Great Northern Brass Arts Gala Concert

Brighouse & Rastrick, Fodens, Black Dyke
Conductors: David King, Garry Cutt, Nicholas Childs
Soloists: Stephen Walsh, John Barber, David Thornton, Alex Kerwin
Bridgewater Hall
Saturday 5th September

There was a near capacity full house in waiting as Brighouse & Rastrick took to the stage for the Gala Concert on Saturday night.

Return of the King

Perhaps they had been told of the return of the King – the banding version not the biblical one that is – although the effect can sometimes be the same.   The multitude of followers was not to be disappointed either.

Right from the word go – the MD strode on with a sense of musical purpose that was palpable – Brighouse were on red alert.

A coruscating whip through the overture ‘Colas Breugnon’ by Kabalevsky set the bar pretty high it must be said, and despite the occasional blip and clip, the MDs sense of drive and musical purpose permeated through the band.

Smiles

It must also be said that David King was enjoying himself too – all smiles and more winks than a one eyed man in a peep show, whilst he was also minus a good shearing of hair too, although unlike Samson it didn’t appear to diminish his musical strength. 

This was immensely impressive stuff – Brighouse in full tilt mode in fact.

Stephen Walsh was the featured soloist on ‘Summer Isles’ – played with a subtle lyricism, whilst the tasteful homage to Goff Richards in ‘Silver Mountain’ was played with drama and colour.

Nostalgia

A touch of 1950s nostalgia was well received with ‘Molly on the Shore’ – helped by a light touch from the middle and a bit of WD40 on the valves of the players, before a rather schmaltzy ‘Hymn to Diana’, that although played with sensitivity never overcame the rather morbid sense of emotional transparency in the writing.   

That just left a whip through the ‘Prelude to the Holberg Suite’, played with a bravura sense of adventure and energy, a sign perhaps of what we may expect come the British Open in a weeks time.

Brighouse left the stage with applause ringing in their ears – it was well deserved.  They are a revitalised band.

Dowager queen

Foden’s meanwhile performed like a dowager queen – as stately as a galleon as Joyce Grenfell used to say.

’Le Carnaval Romain’ was played with authentic brio (and featured a superb bit of euph work from Glyn Williams), but 30 years after Fairey’s win on the piece at the British Open it was apparent that this band was way to good for the monochrome arrangement. 

Kill Bill

John Barber was the featured soloist on ‘All in Love is Fair’, and showed himself to be an authentic bluesy jazzer – all subtle class, whilst the cornet feature on ‘The Green Hornet’ was no real match you thought for Uma Thurman in a yellow jump suit in the film ‘Kill Bill’.   

This was more 'Kill Just William', despite the lad’s best efforts.

A whip through ‘The Waltonian’ march was the perfect side of bluff, although Robert Redhead’s ‘Reflections in Nature’ was something of nothing  - a piece that tried to say something about the universality of everything under the sun, bit instead told you absolutely nothing.

That just left a ripper of ‘Cappricio Espagnol’ – played at a red hot tempo you normally see on a Costa Blanca waiter looking for a quick snog from an slightly drunk holiday rep. By the end the valves were on fire.

Although Foden’s never really got out of third gear on the night, their impressive sense of style and occasional desire to reveal just a touch of their heavyweight class were fully apparent.

Polished

After the break it was left to Black Dyke to conclude proceedings with a rather lightweight set that was as polished as the buttons on their famous jackets.

Fresh from their Antipodean travels, Dyke brushed off the remnants of jet lag and delivered a second half programme that was aimed at providing the type of entertainment audiences who visit Garden Centres and listen to Radio 2 love.

Bang on the money

It was bang on the money though – a fizz bang opener from the pen of Paul Lovatt-Cooper and his ‘Horizons’ perked up the Saga Holiday brigade no end (it was 9.00pm by this time), whilst the robust treatment of the overture to ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ ensured that they were left in no doubt concerning Dyke’s technical brilliance.

Class

David Thornton oozed class with the Rossini ‘Theme and Variations’ (who said air varies were old hat?), before the audience sat back and revelled in memories of their misspent youth and the ‘Kings of Cool’ set that featured ‘The Lady is a Tramp’, ‘That’s Amore’ (with soloists Alex Kerwin and Danny Sinclair putting in claim for RSI of the finger on tuba) and ‘Luck be a Lady’ (which they will hope will be the case we are sure at Symphony Hall on the weekend).

Dyke is no Nelson Riddle Orchestra by any means, but aided by some authentic swing rhythm from Lee Skipsy on drums they do come close.

Bomper

All that was left was a bomper of a run through ‘Pines of Rome’, which saw the legions run amok down the main street of Manchester given the volume at the end, and the crowd pleaser that is ‘Lucerne Song’ played with tongues firmly in cheek.

It rounded off a fine performance from the National Champions that didn’t extend them too much – although the audience left well pleased.

Given that the hall was packed – that would have really pleased Festival organiser Philip Biggs no end.

Iwan Fox

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