June kicked-off with the first of the ‘Summer Season’ season where in the Pond Concert the Band played more soloists and features than full band numbers. The Pond Concerts have been very popular this year and we have tried to vary the content, by putting on different combinations of soloists, quartets and features, including marching down from the Church playing ‘Army of the Nile’ to arrive at the July concert. We thank you for all your donations at these concerts your support is most important to us.
We then presented our Summer Prom at The Old Manor House. Such was the demand for tickets, and the need to finalise numbers for catering we had to stop selling tickets on the Friday. Apologies if anyone was unable to get tickets on the day of the concert, but when we say ‘tickets available in advance’ it’s best to get them early. The evening was a great success, the music great the food was wonderful, and the atmosphere everything that a Proms concert promised. A huge thank you to Mr. John Jarvis for helping organise and host the event. We would also like to thank the mystery person who left a kind donation to the Band at Aldbourne post office after attending our Prom concert.
On the concert horizon is our Themed Concert. This years Theme is ‘A Commercial Break’. Have you ever sat and watched a TV programme, the adverts come on and you think I wonder what that piece of music is? Well now is your chance to hear more of them, you’ll be amazed how many of them you will actually remember. We are presenting an evening of music from those adverts, except we’ll be playing each piece to full-length. Just a few that spring to mind are ‘Guaglione’ from Guinness, ‘La Force Del Destino’ from Stella Artois and ‘The Flower Duet’ from British Airways. Tickets will be on sale at various outlets in Aldbourne village so watch out for the posters – and get in early this time.
Where do you go on a sunny summer afternoon to escape the pressures of busy and overcrowded life? For a walk in the park - and you may just hear a Band striking up at the Bandstand. Well Saturday 9th of August was one of those hazy summer days when Aldbourne Band entertained the crowds in St James Park, London. Though having checked the flag-pole though the most high-profile resident of the neighbourhood was not to be found at home on the day.
The Royal Parks stage concerts for selected Bands to perform and this is great for bringing people into the Parks. On what must have been the second hottest day of the year we played two one and a half hour concerts. That’s a lot of music, and not one number can be played twice. The Band though were exhausted by heat and dehydration and one or two protocols were dropped and all players had bottles of water on the stand.
It was certainly a sun-scorched day though - the grass more yellow than green, and people doing whatever necessary to keep in the shade. There was one exception to the rule and this was the inspector from the Royal Parks who sat in the front row of the deck chairs in suit and tie! Mopping a brow with his handkerchief his only other visible movement was to applaud between each musical item. The inspector makes sure that we have a quality band, that we play a full band (25 brass plus percussion) that the concert programme is entertaining, and that we observe decorum with uniform, even through to finishing each concert with the Queen. There are stringent rules for each band presenting concerts and offenders need not apply again next year!
The two concerts were presented with ease – the Band being in good form and having programmes ready from the recent Pond and Proms Concerts. The crowd were extremely appreciative coming forward to give personal thanks to many members of the Band.
A Grand, yet sweltering, Day Out!
| 1. | Lancashire |
| 2. | 200,000 |
| 3. | 1873 |
| 4. | 518 feet and 9 inches |
| 5. | 1896 |
| 6. | 222 miles |
| 7. | 213 feet |
| 8. | Grand Shield, Senior Cup and Senior Trophy |
| 9. | British Open Championships |
| 10. | The Seasiders |
August really picks up the pace this year commencing with the seasonal Pond Concert, then we play two concerts in London at St James Park (9th). These are free open-air concerts organised by the Royal Parks, so if you are London please feel free to come along to one of our concerts –enter StJames park and you’ll hear us – we play just about half the way down the Mall. We are then away for a weekend in Essex to play two concerts – one in Thaxted (23rd) where we play a Movies and Films theme, and then we play with the London Festival Orchestra in Colchester (24th). The final weekend brings us much closer to home with a wedding in Aldbourne village.
