|
|
|
|
|
|
||
News Page |
|
|
2008 CALLING ALL PAST AVONBANK PLAYERS It should not have slipped your notice that 2008 is the bands 60th Anniversary? To celebrate this historic 60th anniversary there is to be a reunion of past players of Avonbank (Evesham) Brass Band. It doesn’t matter how long ago you played for the band or for how long you played, it would be really FANTASTIC to see as many past players as possible. The event is to be held on the 18th October 2008. Come and meet some old friends and maybe make some new ones. The person to contact for details is :- Peter can be contacted by email : peter.mace@lineone.net Spread the word and please get in touch. Let’s make this an evening to remember.
The family grows......? The family that is Avonbank has increased by ONE and that one is called Jessica Amanda Shepherd. Our congratulations go to Cary our bass trombone player, his wife Liz & little Issy on the birth of Jessica born on the 5th June, weighing 6lb 11oz.Weston Super Mare Contest
The band drew to play 3rd out of 9 bands, a little earlier than we would have liked but last year we came 3rd after drawing the dreaded number one! Everyone felt the band played extremely well, there were a few clips but overall we felt we had played the piece musically & Andy was very satisfied with the performance. As they did last year, the Brass Band Website ‘The MouthPiece’ gave an open adjudication from the back of the room & they really praised Jen, for her solo euphonium playing. However, in their opinion they placed us in 9th place…. Last! Congratulations go to Blaenavon Town Band who came 1st, we’ve met Blaenavon on a number of occasions & know what a good band they are. 4th was not a bad result, especially considering we had only been rehearsing the piece for 4 weeks & when we went on stage it was the FIRST time we had actually had a full band!
Asparagus Supper & St Georges Night 23rd April 2008, St George’s night. The supper, obviously with an asparagus theme was really well received. Followed by the concert by the band & featuring Soprano Singer, Rebecca Fearnley. The concert had an English theme for St George’s day ending with a ‘Last Night of the Proms’. The band would like to thank Associate M.D. Gary Smallwood who again conducted the band on the night….. a Welshman! Rebecca started things off with some songs accompanied on the piano by Ken Smith & the audience really found out what a fantastic voice this young lady has. She then joined the band for Jerusalem, Rule Britannia & of course Land of Hope & Glory. It was a great night with everyone, including the band enjoying themselves. But most of all the band would like to express their thanks to Diana & her team who worked really hard to make this night a success. This years spring concert had a theme of Old Time Music Hall. Obviously a true music hall program is impossible for a brass band as originally the music hall contained comedians, acrobats, singers etc & often the entertainment was rather on the bawdy side!!! So the intent was to provide a program that contained music not only from the late 1800’s but about events from that period in time to provide an entertaining program that captures the essence of the music hall. Proceedings were amusingly kept in check by our compare Albert Powers who was more than ably assisted by our M.D. Nick Smith. As always our thanks go to Albert who never lets us, or the audience down with his wit & it was a pleasure to see Nick up to his old tricks again! (see photographs!!?) The Training Band ended the second half to the delight of the audience with a nice set of pieces. For quite a few youngsters playing it was their very first concert & they acquitted them selves very well indeed. A very special mention must go to the bands special guest for the evening, John Raphael who did two guest spots & had the audience in tears….......... Literally in some cases! John also provided the narration for the bands final piece ‘Zulu’. TV Stars! ?
New Arrival The waiting & deliberation is over, our 1st baritone player Mandy Campbell has had a baby boy, Angus. The band sends Mandy & her family their heart felt congratulations.
Midlands Area Regionals - Bedworth Adjudicators: Test
piece: A new venue for this years contest, the Chamberlaine Technology College In Bedworth. I think everyone agreed that it was a better venue than Belvidere Club at Burton on Trent? The band has worked really hard this year with our 'Associate' MD Gary Smallwood after our MD, Nick Smith became ill. We have really endeavoured to make the piece as musical as possible whilst adhering to all the composers directions on the score. Setting off for Bedworth in a confident mood, we knew we had the piece under control & we hoped the adjudicators would recognise our efforts & Gary's musical input. There were 17 bands in the contest, and we were drawn to play 15th, a good draw we thought? A few players listened to a number of bands and this increased our confidence as the performances were in our opinion rushed and very loud, (especially the percussion sections). After playing to an almost full hall we were happy with our performance, it wasn't perfect but overall we considered that it had far more plus points than negative, but most of all we thought we gave a very musical interpretation that remained true to the composers intentions? A number of people in the audience rated our performance including our heavily pregnant 1st baritone player Mandy who had us high up in her top 5! Congratulations go to Matlock who won but our 8th place was a disappointment, we all felt our playing deserved better than that? The adjudicators comments mentioned a few tuning problems that we were aware of, but they gave no mention to our interpretation or strict following of the composers metronome markings. We were not the only band who was left puzzled at the placings with a number of comments being left on the brass band Internet site, "The Mouth Piece" referring to bands that adhered to the score did not feature in the placings. Still, that's contesting for you, we were proud of our performance regardless of the result and we'll be back next year even more determined. Final results were :- 1. Matlock, R. Jepson, 10. 184
Our M.D. Nick Smith has not been too well recently so he's asked Gary Smallwood to be our Associate Musical Director and Gary will be the 'Man in the Middle' for the Area contest in Bedworth in March. Gary has helped us out by taking the baton for a number of our Xmas concerts & he will also be conducting at our Spring concert on the 26th April. The whole band sends Nick our best wishes and thanks Gary for his time, effort and expertise.
