St Athan at the Eisteddfod
The band took its annual trip to the National Eisteddfod on Sunday 3rd August. The event this year is sited on Pontcanna Fields in Cardiff so for once there was no long bus trip to be made!!Against a sparse, but very strong field, the band took 2nd prize on the day from adjudicator Lloyd Landry.
The band's 20 minutes entertainment programme opened with Bleinheim Flourishes by James Curnow, then there was a superb rendition of "Virtuosity" by the band's principal cornet player, Claire Bourne followed by the etherial arrangement of John Rutter's "A Gaelic Blessing" followed by a high spirited performance of Serenata arranged by Mark Freeh and finishing with a rousing performance of the finale from Symphony No 4 by P I Tchaikovsky.
Congratulations to Tredegar Town Band who were in commanding form on the day and took 1st prize by 5 clear points.
Youth Band Re-Starts
After a well deserved summer break the Youth Bands re-start their rehersals.Last year was a very successful one for the band as they found they were so well supported they were able to split into Beginners, Juniors and The Youth Band itself.
New members are welcome to join and take advantage of the excellent teaching and chance to learn how to play as part of a group. Instruments are available.
Rehearsals start on Tuesday 9th September from 5 o'clock.
For more information and how to become involved contact the Bandmaster Alan Bourne. (Details on the contacts page.)
Current Vacancies
Fancy a chance to play with the premier RAF Voluntary Band in Wales?? We compete in the 1st Section at both National and Local levels. So, are you up to it??Due to some recent personnel changes we are looking for experienced players to join this hard working friendly band. We currently require the following:
Tutti Cornet players x 2
1 EEb & 1 BBb Bass
2nd Trombone
However, if your seat isn't covered here and you fancy coming for a blow then give us a ring and you will be made very welcome.
For more information about the band please contact Alan Bourne on 01446 797318.
Music For A Summer's Evening
The band enjoyed a fantastic evening of music making with Cowbridge Choral Society in a joint concert held at St. Donats Art Centre on Thursday 26th June.The select audience were treated to renditions of The Beatles Greatest Hits and a wonderful selection from Les Miserables by Cowbridge Chorale Society under the direction of their conductor Carole Lloyd.
Despite the somewhat damp conditions, the audience was kept in high spirits by the Band and their performances of Strike Up The Band, I'll Walk with God and a fantastic cornet solo from Claire Bourne who played What I Did For Love.
The band and choir then joined in performances of Faure's Pavane and Howard Goodall's moving theme to The Vicar of Dibley.
Veteran's Day Parade
The band was recently honoured to take part in marking Veteran's Day at Cardiff Castle. The Band provided accompaniment, music and Last Post for the Drumhead service at lunchtime.Later on the Band took part in an enjoyable concert with the Dowlais Male Voice Choir in the Magnolia Gardens of Bute Park. The programme of music was warmly appreciated by the assembled veterans and their families whilst enjoying the lovely weather and hospitality.
St David's Hall Concert
The band took part in the "Bless 'em All" concert in St. David's Hall. The concert was hosted by Stan Stennett and a number of acts took the stage to help 'bring back those wartime & civvy street memories'!
Sunset
During the course of the 2nd half of the concert the band brought down the house with a moving performance of "Sunset" featuring Claire Bourne and Sarah Vice on cornets.The band finished the second half with a rousing rendition of "Marches On Parade" featuring the members of the cast for the final section of "Land of Hope & Glory".
Band AGM
Hot on the heels of a very promising 2nd place in the Tredegar Contest, the band held its AGM on Monday 19th May.The Band Master presented his annual report and stated that he hoped the recent result would be a good foundation for the rest of the year.
During the evening a number of issues were discussed including a proposed tour to take place at Easter 2009.
The band now looks forward to a busy summer including competing in the Eisteddfod, this year held in Cardiff.
RAF Voluntary Massed Band Concert
19 players from the band travelled to RAF Cosford early Saturday morning to participate in the massed band concert event. We arrived at Cosford in time for a quick lunch and then it was straight into rehearsals for the concert on Sunday. In fact, quick meals seemed to be the order of the day as we checked into our rooms and tried to get tea in one hour! However, the true professionals that we are, we made it back for rehearsal complete with indigestion for another two hours of rehearsals to run the programme.Saturday we had entertainment laid on for us in the Sergeant’s Mess, not the Squadronaires this time but a Horse Racing Night. Those of us who made the 1 ˝ mile trek were rewarded with cheap beer (Ł4.80 a round!) and a spectacular winning streak on the horses that lasted until the bar shut when we gambled everything on one horse and lost! On the return leg from the Sergeant’s Mess we picked up the rest of the girlies from Jax Club where serious amounts of socialising had taken place and we believe Rose taught everyone how to play crib whilst Alice was reliably lining up the shots in preparation for the next morning’s hangover. Alan Lewis spent his time inviting the entire bar to “come and stay at our house” all because they wanted to see where Gavin and Stacey live – I’m not entirely sure if Barry Island is ready for such an influx of clarinettists this Summer!