As we move to September we play the traditional Aldbourne Carnival and then the final Pond Concert of the season. Also in September we are competing again in the Wychavon Festival of Brass held in Evesham. This is an entertainment contest which means we play 4 or 5 pieces of our own choice to present a 20 minute programme and we will be competing against the better Bands from the South West, Midlands and Wales. We will be playing the featured items in the September Pond Concert.
In October is our annual Themed Concert, and then in November we are playing a new concert with the West of England University Choir. Ian Holmes is Musical Director of this fine Choir and this will be a great evening of music. The venue has yet to be finalised, however, the date is 15th November - unfortunately this will be too soon for the next Newsletter but further details will be available at the Themed Concert on the 25th October, and also from the Band’s web-site. There will also be posters and a couple of articles in the Swindon newspapers.
We have put a gallery of photos taken through the years together for the Aldbourne web site www.aldbourne.org.uk. These will be going live in the next few weeks. The oldest photo is believed to have come from the late 1800’s. these photos will be featured every 10 or so days, will run for then entire day, and will change photo from a selection of over 40 every couple of minutes. There are several other galleries on the Aldbourne web-site that are well worth a look and those people with a little less time available it is possible to see an entire gallery on one page. Additionally, If you happen to have pictures of the Band, from what ever era we would be delighted to see them and possibly copy them for our gallery.
4BarsRest have currently reviewed some of the very best bands in the World such as Yorkshire Building Society, Black Dyke and Mills and Fodens, and whilst we are not quite in the same league as these Bands the CD is favourably, whilst very fairly, reviewed. They were most impressed with the fact that we produced this ourselves – most bands pay large sums of money to have a CD produced by a specialist company. To read the full review please browse to www.4barsrest.com we hope you enjoying the wealth of information located there.
The Band has also contributed musical items from the CD to radio programmes BBC Radio Bristol, BBC Radio Swindon, BBC Devon and Cornwall’s ‘Sounding Brass’, BBC Radio Manchester’s ‘Northern Brass’ so it is starting to be broadcast far and wide.
Sales of the CD are also progressing well, in the first 6 months we have sold nearly 500 copies and we hope to clear 1,000 within the first year – that will make the ‘Aldbourne’ a limited edition CD as only 1,000 were cut.
Publicity for the Band is a never-ending task. And much of this is the very time consuming task of driving round putting up posters to advertise events. If you would be willing to put posters up in local shops, schools, libraries close to where to live then the Band would be delighted, especially if you live out of the immediate vacinity of Swindon or Aldbourne. If you would be happy to help with this then please phone Rob Williams on 01672 540506 and sets of posters for forthcoming concerts can be posted out with the newsletters each quarter. Many Thanks in advance for your help.
On the subject of housing, rumour has it that our Secretary, Richard Hughes, is considering throwing a house warming party (after all he only bought the house 15 months ago). Kate Hannam, First Horn, is too buying a new “des-res”. Unfortunately in Bristol, so she will need to keep travelling to rehearsals. Maybe they could combine the house warming parties ? ? ? One further rumour is that another couple may take to a life on the water – watch this space.
Thanks go to Harry Sheppard for helping the Band out in the Aldbourne Combined Churches Fete. Harry, we’ve lined of a solo (The Carnival of Venice) for you to play in the September Pond Concert.
We are also grateful to Dave Shead who will be conducting a few of the summer concerts. Dave, a colleague of Ian Holmes, is a professional conductor and Trumpet player. Dave will be conducting a Wedding and part of the Concert in Thaxted. Dave has been instrumental in taking us to Essex, his father being the Vicar of the church in Thaxted.
It took Ian Holmes, MUSICAL DIRECTOR, 2 months to work out some of the anagrams put in the January Newsletter!! Check the March edition for the answers, and they will come to light. I would of thought it would be easy to work out what role the ‘MOST ACIDIC RULER’ took in the band. Sorry Ian, only joking, you can stop picking on me in rehearsal now !
Each year the Band travels to London to watch the National Brass Band Championships at the Albert Hall.
We’re not playing, in fact we have only qualified once to play in the top 20 Bands in the country to complete for the coveted
National Championships and that was 1981 .
