|
12 January 2011
News from the Parish Magazine
by Brian Easterbrook
With the commencement of another new year hope springs eternal and we enter a new contest season full of optimism for the future success of the band. Last year will be a hard act to follow as we came 2nd in the Butlins Entertainment section, won the West of England title for only the fourth time in our history and won the Yeovil Entertainment contest after 25 years of trying!
Perhaps like top-flight football teams, success is a fluid entity and the pursuance of excellence can be a moving target. This sometimes leads to replacement of managers and transfer of players, so it is with bands and the last few months have not been without their controversy. On a positive note, the band has put in place a team of excellent conductors with Paul Lovatt-Cooper (composer of the Albert Hall test piece) taking us to Butlins and Yeovil whilst Bob Childs (brother of Nick Childs) will direct at Torquay in our attempt to be the first band to retain the West of England title since the demise of the famous Sun Life band in 1996. Nick Childs returns to direct the band at the Spring Festival in May held at the Blackpool Winter Gardens. Wouldn’t it be a great story if the Childs brothers could pull off the double bubble by winning back-to-back victories in Torquay?
13 December 2011
News from the Parish Magazine
by Brian Easterbrook
After the success of the concert, “We Will Remember Them” a donation of £1704.00 was made to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal. Sadly, it was quite a bit down on last year’s donation but the financial crunch is impacting on all aspects of life so it should come as no surprise that the audience was not as large as last year. Nonetheless, every little helps and I am sure your money will be used wisely to support our brave men and women formerly engaged in the defence of our country.
There have been a couple of false dawns in trying to restart the Woodfalls junior band but signs are encouraging. Former Hyde bandsman, but now a Woodfalls bandsman, Lloyd Rayner, has for many years been running the Hyde Junior Band. Lloyd has now transferred his skills to setting up a junior band at Burgate School where Lloyd works as a brass teacher. They already have a strong group of youngsters attending rehearsals after school every Monday from 6pm until 7:30pm but Lloyd would like to invite any learners or former Woodfalls juniors to call him on 07886 767479 or 01425 652947 with a view to attending. Lloyd is working hard with his youngsters preparing for their performance at the Youth Festival at Trafalgar School on 28th January 2012. Eventually, Lloyd is hoping to harness the support of Woodfalls bandsmen to teach the developing junior band so the connections to Woodfalls Band will hopefully grow organically.
When we reflect on 2011, apart from financial depression, the band will forever remember a year in which we became West of England Champions and Yeovil Entertainment Champions. We have the pictures on the wall to prove it and in years to come we will say …. “That was a good year”!
It only remains for me to thank you one and all for your loyal support, especially the Redlynch Players for their contribution to the remembrance concert and to wish you season’s greetings and all the best for 2012.
For further information contact:
Brian Easterbrook Tel: 01722-710074
e-mail: brian@woodfalls.plus.com
15 November 2011
News from the Parish Magazine
by Brian Easterbrook
After some fear and trepidation, the annual remembrance concert “We Will Remember Them” which this year told the story of a fictional family set to music and which featured at its core, The Redlynch Players succeeded to popular acclaim.
I am reminded by Alvin Weeks that it was the spring of 2000 when we first discussed the possibility of putting on a remembrance concert. The rational was to raise the profile of the band locally with a good quality concert whilst at the same time raising funds for the Poppy Appeal. Eleven years on and after several reinventions from Acker Bilk to “Arf a Mo” and I made the leap of faith to write the fictional story using all the experiences gained from the previous shows. The Redlynch Players embraced my idea with gusto and were enthusiastic in their interpretation of the story. I am particularly grateful to Lloyd Perry for producing the show and Ron Perry and Sarah Newman for their narration of the story but the entire cast was marvelous and totally deserving of the cheers and applause which was spontaneously delivered at the curtain call.
Ideas for next year’s show are already spinning around my brain but I would welcome any input from you the public, after all, it is your show.
