Nigel Seaman made a very successful return to the Band with the Annual concert at Upham Road, Swindon. We were joined by a relatively new Choir, the Wessex Male Choir who performed an entertaining and varied programme. Hopefully we will be able to work alongside this excellent Choir again in the future.
Following hot on the heels was the Spring Concert in March. This concert is going to be an annual event, so book the first Saturday of March in your diaries.
Since March we have been busy rehearsing for the two contests at Torquay and Blackpool. This has meant many extra rehearsals spent preparing two pieces of music. There is a full write-up of the contest
We are performing in the Wyvern Theatre on Saturday 19th June alongside the Swindon Male Voice Choir and Matthew Sims. This is a celebration of 85 years in music for Swindon. Specific music items associated to Swindon’s past, present and future will be presented. Tickets will be available from the Wyvern Box Office only – 01793 524481
As we start our summer schedule we are performing the regular set of concerts, plus a few weddings. For the June concert you will notice a few old friends of the Band in the shape of Ian Holmes, Musical Director and Liz Lane on Timpani. They very gratefully offered to help us present the concert in our current Musical Director’s absence. Nigel will be back at the helm though for the July concert, where we will be featuring a selection of American themes to mark Independence Day on the 4th July. We are also playing a few weddings and at the Combined Churches Fete.
Don’t forget to book a parking space by the Pond on June 6th – see you there.
Over the last 5 months the Band has spent a huge amount of time wheeling percussion instruments around the village to different rehearsal venues. We have used St Michael’s School, The Old Schoolroom, St. Michael’s Church and the Methodist Chapel. We have also been storing instruments and equipment in Pewsey and in a garage in the village.
The refurbishment of the Aldbourne Memorial Hall has thankfully progressed to plan, which will be a great relief to the percussion team, as we will be moving back at the end of May. The Hall has a new kitchen and toilets, and we have a new large storage room for our equipment. The stage has also been removed, which means that all our equipment will be able to be wheeled directly from our storage into the main hall. This will save much time to set-up for each rehearsal. On Friday 21st May the Band will be playing a few musical items at the opening ceremony.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped organise rehearsal facilities during this period, and St. Michael’s School for providing our main rehearsal room.
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| CD Sales have been somewhat slow recently. We have sold well over 500 copies. But it is possible that all our current supporters and audience have already bought copies.
We made further sales for Christmas and Mothers Day, and will continue to promote it at our many summer concerts. If there are other opportunities or new outlets for our CD then we would be pleased to hear from you. |
On Saturday 17th July we will be presenting two concerts in St James’ Park, London 3pm and 5pm. There may be some seats available on the bus, though there will be a charge, and seats will be limited. This is an excellent opportunity to do a little shopping in the West-End and then see us in concert performance to round off the day. Last year the concert was staged on the second hottest day of the year, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the two performances at 2:30 and 4:30. Please contact me if you are interested in joining us at London.
The Training Band is progressing, now that we meet each week at a regular time. We currently have a number of enthusiastic youngsters learning to play:
Tuition has been provided by Rachael, Andy, Rob, Richard, Chris, Claudia and Paul. We are currently working on the rudiments of each instrument and focusing note production, scales, basic note types and learning to read music. We will be putting together music with harmonies and starting to work on group playing. We would like to put a feature item into a Pond Concert later this year.
Please contact Rachel Walton on 01672 540952 for further details.
The West of England Championships at Torquay was a great weekend for the Band. This one contest is used to grade the Band for the entire year, and as such is the most important of them all. Each Band in the section plays the same piece and gets adjudicated by one person. The average of 3 year’s competition results is used to calculate the league table. The top 2 are promoted to the Championship Section, and the bottom 2 are relegated to the 2nd Section to play in next year’s competition.
This year’s venue was the Torquay Riviera Centre, and Bands from across the West of England congregated in Torquay hotels all weekend. Coincidence had us sharing a hotel with the Swindon Pegasus Band.
There is a draw to determine the playing order for the Bands, and we were unlucky to have picked last draw – which meant us waiting around all-day waiting to play. We had an extra rehearsal to put the finishing touches on the Coventry Variations and took to the stage full of confidence at 18:30. We played a very musical performance of the piece that was well received by the audience and Judge alike, and were placed 4th from 15 bands, which was a good result.
However, most people spoken to, including representatives from the winning band and the leading brass band web-site, had us firmly in second place, but it is one man’s opinion that counts. This placing, though, leaves us at the top of the First Section league table. This means that a reasonable result next year will gain promotion back to Championship Section.
Final placings were
1. Bournemouth Concert Brass
2. Lanner and District
3. Poole Borough
4. Aldbourne
5. Solent Concert
6. Lydbrook
7. Chalford
8. Solent Concert
9. Swindon Pegasus
10. Ocean Brass
11. Cinderford
12. St Keverne
13. Bendix Kingswood
14. Torbay Brass
15. Thornbury
The second most important contest of the year is the Spring Brass Band Festival at Blackpool. This is a contest attended by only the best bands in the country, and is the route to qualify for the prestigious British Open contest. The contest, held in the Blackpool Winter Gardens, is spilt into 3 sections and we played in the Senior Trophy (the lowest section). Last year we played in the Senior Cup but the competition was very hot and we were relegated to the Trophy.