Gary is a very experienced musician and no stranger to success. He lead Bulkington Silver Band 4th & 3rd Section wins at the area also under his leadership Bedworth won the 3rd & 2nd Sections. Gary is currently the M.D. of The District of Dunchurch Brass . Avonbank wish to thank Dunchurch Brass for the 'loan' of their M.D. 2007 December was an incredibly busy month for the band with four Christmas concerts in just seven days plus a number of private functions with small groups of players! It started on Saturday the 8th with our regular Christmas concert at Badsey Church. The band used our new set of stand lights for the first time & they proved to be very useful. The band played a varied concert of tradition carols for the almost capacity audience to sing & a number of lighter seasonal pieces. Three days later on the Tuesday saw the regular Lions concert take place in a new venue, the Methodist Church. It also saw our first concert of the season with the Arts Centre Choir. The concert & venue proved to be a great success so much so the band is already booked for next year! Two days later on the 13th (probably the coldest day of the year?) the band played at the Rotary Christmas concert at the Bengeworth Church. Another really good night with the Evesham Ladies Choir & the Evesham Ladies Barber Shop Choir. A packed audience were really entertained & experienced/participated in a 'unique' version of "Twelve Days of Christmas"! Those lucky enough to be there will know what we mean, those who were not there ….....….will have to wait until next year!!! On Saturday the 15th saw the band as guests of the Arts Centre Choir at their Christmas concert at their home venue, The Evesham Arts centre. (One of the bands favourite venues) Both choir & band entertained the audience with carols & seasonal music. The highlight for the band was a light hearted Bass Quartet called "There is nothing like a Dame" from the musical South Pacific. Our 4 players were Allan Robbins, Ken Smith, Tom Cook & Kevin Hamby who were resplendent in their little sailor hats! (IF THERE IS PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF THIS EVENT PLEASE CONTACT THIS WEBSITE!) The
Saturday before Christmas saw the band playing carols for shoppers in
Evesham Town centre. Due to various reasons the band has not played
carols in the street at Christmas for a number of years, but this year
we were invited to play once more. We think the people of the town appreciated
the music because they were very generous with their donations. There
are some photographs of the carol playing on the photographs page.
West Midlands Brass Band Association Annual Conest, Leamington Spa Sunday 25th November 2007 Seven other high quality third section bands arrived at Leamington for the WMBBA Third Section, Own Choice Test Piece contest. An Own Choice Contest is where each band picks a test piece that they feel will show off their best attributes rather than each band playing the same prescribed test piece. Playing were Leicestershire Co-op and Arrow Valley Bands, both will be playing in the second section next year. The current leaders of the third section, The Matlock Band along with City of Birmingham and Warwick University ranked 4th and 5th respectively were all there. So this really was the elite of the Midlands third and in some cases second section bands. Avonbank had chosen to play last years third section Regional test
piece 'Prelude and Jubilate', composed by Darrol Barry. So they awaited the results with more than a little trepidation and expected to be placed well down the field! The adjudicator, David Horsfield spoke to the audience telling them that some bands "Over blew, causing bad tuning"…......…. Could it be…? Surly not? He then mentioned Prelude & Jubilate saying "What a difficult piece to play"! Perhaps there was a chance…..?? Then the results : In third place, with 177 points............ Avonbank!! The remarks from the adjudicator, who coincidently was the adjudicator at the Area contest in March this year mentioned a few of our slips but praised the sensitive rendition Avonbank gave him. His criticisms were constructive and remarkably similar to the remarks he gave us at the Area! This shows he really knows his music to be so consistent. So from disappointment to elation. Avonbank were still slightly disappointed with their performance but appreciate that the adjudicator found qualities that they had missed. A great result! Autumn Concert - Evesham Arts Centre. Anyone who thought about coming to the Autumn concert at the Evesham Arts Centre but didn't turn up missed a fantastic night. With the auditorium almost full there was a great atmosphere. The band was on great form and our guests The McCarthy-Felton Irish Dancers totally enthralled the audience with their beautiful dancing. The mix of brass playing & Irish dancing really worked & made a memorable spectacle especially the finale when the dancers joined the band on stage for a spectacular performance of Riverdance. Another great night at the Art Centre, check out the Band Diary page to find our next concert. The Oxfordshire & District Brass Band Association Entertainment Contest Section A 1.
Avonbank (Evesham) Brass Band, Nick Smith Presentation / Deportment Prize - Avonbank (Evesham) Brass Band Best Instumentalist - Stephen Lane - Avonbank (Evesham) Brass Band Open Section 1.
Brackley & District Band, D Richards Presentation / Deportment Prize - Avonbank (Evesham) Brass Band What
a good day it was for Avonbank in Oxford. We took the first prize in
Section 'A' which was for 3rd, 4th section & unregistered bands.
Stephen Lane took the soloist trophy & the band also took the deportment
prize. Originally there was only one section in the Open Section. Brackley
& District Band who are a 1st section band! Avonbank made a late
entry to make a contest of it & ran Brackley very close. Our performance
was very well received & we were once again awarded the deportment
prize. The Wychavon Entertainment Contest - Sunday 6th September 2007 Third Section - Adjudicator John Berriman 1.Wem Jubilee Band (Roger Thorne) – 184 The
Weston Super Mare 39th Annual Brass Band Contest Sunday 20th May 1.
Blaenavon Town, Gareth Ritter - 184 Best
Basses in Section: Avonbank (Evesham) Brass
An excellent
day was had by all. The Band played well and were very happy
2007
Midlands Regionals - Burton on Trent Adjudicators: Test
piece: 1
WEM Jubilee R. Thorne 182
|
|
|
Copyright
© Andrea Reynolds 2007- All Rights Reserved
|