You can see the band locally at the Redlynch Club on Sunday 18th December at 8pm but if you can travel, how about a spectacular Christmas Concert at St. Aldhelm’s Church, Bransksome Tel: 01202:571485. The concert will feature the cultured singing voice of Darren Bartlett and the south coast singing group, Salvacosta made up of some of the very best singers from the Salvation Army.
For further information contact:
Brian Easterbrook Tel: 01722 710074
e-mail: brian@woodfalls.plus.com
23 August 2011
News from the Parish Magazine
by Brian Easterbrook
The concert in Romsey Abbey is fast approaching. The programme will be eclectic and will include some of the band’s prize winning programme from earlier in the year when we won the Yeovil entertainment contest and came 2nd in the Butlins entertainment section. The award winning Risca Male Choir will share the platform and sing some of their wonderful Welsh folk songs. The band and choir will combine to produce some soulful sounds in a celebration of brass and voices. The concert takes place on Saturday 17th September. Tel: 01794 512987 for tickets.
This year, I have successfully introduced two extra promotional methods for the concert “We Will Remember Them” on 6th November. The first is a window display in Salisbury Library which, in addition to the concert detail, will also include a strong link to the launch of the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal. If you have experience in dressing shop windows your input would be very much appreciated. My second publicity coup is that Wiltshire Council has agreed to advertise the concert in its Citizen magazine which is distributed to every home in the county. The combination of the window display and the advert leads me to be hopeful that we may be able to put up the sold-out sign – wouldn’t that be great? Call the box office on 01722 434434 now for your tickets.
Later, in October, the band will be competing at the National Brass Band finals in the Royal Albert Hall, London. It would be good to have some local support so if you are a band supporter and you would like to be there to listen how about organizing a supporter’s outing. Admission tickets can be purchased for under £10 and we have a contact for mini-buses so we can assist with ease of travel.
For further information contact:
Brian Easterbrook Tel: 01722 710074
e-mail: brian@woodfalls.plus.com
30 July 2011
News from the Parish Magazine
by Brian Easterbrook
Redlynch Players headline at the City Hall, more later! Perhaps midsummer is a good time to remind you of some of the exciting upcoming band events so that you can put dates in your social diary and hopefully purchase tickets. On Saturday 17th September at 7:30pm the band will be performing for the first time in its history at the splendid Norman Romsey Abbey - one of the finest in Southern England! The concert will also feature Risca Male Choir and tickets are available from Romsey Tourist Information Centre Tel: 01794 512987. We are promoting the concert so please give us your support or we shall be losing money and playing to ourselves!
On Saturday 1st October another first for the band as we play a concert in Shirley Salvation Army where their Songsters will also feature in two slots. The concert starts at 7:00pm and tickets can be purchased from 023 8077 1655.
Saturday 15th October and the band will be at the Royal Albert Hall for the National Brass Band Finals of Great Britain. The band has a lot of fundraising to do for this weekend so if you would like to make a donation just give me a call. We are actively seeking sponsorship for the trip to London, however, we are indebted to our former sponsors, South West Trains, who have very kindly agreed to provide free rail travel for the band’s journey. Incidentally, we’ve been engaged to perform at a number of weddings and anniversaries locally which has helped with fund raising. We are grateful to you for thinking of us for your special event – if you have a special celebration and would like the band to play, again, give me a call.
On Sunday November 6th, we have the annual “We Will Remember Them” concert in Salisbury City Hall at 3pm. This year there is a special reason for you to attend as the Redlynch Players will join the band to help tell the story of “The Days of our Lives”. This promises to be an interesting and memorable concert so if you enjoy nostalgia this is the concert for you. Call the box office on 01722 434434
For further information contact:
Brian Easterbrook Tel: 01722 710074
e-mail: brian@woodfalls.plus.com
14 June 2011
News from the Parish Magazine
by Brian Easterbrook
You remember when I wrote about the band’s forthcoming contest in sunny Blackpool? Well, it was not sunny, actually or metaphorically. Conversely, when we won in Torquay I wrote about the way in which the preparation was faultless and everything went according to plan. Regrettably, every yin has a yang and Blackpool was ours.