The Day Arrives with Snow!
Sunday morning inevitably started with bleary eyes and a hangover, all until we looked at the window to see a blanket of snow outside. The heat in the bandroom is nothing compared to the heat in the blocks at Cosford and the thought crossed many minds to roll in the snow outside to cool off – perhaps it was just as well we had those hangovers after all! Breakfast was served in the Junior Ranks Mess and all other than our Bandmaster made it to breakfast – even if John did get his as a takeaway. The look on the trumpet player from RAF Akrotiri’s face when Rose said she was looking for a single gentleman in the middle of the men’s block was a scream as he instantly declared he was available for entertaining any of the 7 ladies. It took all of Rose’s diplomacy to let him down gently!With time for a quick photo in the snow wearing our new tour t-shirts we headed off to Symphony Hall.
Last Rehersal!
The stage manager ran us all through our paces again, and again and again….. Then we headed back on stage for a quick (?) 4 hour rehearsal before heading up to level 4 for tea in style. All into uniforms, shoes polished, shirts personally ironed by Rose, epaulettes fitted, belts adorned, hair scraped back, fringes adjusted, Kay had time to just quickly trim hers and ties smartly done – we then looked like a bunch of bus drivers – except for Alan Lewis who seriously considered a quick shift as a security guard. Time for more photos and last minute touching up, Alice did a great audition for the next Star Trek movie with the biggest plasters imaginable covering her studs, but we were finally ready for the off.
First Half
The concert kicked off with the most spectacular rendition of the National Anthem with massed band of 142 (we know because Rose counted us all on Saturday afternoon) and a very talented young organist from the Birmingham Conservatoire and 6 VBIs plying fanfare trumpets up in the choir stalls. Following on from that we headed into safer territory with the RAF Regiment March Holyrood followed by Suppe’s Light Cavalry both directed by Jon Teague from Cosford Band. Then it was the first feature of the evening and Claire got up to join 6 other cornet players to play The Three Jolly Airmen. At this point a Pipe Band lead by the pipers from RAF Halton took the stage and quite literally electrified the theatre with a superb display. Throughout the evening Jim Bowen acted as compere and quite literally had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand, although I’m not quite sure how he got away with the shearing the sheep joke! Next we were in familiar hands when our own Alan Bourne came onto stage for the first time and we played John Williams’ highly emotive music from the film Saving Private Ryan, the band rewarded Alan’s persistence with some of the best playing all night with spine tingling piano sections that can only be achieved with the breath of sound that a band that size can give. Next it was RAF Wyton’s turn to shine and they turned to their own VBI Graham Sheldon and their percussionist come crooner Brad Appleby who came out to the front to thrill the ladies in the audience with Can’t Take That Away From Me. Next James Gray from RAF Kinloss returned to the helm to orchestrate the band’s Great Escape, where all our players finally got to play some music that we knew – hurrah! Our featured soloist for the evening was Belinda Evans, a runner up in the Maria contest on tv recently, who was quite simply sublime. With one of the smoothest soprano voices I have ever heard live she absolutely blew us away with a set including Gershwin and the operatic aria O Mio Babino Caro. To conclude the first half the band was led by Dave Jackson to play Children of Sanchez featuring Matt the principal trumpet player from Halton Band on Flugel Horn.
Second Half
The second half ran straight on with the Dambusters and then the pipes returned to stage once more. Then Michael Pegram from RAF Holton took to the stage and directed the band through Clarinet Candy featuring 7 Clarinettists who displayed the virtuosic capabilities of the instrument. The principal Clarinet player from RAF Wyton was on form all evening and also played a cadenza in the Suppe in the fist half. Time then to return to the leadership of Graham Sheldon and the band played an absolute gem of an arrangement of a selection from the stage show Chicago, much embellished by Graham’s wobbly belly trick! Belinda Evans joined with the band in this half to sing a war song tribute including The Army, The Navy and The Airforce, A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square and The White Cliffs of Dover all arranged and conducted by Michael Pegram. Jim Adair flew all the way from RAF Akotiri in Cyprus and conducted The Luftwaffe March from “The Battle of Britain” and managed the massed band with incredible nerve given that his band in Cyprus is somewhat smaller in number! Time then to welcome back the newest of the VBIs in Tom Milford who leads the band in a quite literally roaring piece (we all had to mimic jungle animals at one point!) featuring our own Flautist Joyce along with 2 others to perform a lengthy and challenging Flute break in the middle. The finale arrived and we were really pleased to see Alan Bourne back to lead us through the final three pieces. Highland Cathedral featuring organ, fanfare trumpets, pipers and massed band was an awesome sight and gave Claire and Sarah a chance to disappear backstage and on up to level 4 where we added to the display with Paul from RAF Cosford band to play the bugle call in the Sunset whilst members of the RAF Regiment ceremonially lowered the flag with precision timing.
