A Film Themed Concert

Cranbrook Town Band performed at St. Dunstan’s Church on Sunday 17th May as part of the church’s fundraising Music Festival. The concert was themed on music from Films and also featured our two Training Bands.

We were finally able to perform  “Hollywood” by Goff Richards,  which we had rehearsed for contesting purposes earlier in the year but when we had to pull out of the scaba Spring contest due to player illness, we wondered if our efforts rehearsing this piece  would ever be put to use, however as a concert opener it certainly hit the mark and everyone enjoyed the belated performance.

You can hear the programme in full from our YouTube page or use the playlist in the tab after a few words from our MD.

The next Sunday will see us play once again at the Kent Gardening Show at Detling Hill, Maidstone where we will be performing 3 sets throughout the day.

All three of the Band’s groups the Foundation Band, the Training Band and the Senior Band performed at our Annual Concert to end the St. Dunstan’s Festival. The themed concert revolved around music from film and video and featured pieces representing all of the eras since the beginning of Hollywood.

The first half commenced with Goff Richards’ ‘Hollywood’ which, whilst having no actual film themes in it, covers most of the film genres.

Second up was Johnny Ball’s well received arrangement of some of the songs from the Elton John biopic ‘Rocketman’.

The first solo spot was actually a cornet trio written by Pip Hall and featuring Russell Kemp,
Gareth Burrows and Siân Lanceley. ‘Music for a Silent Movie’ is a pastiche of the madcap Buster Keaton era which involves some rapid note playing and many over the top percussion sounds.

Philip Harper’s excellent arrangement of ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ from the Queen biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ followed in short order.

There was a change of mood and pace with the programme’s second solo item. This featured our Principal Euphonium player, David Newsom, who gave a lovely rendition of ‘The Way We Were’ from the film of the same name.

Alan Fernie’s selection of tunes from ‘The Lion King’ changed the tempo once again with the audience thoroughly enjoying the many varied styles within the piece.

Sadly, the Band recently lost one of its absolute stalwarts. Graeme McAusland, one of our 2nd cornet players, sadly passed away suddenly recently and the next piece, ‘Amazing Grace – one of his favourites – was dedicated to him. Graeme’s contribution to the band over more than 20 years was enormous and he will be greatly missed.

The first half concluded with another Goff Richards classic, ‘A Disney Fantasy’. This splendid piece contains many of the famous favourites from the early Disney era and is always a hit with audiences – especially when it’s played as well as it was in this concert.

The Foundation Band which has children as young as eight, many of whom only started learning to play last September, began the second half after the interval. They performed two pieces, ‘When the Saints’ and ‘Colonel Bogey’ and were an absolute delight to both see and hear. It is always amazing to see how quickly these youngsters progress and many thanks are due to Charlotte O’Neil for the efforts that she and her indispensable adult helpers put in every week.

The Training Band took their places for a three piece set next. The Training Band consists of young people who have graduated from The Foundation Band as well as some adult learners. Their set included ‘Baba Yetu’, ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ and ‘Born to be Wild’. All of the pieces that the group plays are arranged by myself to provide suitable challenges for every member. As a result of this drive, eight of the current members of the Senior Band have graduated from the Training Band ranks over recent years. The weekly dedicated help and assistance of members of the Senior Band is greatly appreciated by myself as MD and everyone associated with the Training Band – there is no doubt that progress would be much slower without it.

The final section of the programme once again featured the Senior Band who began, much to the audience’s amusement, with the Trombone section wandering on in nun’s habits to give an excellent performance of ‘I Will Follow Him’ from the film ‘Sister Act’.

Philip Harper’s haunting and powerful arrangement of ‘Somewhere’ from ‘West Side Story’ changed the mood and gave the audience a further chance to further hear Jon Voakes’ lovely trombone playing.

For the final solo slot Alan Smithers, the Band’s Principal Horn and joint longest serving member gave us a beautiful rendition of ‘Over the Rainbow’, in Ray Farr’s arrangement of this classic piece of film music from ‘The Wizard of Oz’.

Michael Kamen’s score for ‘Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves’ was next up as the penultimate piece in the concert. The Band’s rendition of this arrangement by Kurt van der Woude captured the excitement of the original nicely.

The final piece in the concert programme was Ron Cooper’s stunning arrangement of the themes from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest. The audience reaction was especially good for this and it was a great way to round off the afternoon.

It was particularly nice that so many people took the time to speak and express their congratulations to both myself and other members of the Band both at the break and at the end of the concert. It’s really reassuring to know that the hard work put in by everyone was thoroughly enjoyed.

First Half

• • • Hollywood
    • Rocket Man
    • Music for a Silent Movie
    • Don’t Stop Me Now
    • The Way We Were
    • The Lion King
    • Amazing Grace
    • A Disney Fantasy
    • Foundation Band –
      • Colonel Bogey
      • When the Saints go Marching
    • Training Band –
      • Bab Yetu
      • Crazy Little Thing Called Love
      • Born to be Wild
    • I will Follow Him
    • ⁠Somewhere from West Side Story
    • Over the Rainbow 
    • Robin Hood
    • Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest