South London Fellowship Band

Conductor: George Whittingham
Featuring: Anthony Harris (vocal)
Hadleigh Temple
Saturday 21st February

Faced with an empty date in the concert calendar following the late withdrawal of another band due to a clash of dates, an approach was made to Major George Whittingham to see whether the South London Fellowship Band could step into the breach. 

Attractive programme

This they willingly did, despite the absence of a couple of players, providing an attractive programme combining the old with the new, including the premiere of a new work from the pen of Norman Bearcroft.

The evening commenced in sparkling style with the march “Bandology” (Eric Osterling, arr Frank Wright) followed by a brisk rendition of “76 Trombones” (Meredith Willson arr W T Dutoit). 

After some brief introductory remarks from Major Whittingham, the band brought the familiar melodies from “Oliver” (Lionel Bart, arr Edrich Siebert), with many in the audience singing along, taking to heart the exhortation to “consider yourself at home”.

Not as planned

It was intended that for prayer at this point in the programme the congregation would be encouraged to join in by singing the words of “God be in my head”, as the band played the 2nd movement of Eric Ball’s suite “The Pilgrim Way”. 

This did not quite turn out as planned, however, as the words failed to appear on the screen, limiting the opportunity for participation to those who were already familiar with the verse.

The band’s Principal Cornet is Alan Moyse from Worthing Citadel, and he stepped forward to present Eric Ball’s solo “Clear Skies”, originally written for Roland Cobb. 

Effective

The band supported him effectively, bringing out the subtleties of the accompaniment and responding well to the conductor’s clear direction, and the soloist received an enthusiastic round of applause at the end of his performance.

Providing contrast with the sound of brass was vocalist Anthony Harris, making a return visit to Hadleigh, as indeed was the band. Anthony is currently studying singing at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and is a member of the Salvation Army’s International Staff Songsters as well as the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. 

Helped development

He had travelled to Hadleigh direct from the Territorial Youth Chorus course in Bournemouth, explaining that he has attended for the past eight years, and telling of how it had helped his development, both musically and spiritually. Accompanied on the piano by Carl Carter, he demonstrated his versatility in presenting two songs, Schubert’s “Serenade” (sung in German) and Roger Quilter’s “O mistress mine”.

The two members of the band who are based at Hadleigh were both featured in solo items. 

Runs

Bram Chesney is the band’s Principal Euphonium, as well as having held positions as both Bandmaster and Songster Leader at the Corps, and he brought a smooth, singing quality to the middle section of Chris Mallet’s “Travelling Along”, whilst dealing with the runs and high tessitura of the outer sections with alacrity.

Dave Harrison, soprano cornet with both Hadleigh and the South London Fellowship Band, was put in the spotlight, along with his solo cornet colleagues, in a brand new cornet feature by Lt Colonel Norman Bearcroft. George Whittingham explained that the music had arrived in the post, with the observation that the composer felt it could suit the band, who were thus giving it its first ever performance just three weeks or so later! 

Entitling the work “Over here and over there” the composer, who is now based in the USA, has drawn together numerous popular airs from both sides of the Atlantic, including such melodies as “There’ll always be an England”, “Yankee Doodle”, “London Bridge is falling down” and “Turkey in the straw”, with a brief quotation from the “New World Symphony” thrown in for good measure. 

Humorous touches

Complete with typically humorous touches, the piece was a great success, despite occasional untidiness in both solo work and accompaniment, and should be a real crowd-pleaser given a little more rehearsal time to polish up the rough edges.

Australian Noel Jones has a real knack in putting together easy-listening selections using familiar melodies, and many in the audience were joining in as the band played “The name of names”, the tunes including “Jesus is the sweetest name I know” and “Jesus, oh how sweet the name”. 

Song

This led into the congregational song “We’re marching to Zion” – complete with the words this time! – followed by the Bible Reading and Message, with Roger Gadsden using the current poster campaign on London’s buses to highlight the supremacy of Christ as “The name above all names”.

Recognising that there would be a number of former bandsmen present in the meeting, George Whittingham had included a real gem from the past in the form of Eric Ball’s air varie “Sound out the proclamation”. 

Opportunity

This gave an opportunity for some finely controlled dynamics, with a heart-felt central “Adagio” drawing some excellent playing from the middle of the band, making considerable use of rubato. It was a vibrant performance that showed off all the sections of the band to good effect, full of excitement and drive.

The tune “Tom Bowling” is probably most familiar due to its use as a cello solo in Henry Wood’s “Fantasia on British Sea Songs”, traditionally included in the Last Night of the Proms. As Anthony sang the lyrics, many found out for the first time that the words speak of a sailor who has passed away, thus helping to account for the melancholy quality of the melody.

Contributions

Anthony’s final two contributions were both drawn from the world of music theatre, commencing with the song “If I loved you”, from “Carousel” (Richard Rodgers), in which he effectively brought out the poignancy of the change to “How I loved you” in the closing bars. 

Lastly came a rousing rendition of “Tonight” from “West Side Story” (Leonard Bernstein), with more sterling work from Carl at the piano. Anthony is a very personable young man with a great gift for communication, and should have a great future as he continues to pursue his musical career.

Final item

The final programmed item from the band was the overture “Excelsior” (Dudley Bright). Dudley, who was featured as soloist on the band’s latest recording, originally wrote the work to be played by a show-band as part of the youth celebrations at a Salvation Army Congress. 

Although penned with young people in mind – and incorporating the theme chorus “World Army Youth” – the members of the band showed that they could match anything the younger generation could do by producing an energetic performance of this attractive music, even if the somewhat solid approach to the pianissimo bass opening was rather too reminiscent of the start of “Dambusters”! 

There was a fine contribution from the flugel in Ray Steadman-Allen’s “Glory to His name”, whilst the chorus “We’ll keep the old flag flying” (as used in Leslie Condon’s march “Celebration”) was taken at a cracking pace in the final section.

Money raised

The purpose of the evening was to raise money towards the provision of wheelchairs and other equipment for people around the world with particular needs, one of the Hadleigh bandsmen, Ken Ballard, being involved in arranging transportation. 

Amongst the thanks given was a special mention for Peter Edwards, who had organised the event, and a number of representatives from the charity concerned, who had travelled from Canterbury for the concert. 

The band then ended the evening with Eric Ball’s “Star Lake”, another piece written with young people in mind, but one which has definitely stood the test of time.

Peter Bale

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