It all started a couple of weeks before the contest when one of the percussion players called to say that he had broken his foot whilst walking the dog, that in itself would not have been the end of the world had it not have been for the fact that we were already one percussionist short of a full set which on that occasion should have been four! I must have called every player in the south and some further beyond before we eventually found one in Norway and another in a local army band. Two days before we left for Blackpool another player called to say his wife had to have an emergency operation and so he could not travel, after some hurried rescoring of parts we left for Blackpool.
On arrival we were called to say the operation had gone well and said payer would be traveling overnight, this could have been positive news were it not for the fact that it was too late to change things back –we were very glad that the operation was successful! On arrival in Blackpool we discovered that the entire seafront road was closed to traffic and guess what, our rehearsal room was at the opposite end of the seafront (7 miles long) to the venue. A rehearsal was planned for Saturday morning at 9am but when we got there we were told that a car full of bandsmen was stuck at the hotel because the driver had snapped the ignition key so the rehearsal was delayed pending arrival of car full of bandsmen. The car was eventually started and arrived at the rehearsal at the same time as the news of our order of draw which was the dreaded number one. Corporal Jones impersonations rang out with cries of “don’t panic”. There was no time to pack away so we just grabbed what we needed and set off to the venue without the use of the seafront road – nightmare! We were due on stage at 10am and players were seen running down the street with tubas on shoulders at 9:50. As band number one we eventually played the National Anthem at 10:10 followed by the hardest test piece know to man and retired to the bar to await our fate. At about 5pm and several beers later we were informed that we had come 17th out of 20 and were to be relegated.
After four wins in six it is humbling to be brought down to earth – perhaps we can use this as a wake-up call before we head for London in October and the National Finals at the Royal Albert Hall.
26 May 2011
News from the Parish Magazine
by Brian Easterbrook
After the warmest April since records began and summer just around the corner it may seem a little premature to be thinking about the autumn but forward planning is essential when promoting a concert. I am, of course, talking about the annual “We Will Remember Them” which is promoted jointly by the Royal British Legion and the Woodfalls Band.
I was hoping to put on the Karl Jenkins “Armed Man”; some said it was a little highbrow but I believed it to be very accessible and I am sure you would have enjoyed it but it was not to be. Despite my best efforts, I could not find a choir with the time to prepare the 40 minute work – maybe next year?
Perhaps it is just as well for I have now come up with a theme that is not too removed from the tried and tested which I hope will be very popular with our supportive audience. It will be called “The Days of our Lives” and will be a nostalgic look back at the events and music that punctuated our lives. Dick Barton rides again and workers will come out to play, Glenn Miller is sure to make a touch down and nightingales will sing once more in Berkeley Square when we’ll meet again at the City Hall on Sunday 6th November at 3:00p.m.
Tickets are held at £12 each with concessions of £2. Children enter for just £5. Tel: Box office on 01722434434.
For further information contact:
Brian Easterbrook Tel: 01722-710074 e-mail: brian@woodfalls.plus.com
12 April 2011
News from the Parish Magazine
by Brian Easterbrook
In the autumn of 1973, I was a Downton Band player until I was head-hunted to join the Woodfalls Band cornet section and after completing my Christmas duties with Downton I signed to play for Woodfalls. My fist contest was the area qualifier in Bristol where the band came 5th but my next contest was the Grand Shield held at the Belle Vue funfair in Manchester. It was to everyone’s amazement that we came first on the test piece Prince Igor. The win was very underwhelming for one so young as me but several older members of the band were in tears of joy and the celebrations went on for weeks with pictures in the local paper and more beer drinking than a liver could cope with.
