In the beautiful St Peter’s Church in Brackley the Band kicked off the evening’s concert and their first under the baton of Shaun Humphries with a rousing march, Castell Coch. This was followed by a jazzed-up arrangement of Here, There and Everywhere performed by our first soloist Steve Utley, who can also be heard performing with The Great Central Big Band, based at the Band Club in Brackley. Jesus Christ Superstar was next, a medley of songs from the musical and a challenging blow for the Band.
Our second soloist of the evening, Nick Wilson, performed Serenade by Schubert; a classical piece of music arranged for Band which works really well and is suited to the baritone sound, despite being a solo written for euphonium.
Bilitis, a film theme, is a lovely slow-moving piece which showcases the band sound and this was followed by Parliament Street Blues which appealed to our MD’s sense of humour given the ongoing Brexit debate. The mood was then uplifted by the popular Beatles track Hey Jude, featuring the flugel and horn section.
The first half was brought to a close with Maxlanger Reloaded which was originally arranged by founding member and solo horn Des Stimpson for our smaller 7-piece ensemble but it has proved to be a popular one and so he has expanded it to be performed by the full band. It features a tune that you will recognise if you are a fan of the 1994 film ‘Pulp Fiction’.
During the interval drinks and delicious homemade cakes were enjoyed. We’d like to thank the Church for allowing us the use of their building and for putting on such a lovely spread.
Our development group ‘Majors and Minors’ opened the second half with a collection of numbers including Under the Boardwalk, Rock Around the Clock and Swinging Safari. Despite a number of the group unable to attend the concert, the remaining quintet performed brilliantly and did themselves proud. It is important to us to ensure that young musicians are encouraged and helped along so that they can enjoy many years of music making and help to ensure the future of Brass Banding.
After a short interlude whilst the stage was re-set the main band continued their programme with another march Punchinello, followed by Jurassic Park, Love Changes Everything with cornet soloist Julie Jakeman and finished with Clog Dance, popularised by the movie ‘Brassed off’.
The encore saw the return of Maxlanger Reloaded with a steady accelerando all the way through the piece, culminating in an exciting and fitting end to our concert.
Thank you to all those who attended. If you liked what you heard please let people know about us and watch out for our future engagements via our website (www.brackleyband.org.uk) or Facebook page.