Only three weeks ago, Boarshurst Band Club finished off its 2018 season of Sunday Brass nights in style with the Friends of Music For Youth Brass Band. That concert got us on a high for the 2019 programme, which has a tasty selection of bands coming our way. Kickstarting the new season last night [20 January] was Westoe Brass Band.
Continue reading “Westoe Brass Band: Sunday Brass at the Boarshurst Band Club”Question: how do you end a phenomenal season of concerts at a band club in a southern part of Saddleworth? The answer is simple: pick the finest brass band players, create a one-off scratch band, then add a charity of your choosing. Then stir a live audience into rapture for the best part of two hours. Serve with meaty compositions and a generous serving of locally sourced cask conditioned ales. In a nutshell, all the ingredients of a truly memorable concert.
Continue reading “Friends of Music For Youth Brass Band, Boarshurst Band Club, 30 December 2018”For the final door on this year’s East of the M60 Advent Calendar, we have decided to give you a right corker of a piece. Originally written for organ, this tune by Johann Sebastian Bach is one of his best known works.
Continue reading “A Brass Band Advent Calendar: 26. Toccata in D Minor”Well, the people have spoken, and Christmas Day Means Christmas Day. As an extra to the previous 24 Advent Calendar windows, there is only one Christmas medley which depicts The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.
Continue reading “A Brass Band Advent Calendar: 25. Santa Claus-trophobia”After 23 days, we have come to the end of our Brass Band Advent Calendar. If you have followed all the windows, each and every one was chosen to make for The Mother of All Brass Band Concerts. For our Christmas Eve Advent Calendar door, we look at a class arrangement by Howard Snell.
Continue reading “A Brass Band Advent Calendar: 24. Procession to the Minster”If you are familiar with wedding DJs in the 1970s and 1980, there was always one song that the disc jockey left on the turntable whilst having a fag or a [censored]. The full version of Don Maclean’s American Pie is one example; another is the full version of The Trammps’ Disco Inferno. Even more famous was this song, covered by Donna Summer and made famous by Richard Harris.
Continue reading “A Brass Band Advent Calendar: 23. MacArthur Park”For our 22nd Advent Calendar window, we have for your very eyes a vintage trombone solo. Taken from a 1982 edition of BBC Television’s Best of Brass, we see Martin Wilson performing in front of a live audience in The Assembly Rooms, Derby.
Continue reading “A Brass Band Advent Calendar: 22. Czardas”Queen’s back catalogue and brass band music: it is amazing how the two art forms work so well together. Could Freddie Mercury have been the next Roy Newsome had he landed in Leeds/Bradford Airport instead of Heathrow? Strictly speaking, the use of popular music as a brass band concert item or album staple fulfils two purposes. One is to show off how good a brass band arrangement could sound. Another is to introduce newcomers to brass band music.
Continue reading “A Brass Band Advent Calendar: 21. Don’t Stop Me Now”For our twentieth Advent Calendar door, there are no half measures in this piece. Originally written for organ, this one has held its own as a brass banding favourite. Whether performed as a whole or in part, it never fails to make the hairs of the back of your neck stand up on end.
Continue reading “A Brass Band Advent Calendar: 20. Toccata from Suite Gothique”
