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Our first concert of the year was held in the delightful St. Martin's Church, Womersley as has become regular event for the band. It has become something of a tradition that we start off our new programme of music here and this always makes it an event we look forward to very much.
This is always a bit of a tight fit for the band, to arrange ourselves in the space in front of the pews, but this shows how the flexibility of our band is able to cope, where other more structurally constrained bands will find difficult to cope with.
Starting the event, Judith gave an extremely warm welcome to the band and this was reflected in the audiences applause. So we were off, giving a performance including several new pieces as well as a few regular favourites. The music sounded great in the church hall and each piece was warmly received by everyone who made it through the damp evening to be there. After a short interval for the band to rest and wet tired lips, the second half continued the various range of music. Highlights of the evening were Melanie Wakefield's flugal solo of Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" (aka "Orange Juice" in the Brassed Off movie), and Steve Sainty's Eb Bass solo performance of "Bass in the Ballroom" which was deservedly loved by the audience.
Wrapping things up, Judith very kindly gave us special praise once again at the end of the concert, which was then followed by some lovely refreshments as usual, all prepared by the organisers. This is the favourite concert of the year for many of the players, and we already look forward to performing in this lovely church again next year.
A photo and video from this event can be found on our gallery pages.
One of the band members, Russel Simpson, got married this year and he and his fiancée (at the time) Rosie invited the band along to to the church to be a part of their wedding ceremony. We were set-up behind in the choir area behind the vicar where the couple were married, so were very much in view of the congregation and so a major part of the special event, just as Russ and Rosie had wanted.
We performed several pieces before the ceremony itself as the congregation arrived and also played during the hymns throughout the service. More pieces were performed for the waiting congregation as the couple went off to sign the register, and of course we played triumphantly as the newly wed couple left the church. It was lovely to be such a big part of Russ and Rosie's special day.
But it didn't end there, as the band and their partners were also invited to the evening celebration which most of us attended, ended a wonderful day for all.
Following our successful first trips to St. John's in Goole in 2010, we were delighted that they asked us to come back to perform another concert for them in 2011, the first of two to be performed there this year. We had been preparing a whole new programme of music for this event in the previous three months and it was lovely to get the chance to perform it in front of a live audience for the first time this year.
The people at St. John's are always pleased to see us and we couldn't be made any more welcome. Once again Beryl was very kind in her introduction of the band, and that started off a lovely concert, with the sound from our instruments filling the wonderful interior of the church hall with a wide variety of music, ranging from traditional brass band pieces and marches, through movie themes to modern music. The variety was well received by the knowledgeable audience, and in return, we provided variety with the likes of Steve Jones performing a wonderful rendition of "The Lazy Trumpeter" and Karen Brewis & Simon Coates performed a lovely duet on baritone and euphonium of "The Wind Beneath My Wings". See the link below for pictures from this event.
The organisers provided refreshments in the interval as usual which were enjoyed by all, and before we knew it, the concert had come to an end. We are returning in November and are already looking forward to it.
Some photographs of this event can be found on our gallery pages.
To celebrate the completion of the building extension and renovation work at the church, they arranged a two day flower festival with a concert each day. On the Friday they had the Castleford Male Voice Choir giving a concert which went of very well I was told, and on Saturday, KCB had been invited to perform a concert for them.
We have been associated with the church for many years and attend their Remembrance service each November, and we are therefore delighted that they had asked us to join them to help celebrate the completion of the building works. The extension houses a refreshment room with a kitchen area off and also includes rest rooms, and so extends the possibilities for many activities that can be hosted in the church.
There were many lovely arrangements all around the church, starting at the entrance and then all around the church hall and in the window spaces for the flower festival. The place looked wonderful and the arrangements were quite spectacular. Several pictures have been added to the Gallery pages. The band was set up in rather a tight space but we managed fine, and performed three sessions as visitors to the church either sat and listened or wandered around looking at the displays. It was a lovely occasion and a delight to be a part of it.
Some photographs of this event can be found on our gallery pages.
As park of Leeds Council's Music In The Park summer season of music events in parks and gardens around their area, we had arranged to perform in the lovely grounds of Lotherton Hall. The weather for the day was wonderful and there were plenty of people visiting the hall that day, boosted by motor cycle event happening on the same day in another part of the grounds.