Similar in format to the West of England a standard piece of music is played by all bands in a pre-drawn order of play, and this time two adjudicators assess the bands and award the final placing positions. In Senior Trophy the first 4 qualified for next years Senior Cup, and the bottom 6 are not invited back to play for at least another 3 years, so it was important to achieve a good result.
We played John Golland’s Concerto for Band, which was a piece that certainly stretched all the Bands on the day, whilst was a very exciting piece to listen from the audience. The Trophy was held in the Spanish Room – a concert venue decked out as a fantasy Spanish castle that somewhat resembled Lego-Land.
The Bands in our contest came from all geographic regions including Scotland and Wales. All but 2 Bands were Championship Section Bands, and all were ranked significantly higher than us in the National Gradings, so it was going to be a hard-fought contest .
There was a lot of percussion instruments used in the piece so there was a lot of stage set-up. The piece finally started securely, all our soloists played very well, and the adjudicators had many positive comments to the performance. The audience particularly enjoyed our performance, and were we greeted by wolf-whistles after the final note. All the preparation work was rewarded with an 11th place and we beat some really good Bands to ensure our return in 2005, which is excellent news.
Final placings were
1. Staffordshire Band
2. Dobcross
3. Unison Keneil
4. Knottingly Silver
5. Mid Rhondda
6. Longridge
7. Kiddlington Concert
8. Riddings
9. Pemberton, Old Wigan
10. Soham Comrades
11. Aldbourne
12. Mossley
13. Tongwynlais Temperence
14. BHK Horden
15. Johnstone Silver
16. City of Coventry
17. Stalybridge, Old
18. Northrop
19. Broxburn Public
20. Woodfalls
Kate Hannam, 2nd Horn, has been over exerting herself recently at the local Gym, the bad news is that she has snapped her Achilles' Tendon. With her leg in plaster she is not able to drive, let alone get to rehearsal, for many weeks or months. It has been mentioned, in joke, that the 2nd Horn seat has always been the Band’s Achilles’ Heel !
The Annual General Meeting was held in March, and some new members have joined the committee – Claudia Tomkins, Andy Chalk and Simon Snow. Kate Hannam has taken on the Treasurer responsibility from Lionel Barnes after 10 years of running the position.
Rick Bendle, whilst unable to play brass at the moment, has remained in frequent contact with the Band, even joining us in our recent excursion to Blackpool. He brought the house down with a performance by Enis, who is the brother of Elvis the Pelvis, of ‘Are you Lonesome Tonight’ during the evening Karaoke.
| 2004 appears to be the year of ‘Former Musical Directors’ as Nigel returned to work with the Band, Melvin White worked with us for Torquay, Ian Holmes helping us out in June, and former MD David Williams helped by running some of the rehearsals in preparation for Blackpool. David, and his wife Marg, also joined us Blackpool. Its great to have so many good people on-hand and willing to help out. |
| We have also been joined by a new Bass Trombone player, Paul, who joined us initially to work with the Training Band. Barry Scott left the Band in February, and Paul was on hand to initially fill-in at Torquay. Paul has since joined as a full member of the Band. Paul is also well placed, as a music teacher, to provide strong support to our training band. | 
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| The Band has recently discovered some new talents in the musical genre. Luke Barnes, who has always greatly impressed with his vocal abilities, rose to new levels with performances of Robbie Willams and R-Kelly. Such tonal quality has rarely been heard before!
Dean Jones has also been moonlighting in the urban music scene. His headstands and break-dancing were only surpassed by his excellent rap skills. |
| Player Profiles | 
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| Full Name | James Sheppard | Rick Bendle |
| Instrument | Bb Bass | Bb Bass |
| Place of Birth | Aldbourne | Aldbourne |
| Joined Aldbourne Band | 1995 | 1956 |
| Former Bands | Wells Brass, Hamilton Brass, New Zealand | None |
| Favourite Brass Band | Aldbourne | Aldbourne |
| Favourite Piece of music | Adagio for Strings (Barber) | English Heritage (George Lloyd) |
| Favourite Composer | Chopin | Eric Ball |
| Favourite Venue Performed | Hamilton Gardens, NZ | Royal Albert Hall |
| Most Memorable Musical Moment | Leading Hamilton band on stage in front of 800 people | Winning at Western Super-mare on Harmony Music |
| Musical Ambition | To play in the Albert Hall | To play again (since my heart attack) |
| Occupation | Farmer | Deputy manager in a Respite Care Unit |
| Favourite Film | The Blues Brothers | Any James Bond |
| Who would you most like to meet | Michael Palin | Jethro |
| Who would you least like to be stranded on a desert island with | Margaret Thatcher | Maggie Thatcher |
| Most embarrasing moment | Going into a ladies toilet in Wales after misreading the Welsh sign! | Falling off stage at Hillingdon |
| I don't do 2 hours practice a day because | Of work | I am not a Doctor |
| Favourite food and drink | Medium-rare steak and a glass of red wine | Fish and Chips |