The purpose of the preamble is to tell you about the band’s next contest in Blackpool on 14 May which will once again be the Grand Shield or the “Shield” as it is affectionately known. Belle Vue has long since been demolished and replaced with a housing estate so the contest has moved to that other funfair town, Blackpool, and get this, it is in the famous Opera House. The shield has also undergone a bit of a make-over as bands now have to progress through 2 qualification divisions before they are accepted to compete for the shield. After just 3 years in which we sailed through the lower divisions we are through to the Shield so it will be interesting to see how we measure up against the current bands. The test piece is Titan’s Progress, a piece generally considered to be the hardest piece ever written for brass band, and based on Mahler’s 1st Symphony - we shall be burning the midnight oil rehearsing for this one!
This year, if we win, it might be me crying the tears of joy because I now know just how much work goes in to building a good band and bringing it to the boil at exactly the right moment but I have to say, if we come 1st or 2nd in the Shield, we receive an invitation to compete in the British Open in September which is for the top 16 bands in the country and that is when the real work starts!
Monday 14 March 2011
West of England Champions!
from 4barsrest.com
The curse of the defending champion may well continue in the West of England – but that is something to worry about for next year for Woodfalls, as they claimed the top section title in Torquay under the baton of Dr Nicholas Childs.
"Never mind about the curse. We’ll worry about that again," celebrating Woodfalls players told 4BR after the announcement of a result that saw the band maintain its excellent 2011 form and hold aloft the Area trophy for the first time since 2002.
On a day when adjudicator’s Derek Broadbent and Kevin Wadsworth told the packed forum auditorium that they had enjoyed some performances that ‘were quite top drawer’ and an others that ‘acquitted themselves to quite a good standard’, it was the recent Yeovil winner’s ‘Paganini’ of impressive variance of dynamics, tempos and textures that gave them victory over defending champion Flowers.
It also gave the MD his first Area title with the band, and his 21st in total, as he put behind him the disappointment of his Yorkshire Area assault with Black Dyke, by leading a carbon copy interpretation to success.
And whilst he was making the long trip back to Queensbury, he was able to tell the band by phone of his delight at being able to lead Woodfalls back to London for the first time since 2008.
Monday 7 February 2011
Windfall for Woodfalls as they claim first Yeovil Entertainment title
from 4barsrest.com
Woodfalls continued their bright start to the 2011 season by winning the Yeovil Entertainment Contest for the first time in their history on the weekend.
Following on from their second place in the entertainment leg of the recent Butlins Mineworkers Contest, they went one better under the baton of Gareth Pritchard to claim the Chris Palmer Shield and the £2,000 top prize.
Speaking to 4BR, adjudicator Colin Hardy was impressed by Woodfall’s innovative approach and quality playing. “They stood out for me. It was a very good programme and I was particularly impressed by the innovation shown as well as the playing. The overall standard on the day was very good, and the prize winners certainly made an impression.”
Woodfalls topped the 12-band field by a two point margin ahead of Welsh contenders BTM, with a reprise of their innovative Scandinavian themed Skegness programme.
Speaking to 4BR before he flew to Norway to prepare Radoy Band for the Norwegian National Championships in Bergen, the winning MD was understandably still bubbling with delight. “It’s a great win and gives everyone a huge boost of confidence ahead of the Areas and the Grand Shield in May,” Gareth Pritchard said.
The Butlins reprise saw the choreographed ‘Arctic Funk’, complete with snow topped mountains and campfire to open, followed by Kevin Darby thrilling the packed Octagon Theatre with the cornet solo ‘Scandinavian Folks Songs’.
Frode Alnaes’s ‘Vitae Lux’ proved to be a showcase for ‘Best Soprano’ winner Mark Pye, before a neat touch of humour in the ‘Alla Marcia’ from the Karelia Suite’ led into the storming climax of ‘Circius’ by Tortsein Aagard-Nilsen
|
