National Old Boys of Scotland

Conductor: Philip McCann
Leckie Church, Peebles
Saturday 7th November

With over 1,200 years of brass banding experience on stage, you would have to think that the first concert of a new band would be something special - it was! 

NOBBS out

The inaugural concert of the National Old Boys Brass Band of Scotland or, as it is affectionately known, NOBBS, took place in a packed Leckie Church last Saturday (7th) in the Scottish Borders town of Peebles. 

The band is the brainchild of Whitburn Band’s solo horn player, Ian Fleming, initially as a concert to celebrate his father, Archie’s 80th birthday. As momentum for the concert grew, so did the ideas behind the concept, and a charity was picked to benefit from the proceeds of the concert – Prostrate Cancer Scotland. 

Cancer

As prostrate cancer affects only men, and normally those over the age of 40, membership to the band was easily defined - men over the age of 40!

The band took to the stage under the musical direction of Phillip McCann, and from the opening bars of Sandy Smith’s arrangement of Jim Swearington’s lively Valero, the National Old Boys Brass Band of Scotland was launched. 

Tuba virtuoso, Les Neish, who had popped into Peebles after adjudicating the East of Scotland Solo and Ensemble Championships earlier in the day, gave an impromptu multi-phonic rendition of Happy Birthday for Archie Fleming (complete with words – how does he do it?), which made everyone present smile.

Love

The first soloist of the evening was the current Scottish Solo Champion, Charles (Chic) Cullen, playing the Gordon Langford arrangement of My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose, after which he was joined by the rest of the members of the cornet section for an encore, Leroy Anderson’s Buglers Holiday. 

There was to be another first on the evening with a world première performance of West Saville by Paul Drury; this lively, cheerful march is sure to be a popular choice with many bands in the future. 

Fantastic performance

Chris Bradley had swapped his cornet for the flugel for the evening, and he gave a fantastic performance of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez,arranged by Kevin Bolton, before the first half was brought to a speedy end with Royal Border Bridge from Arthur Butterworth’s Three Impressions for Brass.

The second half of the concert opened with Eric Coates’ march, The Dam Busters, and then featured Phillip McCann as a soloist playing the beautiful All That I Am, followed by his trademark Post Horn Gallop. 

Encores

Among other items, Iain Davey, principal euphonium of Newtongrange Silver, gave a quite stunning performance of Alan Catherall’s arrangement of Carnival of Venice before the NOBBS ended the concert with Howard Snell’s timeless transcription of the march from Pines of Rome, which brought the audience to its feet, only to be satisfied with a pair of encores in Allan Street’s Skirl and the finale from William Tell.

Although the band has a very tongue-in-cheek acronym, there is also a serious side to it - to raise awareness in men of the symptoms of prostrate cancer, now the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK. 

It is to be hoped that this first concert for NOBBS won’t be the last, and the four-figure sum raised will go towards research into the potentially terminal condition guaranteed that the night was a huge success.

Steven Craig

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