The Seaside to The Centaur
A New Year beckons: On New Year’s day, ten of our regular players helped the legendary Frank Wolff, mastermind of over 85 overseas tours with different bands, including his Young Ambassadors Brass Band of Great Britain, raise money for a new care home in Sandford-on-Thames to accommodate forty elderly people with Alzheimer’s who can no longer live at home. Frank organised a fantastic concert at Cowley Conservative club with his Oxford Brass Players Brass Band.
Terry Brotherhood, Chalgrove's MD, was among the players that evening but now turns his attention to wagging the stick and putting the band through its paces for its first attempt at the Butlins Mineworkers Brass Band Championships taking place at Skegness over the weekend of 20th January. This is the first time the band will compete officially as a Second Section band and will play Sir Granville Bantock’s comedy overture "The Frogs of Aristophanes", composed in 1935 and arranged by Frank Wright for the 1952 National Brass Band Championships. We look forward to a great weekend. Wish us luck.
The band is also rehearsing another interesting piece. Cross Patonce was written by the late and great Goff Richards and commissioned for the 1990 Northern Open Brass Band Championships sponsored by Pilkington PLC. The Cross Patonce (see image) is the logo of Pilkington Plc. This lovely three-movement piece has been selected for the Second Section 2012 London and Southern Counties area contest taking place at Stevenage on Sunday 18th March. As good as Terry is at preparing the band, he will be seeking advice from the masterful Richard Evans, who will entertain and rehearse us over the weekend of 24th February. The band arrives in the Second Section with automatic mid-table position (promotion and demotion is worked out on the results over three consecutive contests) as one of the “new boys” but we will be playing to win and in the very least hold our own, and above all play well.
After the “Areas” we take the foot off the gas a little and start preparing our summer concert programmes. Our big event of the year is a trip to Maastricht over the weekend of 1st June where we will entertain the city’s visitors to the sounds of an English brass band with at least three concerts kindly organised by an overseas friend of the band.
Back home we will squeeze in a few village fetes, concert events and competitions to keep us on good contesting form, but hopefully we may be looking ahead to the National Finals– if we qualify by coming first or second in the Areas – taking place over the weekend of 22rd September at The Centaur Conference Centre, Cheltenham. Watch this space.