.

Steven Mead had certainly come not only to showcase his talents, but also to provide the band with a bit of a virtuoso challenge too and it was good to hear them provide excellent accompaniment on ‘Lyric Variations’ – a difficult piece for both soloist and band.

With Steven ensuring the ‘over 50’s’ were catered for with ‘Be My Love’ he then asked more of the players with Gulda’s ever so slightly bonkers ‘Concerto for Cello’ – a mix of 1970’s guitar twang sugar puff and chamber music. The band loved it (and played it very well indeed) and so did the audience – who recognised that they had been educated as well as entertained. 

As a ‘lollipop’ to take home though he rounded his contribution off with a party trick – variations on ‘Facilita’ (amongst others) that simply took the breath away – some of the things he did were surely illegal!

Back to the band and a neatly played ‘Gaelic Blessing’ and up beat ‘Caravan’ before a spirited display of percussion virtuosity in ‘Tea for Two’ and a rousing, if slightly tired, ‘Procession to the Minster’. An encore was demanded of course and ‘Funky Brass’ complete with choreography (and some excellent individual contributions) rounded the night off in splendid fashion. 

Lots to enjoy then as the audience made its way into the cold Welsh night wrapped up snugly in new Christmas coats and scarves and with smiles on their faces like the beaming headlights of their cars.

Bev Rowson

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