We set up beside the main house in front of the lovely chapel, finding just enough shade at the back to help protect the skins on the drum kit and timpani drums. So it was jackets off as we started to play and in no time a group of people gathered to listen. There was very little seating provided by that didn't stop people from using their own seating to enjoy the performance. We had plenty of exciting music to perform as the following week was our main summer concert so all the music was well rehearsed which shone through as bright as the sun on that lovely Sunday afternoon.
We hope to arrange something similar next year which will hopefully have similar weather.
Some photographs of this event can be found on our gallery pages.
This year's Patron's concert is was entitled KCB Kaleidoscope indicating the wonderful mix of music we had planned for everyone to enjoy. There were various traditional and more modern pieces set to brass and the usual mix of a few familiar tunes in with the many new pieces we have prepared for your entertainment.
The soloists were the stars of the concert, with Jennifer Turner performing the complex piece Hailstorm with Karen Brewis and Simon Coates performing the duet Wind Beneath My Wings in the first half, and Steve Jones performed his solo of The Lazy Trumpeter in the second half.
The refreshments during the interval were enjoyed by all and thanks must go to Diane McNaught who organised them all herself this year.
The whole evening was a great success and the comments we have received suggest this was one of the most enjoyed concerts for a long time.
Some photographs of this event can be found on our gallery pages.
We shall remember them ...
It was lovely to return to Goole for the second time this year, where we are always made so welcome. It was nice to see a few more people in the audience this time, so word must be getting around to the local population at last!
The church hall really suites our music and the whole evening was filled with a variety of music styles, with something to please every taste. Each piece was enthusiastically appreciated by the audience and at the end, Beryl had some wonderful things to say about the whole performance, that we had to give them an encore! It really is a lovely event to perform at and we look forward to returning again in 2012.
The weather was much kinder this year, without the dreadful deep snow of 2010 that stopped us from being able to attend. Despite being a small community, this is a really well organised event and it was a delight to be able to be a part of their Christmas Lights turn on celebrations.
It was still quite a cold evening and a few players struggled with numbing fingers, but none of this dampened the wonderful atmosphere and everyone there enjoyed our performance in the street. We hope to return to do it all again next year.
As always, this was our main event of the Christmas season. To help our less mobile audience, and avoid conflicts with other events going on at this time of year, we had arranged an afternoon concert, as opposed to an evening concert as we normally do. This turned out to be very popular with our audience and by the time the concert got underway, there was hardly a spare seat to be found in the hall. After the concert, everyone who was asked said they preferred the afternoon format, so we will almost certainly do it again next year.
As for the concert itself, there were several brand new pieces to go alongside plenty of our regular festive music. The Christmas music filled the hall from the moment we got underway until our final piece, broken only by some really poor Christmas Cracker jokes from our wonderful compere Susan, and of course an interval session where everyone enjoyed the festive refreshments all organised by Diane again this year. Thanks to her and also to Jill and Sue for helping behind the counter with the drinks. It was even said that the bustling refreshment hall had more of a 'party' atmosphere to it, with people gathered in noisy groups having a great time discussing the concert and finding plenty of snacks from the ladened central food table, looking lovely with its decorations and assorted festive finger foods.
The second half saw band members don Christmas hats, costumes, party dresses and other festive accessories and everyone loved Craig's turkey hat and Jen's turkey slippers. Even our conductor, Ian, got right into the festive spirit coming on stage for the second half in a full Santa costume! The concert continued with plenty of festive music and lots of opportunities for everyone to have fun and join in, with words displayed on the large screens (new this year), chances to get up and dance and everyone seemed to love it when we handed out plenty of percussion instruments to the younger members (and some not so young!) for them to help us perform a couple of rousing Christmas pieces. All too soon it was over, but we have had some lovely feedback from people about the whole event. It appears to have been one of our most enjoyed Christmas concerts of recent years. If you missed out this year, you should get in early next year, so you too can start off your Christmas celebrations in style with KCB.
The band took an ensemble to perform festive music for the residence at Willow Park, as part of their organiser's run up to Christmas. They also organised choirs, school children and other bands to entertain their residence during this happy period.
Thanks to our baritone player Barry who did a great job of the liaising with the Willow Park organisers, this event was well organised by them and the residence had even been given the words to many of the pieces were played during the evening, so they could all sing along. It was a joy to perform for these people who seemed to enjoy the whole event. There was even refreshments arranged for all after the event was over.
We have already been asked about bringing some of the old folks to our 2012 summer concert which we are delighted to have along and will be arranging with the organisers in plenty of time for that concert. We also look forward to returning next year to perform another carol concert for them.
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