Scottish Open Gala Concert

Fountain City & Fair City Singers
Conductors: Joseph Parisi & Marion Neilson
Perth Concert Hall
Friday 27th November

If anyone harboured any doubts about the legitimacy of the challenge that was to come 24 hours later from Fountain City at the Scottish Open Contest, then they would have been well and truly dispelled by their appearance at this Gala Concert on the Friday night.

Intrigue

A small, but enthusiastic audience must have been intrigued by what type of entertainment was in store for them as they milled around the concourse of the hall before the 7.30pm start.

The organisers had opted for the safety first approach of making sure of a sizeable local presence with the inclusion in the line up of the fresh faced youngsters of the Fair City Singers (kids choirs always ensure extra bums on seats), and even though the hall was by no means half full, those who did make the effort to venture out on a cold Perth night were soon warmed through with music making of a very high quality from their American guests.

Urbane

The urbane Joseph Parisi had chosen a well balanced programme that featured a number of the items performed at Brass in Concert a fortnight before, as well as few tasty lollipops from their current goody bag of repertoire. Nothing too heavy or serious, just plenty of easy listening items, played with an admirable polish and a desire to entertain.

Single malt

The tartan trousered Alasdair Hutton (with a voice that seems to have been matured in a vat of 25 year old single malt such was its rich peaty mellowness) was a pleasing compere, and did his best throughout the night to keep the audience informed.

The Fair City Singers meanwhile were a cherub faced bundle of enthusiasm, and whilst they smiled and tapped and sung their little hearts out, there is only so much prepubescent warbling that can keep you entertained.   Some of the items were better than others, but overall they did a valiant job under the direction of their conductor Marion Neilson.

Star

It was the band though that was the undoubted star of the night, with some cracking playing from start to finish and just the one moment when their concentration wandered and they sidestepped potential disaster courtesy of a nifty bit of baton work from the MD.

Thumping

Their opening set of ‘The Gael’, ‘Prelude to the 49th Parallel’ and the march ‘ORB’ was delivered with a thumping confidence, before the second trio of first half pieces of ‘Foggy Day’, the euphonium solo ‘A Little Prayer’ (played with tasteful restraint by Lee Harrelson) and the sultry ‘Malaquena’ saw the band move up through the gears with sparkling ensemble work backing some stunning high screamer work and authentic swing.

The second half started in a bit of a mess, as the band took to the stage in dribs and drabs and the compere got his ‘troosers’ (as they say in these parts) in a tartan twist by introducing the items in the wrong order.

Kindly soul

Mr Parisi being the kindly soul he is, didn’t have the heart to upstage Mr Hutton’s faux-pas, so what we ended up with was an unruly scrabble for the right seats before we finally got to hear an atmospheric ‘Limpid Stream’, a superbly down and dirty ‘Feelin’ Good’ (with some bass trombone playing that was as sleazy as a night out with Tiger Woods) and a composed ‘Ave Maria’.

With the choir doing their bit to keep the audience happy, it was left to the band to round things off with ‘Hora Staccato’ (with that one moment of loss of concentration), a truly witty bit of xylophone magic by Thoe Musick (which perhaps showed that the band missed a trick by not using the item at Brass in Concert) and a real old bit of star spangled Americana in ‘Kansas City’ to close.

Joint item

All that was left was the obligatory joint item – the first (and perhaps most enjoyable) version of ‘Highland Cathedral’ of the weekend.

It left an appreciative audience thoroughly entertained, and the spies from the other competing bands (and there were a few lurking in the shadows) making the trip back to their base camps with a cold chill of reality running down their spines.

24 hours later and Fountain City had claimed the Scottish Open title itself. No one could say they hadn’t been warned. 

Iwan Fox

^back to top