An afternoon at the Movies !

Sometimes a concert goes so well that it’s difficult to know where to start when writing about it!
Sunday 18th May 2005 was one of those days when all three of the Band’s groups played really well throughout the concert – not just well, but exceptionally so!The concert was film music based and began with the ‘20th Century Fox Fanfare’ followed immediately by Steve Sykes’ arrangement of John Williams ‘Epic Themes’. ‘Schindler’s List’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ finished the concert’s tribute to John Williams.It is 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi Concentration and Death Camps, and so the Band wished to recognise the sacrifice and suffering that millions of people underwent.

Disney followed in the form of ‘The Bare Necessities’ from ‘The Jungle Book’. Ably played by Geoff Collins as an Eb Bass solo and accompanied by lots of shenanigans around the band, the piece (like the rest of the programme) went down very well with the large and enthusiastic audience. ‘Into the Unknown’ is perhaps the most well known of the songs in ‘Frozen 2’. Natasha Lanceley has made a superb arrangement of this which is a delight to play and listen to. This short Disney section concluded with a super rendition of the haunting ‘Beautiful’ from 2005’s ‘Kong’.

There have been many Batman films but my personal preference is ‘Batman the Movie’ from 1989 starring Michael Keaton. The band thoroughly enjoyed performing Alan Catherall’s arrangement of Danny Elman’s music from the film. A little more Disney in the form of ‘Evermore’ from the film ‘Beauty and the Beast’ followed. Alan Menken wrote the score and Phillip Harper has arranged as a Tenor Horn solo which was exquisitely played by Alan Smithers, the Band’s Solo Horn. The first half of the concert concluded with the brass band classic MacArthur Park. Beetlejuice 2, from 2024 gave the Band the opportunity to play Alan Catherall’s amazing arrangement of Jimmy Webb’s composition.

The Foundation Band took to the stage straight after the interval. Most of the youngsters in the group have only been playing for a few months and have made incredible progress under the tutelage of Charlotte O’Neil. There are also several adult learners or “returners” to playing within the group as well as several Senior Band member who turn up every week to help out. The Foundation Band performed ‘Royal March of the Lion’ and ‘The Elephant’ from Saint-Saens ‘Carnival of the Animals’.

The Training Band, which consists mainly of youngsters who have graduated from the Foundation Band, but also several more advanced adult learners, performed 4 pieces – Wallace and Gromit’, ‘The Acrobat’, ‘King of the Road’ and a selection from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. All of the pieces were arranged especially for the group with the intention of stretching the players individually as well as collectively and the more than rose to the challenge. Accompanying a soloist is a difficult skill to master and the group did exceptionally well in ‘The Acrobat’ where Ned Newsom shone as the trombone soloist.

The Senior Band retook the stage with Ray Farr’s arrangement of JS Bach’s ‘Toccata in D minor’. This is a difficult piece to play well, especially to return to the stage after an interval break, but the Band gave it a rousing rendition which almost removed the roof of the church. It has been used in a great many films including ‘20’000 Leagues Under the Sea’. ‘Somewhere Out There’ from James Horner’s score to ‘An American Tale’ followed in a lovely arrangement by Darrol Barry.

It is virtually impossible and possibly illegal to perform a film music concert without a bit of Bond music so the next piece had to be Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s excellent arrangement of Marvin Hamlisch’s ‘Nobody Does It Better’. Rivalling the Bond franchise is the ‘Mission Impossible’ series of films and this was represented by Alan Fernie’s arrangement of the Lalo Schifrin theme.

The final piece in the concert proper was Chris Bond’s very upbeat version of Marc Shaiman and Scott Whitman’s ‘You Can’t Stop the Beat’ from ‘Hairspray’ which absolutely brought the house down. However, the audience would not let the Band go without playing an encore. Fortunately we had one prepared in the form of Louis Prima’s ‘Sing, Sing Sing’ from, amongst other films, ‘The Benny Goodman Story’.

Thanks must be given to our deps (Andy, Bart, Chris, Hazel, Mike and Natasha) who were covering for holiday and work absence – we would have struggled without you!