The coach is leaving Swindon at approximately 8:00 on Saturday 18th October,
departing from London at 6pm from the Royal Albert Hall.
There will be spare seats on the Bus if you would like to spend a day in London.
You could buy a ticket for the National Championships and come and watch with the Band members,
or alternatively you could go get some Christmas shopping done at Harrods, see a London show,
or just see the sites.
Coach tickets are likely to be around £20 a head, and tickets for the Albert Hall will be
approximately £8 a head.
If you are interested in joining us then please contact Richard Hughes on 07733 264874.
Our recent CD recording is starting to gain some recognition across the country and further a-field.
A review has just been posted by the leading independent authority in Brass Banding ‘4BarsRest.com’. 4BarsRest was set-up nearly 3 years ago as an internet ‘On-line’ web-site for Brass Band enthusiasts. Since its initial conception the site and its readership has grown substantially and now has thousands of daily readers as far and wide as the USA and Australia. The team that run 4BarsRest.Com are members of several of the world’s top Bands and are spread across the UK. They review brass band contests, concerts, CD recordings, publish editorials from leading music authorities, provide competition reports and results and have an on-line forum. The service has fast become the essential single-
Source for on-line banding information.
June, unfortunately, was the last concert for Gary Wilkinson who has decided to take some time off from the Band. Gary has played with the Band for over 20 years and just felt it was time for a break. Thanks to Gary for hard work and commitment to the Band and we hope to see him back in the future.
July saw the temporary departure of Solo Horn Clare Smith who is currently on ‘Maternity Leave’. We wish her good luck and shall see her back late in the Autumn when her daughter, Molly, will have a new Brother or Sister.
Our chairman, James, is mid-construction of his very own self-build log cabin. It’s a cross between Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons. They’ve ordered matching sets of dungarees in time for the official opening, and have changed their daughter’s name to Rosie-Bob.
Former Cornet and Tenor Horn player Ian Palmer recently got married, and has moved with his wife, Louise, to Belfast. Some people go to such extremes to avoid coming to rehearsal.
Ian Holmes wife Liz Lane has been busy putting pen to paper, or rather to manuscript, recently. Liz, a lady of many talents including performing, teaching and composing, has been working on an arrangement for Brass Band of the Lord’s Prayer fro David’s ‘African Sanctus’. I also believe that David Fanshawe has also been helping polish up the arrangement ready for the Band to start work rehearsing this for forthcoming concerts.
Player Profiles
Full Name
Claudia Tomkins
Chris Lewis
Instrument
Flugel Horn
Principal Cornet
Place of Birth
Wantage
Wilton
Joined Aldbourne Band
July 2001
July 2001
Former Bands
Wantage
Halls of Oxford
Bournemouth
Woodfalls
Bournemouth
Sunlife
Ratby
Favourite Brass Band
I don't like listening to Bands
Grimethorpe
Favourite 3 Pieces of music
Enigman Variations (F-Howarth)
Gabriels Oboe
Journey into Freedom
Lowrie Scetchbook (Wilby)
Capaelia
Masquerade (Wilby)
Favourite Composer
Robbie Williams
Philip Wilby
Favourite Venue Performed
Royal Albert Hall
Pool Arts Centre
Most Memorable Musical Moment
Playing a solo at the Royal Albert Hall
Playing Olympic Fanfare in the Wychavon Contest
Musical Ambition
To Star in a Broadway musical
To perform a duet, naked, in St Michaels School, Aldbourne
Occupation
Physiotherapist
Electrician
Favourite Film
Star Wars
The Deer Hunter
Who would you most like to meet
Kofie Annan
Barry Russell in a pub in Blandford
Who would you least like to be stranded on a desert island with
Anyone who is smelly
Too many to mention but they know who they are
Most embarrasing moment
Getting my stiletto stuck in the stage whilsts playing a solo in the Royal Albert Hall
Chanting "Inte-Inca" in the Yeovil Contest 2002
Favourite Food
Chocolate or Cheese
Italian
What do you find most absurd about the world
Men
Americans
