Gwent Music Support Services Annual Concert

Greater Gwent Youth Band; Greater Gwent Intermediate Band
Conductors: Philip Harper, Christopher Turner
County Hall, Cwmbran
Sunday 4th January

It may not have say the cache of the New Year’s Day musical celebrations in Vienna, but the good folk of South Wales can always wear their best Christmas prezzie jumpers and matching scarf sets to the annual Gwent Music Support Service Brass Band Concert.

And by heck they needed them too this year, as the miserly councillors in Cwmbran had decided to keep the heating on Summer time rations at County Hall. Any colder in the hall and the gritters would have been needed to have been called in to stop people slipping on ice as they made their way to their seats. 

Anniversary

This year is the 49th anniversary of the formation of the Gwent Youth Band. Today, despite innumerable local government upheavals and reorganisations, the four main county councils of Blaenau Gwent, Monmouth, Newport and Torfaen support it under the umbrella Gwent Music Support Service banner.  

The annual concert provides the Intermediate and Youth bands with the opportunity to showcase the musical fruits of their annual course, which this year also included the recording of a CD to be released in time for the 2010, 50th anniversary celebrations.

Despite the potential for the first case of frostbite to be recorded in these parts since the winter of 1963, it turned out to be a musically warming afternoon of entertainment.

Enthusiasm

The Intermediate Band under the direction of Chris Turner provided plenty of enthusiasm and endeavour in their opening half of selected pieces from those they had been working on during the past few days.

With an eye to long term development and encouragement there was something for everyone to enjoy in the lightweight fare, neatly directed by the MD, from the breezy (perhaps not the right word given the temperature) ‘Percussive Prelude’ right through to the rhythmic style and adventure in ‘A Knight’s Trail’, with a finale that owed more than a touch of inspiration to the old pot boiling ‘Sabre Dance’.

Some nicely shaped playing from the Musical ‘Chess’ and a quick detour to the warmer climes of the African Savannah in ‘Jambo Africa’ paved the way for their best playing on ‘Nobility of Youth’ by Edward Gregson. Just to get the feeling back in the fingers and toes though, the band rounded off their contribution with a rousing 'Supercali' (you know the rest) from Mary Poppins via the magic musical crayon of Paul Lovatt Cooper.

Hot soup

With sales of hot soup from the vending machines injecting much needed warmth into the veins Philip Harper took to the stage with the Greater Gwent Youth Band and a second half that showed that the current crop of 74 players has a great deal of potential, even if at times, it is in need of careful long term nurturing.

The upbeat ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ got things off to a flying start, although the following ‘Suo Gan’ did stray into tuning problems from the word go and ‘Castle Caerfilli’ lost the odd brick or two from the ramparts.

Centre piece

It was the centre piece ‘Venta Silurum’ however that was of greatest interest.

Commissioned from Philip Harper by Gwent Music Services with additional funds from Ty Cerdd for the 50th anniversary celebrations, the four movement composition sets out to musically portray the four county council areas (you can never get far away from petty politicking in these parts – all demand their bit of glory) and is a cleverly realised and enjoyable concert work, even if the composer’s inspiration relied on a rather tangential interpretation of local history.

From the fanfare and splendour of the castles of Monmouthshire, through the grim industrialisation of Blaenau Gwent, the secluded beauty of Torfaen (despite the Pontypool Front Row homage) and the bustle of future promise in all things bright and shiny in Newport, ‘Venta Silurum’ is a colourful and worthy way in which 50 years of music making in a diverse area of South Wales should be remembered.

Fouzends of 'em

With a few more hours of recording still left to do for the hard working students after this concert, the last few pieces were tasty lollipops, although the finale, the preposterous arrangement of ‘The Battle for Rorke’s Drift’ was more akin to Mickey’s Rourke’s midriff in the film ‘The Wrestler’ than anything remotely approaching Stanley Baxter and the lads of the 24th Foot.

The arrangement is so bad it makes you long for a home victory for the Zulus – despite there famously being ‘fouzends of ‘em’. Not even the brave playing of these spirited Welsh lads and lasses was enough to save the outpost on this stinker, which was as musically accurate as Michael Cane’s accent in the film itself. 

Still – we all headed for home whistling ‘Men of Harlech’ and blowing into our frozen hands to get warm after another concert of encouraging promise.  There is plenty to be musically proud about in Greater Gwent, even if we could do with someone putting an extra shilling or two in the gas meter in time for next year’s concert.

Iwan Fox

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