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| 05/06/07 | |
| Welcome to the news page of Old Hall Brass. | |
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On this page we hope to keep you up to date with the band's progress and to include information about the band's initiatives. Any news items of a band related nature would be welcome. I am looking to have a "Birthdays of the Month" page. If you would like to grass any band member up, please feel free. I won't tell them who told me :-) Despite waiting patiently, no one has given me any extra birthdays :-( Please think about who you would like to surprise with a mention on this page. Go on... You know you will. You will, you will, you will. |
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| The Death of Ernie Appleyard | |
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It is with great sadness that I have to report that I have tonight been
informed of the death of Ernie Appleyard on Monday 5th February. Ernie was a fantastic musician with the ability and enthusiasm to motivate and fire the young to do as well as they could. He let loads of us youngsters from Thornleigh into Eagley Mills band in the 1960s and encouraged many of us to excel in our instruments. Despite the fact that I famously let him down while playing Bass In The Ballroom and forgetting my cues for the band to come in after the cadenza, he forgave me and let me keep playing. I am forever grateful to Ernie for the start he gave me and many of my contemporaries. He will be sadly missed. |
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| Holiday Season | |
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Just a refresher on this folks. Some of you will know how
much we enjoyed our stay at this lovely guest house, Well, we enjoyed it
so much we went back this July and had a whale of a time. Alex and Mark made us feel totally welcome again and made us some fantastic meals. I really cannot recommend this guest house highly enough. If you want somewhere to stay in the lakes then this is the place.
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| Personality Changes | |
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The band are pleased to welcome a number of new players in the form of the
Banks family. Their pages will appear on the website soon. Trevor has
already sent me some information about himself - check out his page via
the Players' Pages. Carol is now sitting
next to me on BBb bass, so I am now surrounded. Help! She is blowing hard
to work up some steam on the puffaphone, and I'm always willing to give
her a hand with that :-) (Ooh! Matron!) While I'm on about personnel, I'll thank everyone who has helped us out on both a temporary and a permanent basis over the last several weeks and months. |
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| Congratulations | |
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I am reliably informed by the proud father - and I quote:
"Just a note to confirm that son Samuel Arthur Ashton was born on 2nd
May 2007 at 08:39 weighing in at 8lb 6oz at Halifax Calderdale Royal
Hospital.
Sarah and Samuel are fine and I'm chuffed to bits.
Here are a few photographs."
The whole band are also, in Dave's words, "chuffed to bits". Now, don't forget, you need to get him blowing on something as soon as possible. I'm just relieved it wasn't Heckmondwyke after all! |
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The band is extremely pleased and honoured to have been asked by Southport
Dramatic Club to perform in their upcoming production of Brassed Off at
Southport Little
Theatre. The show runs from the 26th January until the 3rd February
and we are really looking forward to this new type of venue.
Although none of the band could be described as natural thespians, we have already managed to practice the music for the scene where Grimley Colliery band gets roaring drunk at the Whit Walks. Certain members of the band could have been typecast, really. We did such a perfect rendition of one of the marches that Trevor was later heard to mutter something like "Why me? Oh Why Me? How can they do it to my poor ears" Or something like that. Unfortunately that was during the rehearsal of the area test piece Carnival. Plans are also afoot to organise a concert in the wonderful Southport Little Theatre. Watch this space! |
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| And Following that... | |
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What an amazing turn out! A fabulous house, a superb concert and a good time had by all. The concert at Southport Little Theatre last night was superb. The soloists did a stunning job, The little quartet in the Irish Blessing made the hairs on the back of my neck rise and the bass solo wasn't bad either J The audience were superb, giving us one of the warmest welcomes we've had in a long time. The only downside was that Trevor's jokes appear to be worse than Neil's! As soon as that shiftless drummer gets his act together, we might have some pictures for you, taken by his lovely wife Debbie, who deserves to be made a saint for putting up with him J Thank you Southport for making us feel so welcome. We'll be back!
Said photographs are available here |
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| Our Very Good Friends | |
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Once again, we have had a very successful time at the Royal Oak,
Standishgate. Mayflower Brewery, which we proudly opened some time ago
(where do the years go?) is now producing some very fine ale (which we
sampled) and hosted our concert, complete with a rather unique puppet
show under an amazing marquee which kept the bank holiday rain off. There are some photos here though one is quite fuzzy. Probably taken by young Luke Sudworth! The chronic weather didn't spoil everyone's enjoyment of a very varied programme put together by Trevor, though the cold in the second half threatened to put paid to me. Long may we continue to enjoy our association with The Royal Oak! Cheers! |
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| Blackpool 2007 | |
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It's always a challenge going to the areas. Sometimes the test piece has
some good writing, something to challenge every member of the band.
sometimes it is just not up to scratch. Everyone within hearing knows my
opinions of Carnival so I won't bore you with them here. However, we
went to Blackpool, having given it our best shot and we came in the
prizes. We did not make the mistake of thinking that Carnival was easy.
Far from it. The boredom factor was a danger though. Dude and I had to
keep pinching each other to stay awake. We weren't helped by an
over-enthusiastic air conditioning fan either. I listened to two bands at the start, which may have been a mistake. Trinity Girls put in a good performance. Stuart Barton has really worked wonders to bring them into the 2nd section and the band have come on apace. I thought Wardle, who were the other band, were very polished in their performance and really deserved their placing. However, I noticed that both Trinity Girls and Wardle seemed to be playing from different copies of the music. I heard notes and chords from both bands that were not in our version. I'm not complaining that both these bands beat us in the results, far from it and all credit to both of them for their performances. But I think it is disgraceful that there was no standardisation of the music. That made it more difficult for the adjudicators to be fair and more difficult for all the MDs to know whether the music they were playing and interpreting was the right one. I can honestly say that this is one area contest that I have not enjoyed at all. I know I am not alone. The choice of Carnival for the 2nd section was a poor one. Not only from the point of view of the requirements of the music, but also because of the rip off perpetrated by the publishers. R. Smith & Co need to examine their collective conscience (assuming they have one). This is not the first time they have cheated bandsmen. |
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| Another Sad Event | |
| I am very sad to report the retirement of Peter Littlehales from Old Hall's Principal Cornet Seat. Peter has been a good friend of mine since he first arrived and I'm currently at a loss for words. He is still taking the Community Band, but feels he needs a break from the pressure of leadership. (As If!) Maybe an interview later. In the meantime, there's a (huge) vacancy. Apply if you dare! | |
