July to August 2003

August

We continue to entertain the crowds in the parks throughout the summer having already played at Evesham, Stratford-upon-Avon, Stroud and Malvern parks. The summer is not over though so don't forget to come and listen to us at Droitwich, Cripplegate and The Fountains!

August

Sunday 10th	Malvern Bandstand www.bandsinthepark.org.uk
Sunday 24th	Droitwich Bandstand www.bandsinthepark.org.uk
Sunday 31st	Cripplegate Bandstand, Worcester www.bandsinthepark.org.uk

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July

Cotswold Beer

Saturday 27th July 2003 saw the first appearance of Tewkesbury Town Band at the CAMRA organised Postlip Hall Beer Festival. Placing the band, especially Keith, in such close proximity to gallons of real ale for three hours could have proved a recipe for somewhat unusual sounds!

As it turned out, our slave driver of a musical director ensured that we spent more time on the stage entertaining the drinkers than partaking of the ales ourselves.

We played four sets of approximately 30 minutes in length from when the festival opened for the afternoon session at 12pm until it closed at 3pm.

The music consisted of beer drinkers favourites (such as 'Best of Bond', 'Mood Indigo', 'New York, New York', 'Spanish Eyes', 'Summer Nights' and 'The Ugly Duckling'), a "Brassed Off" selection ('Florentiner', 'Floral dance' and 'Concerto de Aranjuez') and numerous other well known light entertainment items.

The most frightening moment of the day came not from the elevated location of the trombone seating but when Nigel Morgan, the aforementioned slave driver MD, threatened to strip during 'The Stripper'!!

All in all a fun time was experienced by all and the band had to fight their way from the stage at the end through an extreemly appreciative, if slightly inebriated, audience that clamoured for encore after encore!

	Stanway House - 20th July 2003 The members of Tewkesbury Town Band are always keen to play their instruments, whatever the occasion! This time it was to add some atmosphere to the Conservative Association garden Party at Stanway House.
We opened our programme in fittingly traditional style with the march, The Middy. This was followed by some of the band's favourites this summer including La Danza, Sea Breezes, Raggy Trombones and The Ugly Duckling. We finished, again traditionally, with the rousing Jerusalem and Land of Hope and Glory (Pomp and Circumstance No. 1).

More Exam Success!
Congratulations to Helen Morgan BA, the band's assistant principal cornet, on achieving a 2:1 in her Music with Business Studies degree at Bath Spa University College. The month of July also saw Helen pass both her Grade 5 Theory and her Grade 5 practical exams, the latter with distinction, so we are now running short of wall space to display all the certificates and graduation photos!

Training Band members make the Grade!
Congratulations go to Elly King and Megan Taylor who have recently passed the exams of the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music. Elly King passed her Grade One playing Flugelhorn earlier this year and Megan Taylor has just passed her Grade 2 exam playing Trumpet. Both students got very positive remarks to accompany these certificates and should be proud of their achievements. Congratulations!

Moving Onwards and Upwards!
This month 2nd Cornet player Ben Goodman has left the Band in order to pursue his trumpet playing. This comes as he has gained a place in the Gloucestershire Youth Wind Orchestra (?). Also a keen actor, Ben decided that he could not give 100% to all his hobbies and decided to concentrate more on other areas. Thanks go to Ben for his work while with the Band and we wish him Good Luck for the future.

The new 'BendixTewkesbury' Band!
Saturday 12th July 2003 saw the formation of a new band, for a day at least! As everyone went off on holiday to enjoy the sun, BendixKingswood were left with a few empty seats in their band and an engagement at the Autosleepers Rally at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern to complete. After bumping in to us at Pershore last weekend, they asked us to do a job share with them, a great opportunity for our third section band. The result was a fantastic sounding band! A most enjoyable day, the crowds that gathered to listen to us were treated to our usual delights of 'Tin Tin and Thomas', Raggy Trombones and Spanish Eyes amongst others. A special mention must go to Andrew Lee, Bendix Band's fabulous flugel player, who stood up and sight-read a different arrangement of Rodrigo's 'Concerto de Aranjuez' to that he is used to that included far more "twidlely-bits" than he expected! Well done!

I'd just like to add my own thanks to their principal cornet, Neil Allen, for being a true bandsman and playing 5th man down on the solo cornet bench - a mistake that I will never forget!!! [HM]

	Pershore Brass Festival - 5th July 2003 Our annual pilgrimage to Pershore on the first weekend in July took place for the fourteenth time this year. Tewkesbury Town Band is proud to be one of a select number of bands that have appeared at all of the Pershore Festivals of Brass. Our proximity to Pershore means that e often set the standard for the day as one of the first bands to play. This has the advantage of allowing us to spend the afternoon relaxing, drinking, eating and listening to good brass band music.
Our day started at 10:30am in Pershore abbey with the Jubilee Fanfare; a rousing opening, echoing the fanfare from the Abbey tower that heralds the opening of the Festival. Our programme in the Abbey had a classical theme and our overture was 'Tantalusqualen' by F von Suppe. This was followed by the beautiful solo playing of Sarah Crowe in the perennial audience favourite 'Concerto d'Aranjuez' by Rodrigo.
	The dynamic range of the band was tested by 'The Prelude to Act I of Verdi's "La Traviata". A piece that really suited the wonderful acoustics of the Abbey and tool the band on a journey from pp to ff and right back down to ppp! A polished rendition of Gounod's 'Soldiers Chorus from Faust' continued our journey through the landscape of that new country 'Classic FM'. Martin Musto provided a touch of Dvorak with an outstandingly sonorous version of 'Rusalka's Song to the Moon'.
A rapid change of pace took us to Spain for a rousing rendition of Bizet's 'March of the Toreadors", featuring some excellent Euphonium and Cornet playing. Our journey through the Classics concluded with a piece ideally suited to the Abbey surroundings, Sullivan's "Onward Christian Soldiers".
We then made our way over to the Marquee at the Angel Inn to listen to the band preceding us and to obtain some liquid refreshment. At 12:10pm our 'Jubilee Fanfare' heralded the start of our second act. The 'Overture: Pirates of Penzance' led the audience on cat like tread to our first soloist of this act, Neil Crowe. He gave a great performance of the beautiful film theme, 'Bilitis'. Our front row cornets then stood up to give their four person version of the fun cornet trio, 'Sea Breezes' by Iain Rayner. A piece ideally suited to the wonderful weather on the day and which had everyone wishing for ice cream and a paddle in the sea!
Staying with the aquatic theme, our next piece saw an 'Ugly Duckling' turn into a swan. A fun light piece of music enjoyed by both audience and band. A trip into the archives saw the reappearance of a brass band arrangement of the popular Bryan Adams hit, 'Everything I Do (I Do It For You)' from the film 'Robin Hood Prince of Thieves'. Continuing the journey back in time, for his second solo of the day Martin Musto chose to play the rhythmic 'Spanish Eyes'. Our programme was brought to a conclusion with a traditional bras band march, 'The Middy'. A very appreciative audience applauded us from the marquee. After packing our instruments away, it was down to the chip shop to collect our lunch before returning to the Angel Inn to listen to the other participating bands.		Just for a change... Pete was eating Cake!!

Congratulations Again...
...to Nick Walkley for being appointed Repiano player with The Fairey Band!!

New Event!
Cancel your plans for the weekend and get to the Three Counties Showground at Malvern on Saturday to hear the band play. We'll be joined by members of Bendix Kingswood Band to entertain the crowds at the Autosleepers Rally. Don't miss this opportunity to see some top class players in action as between us we will make up one magnificent band! We will be playing from 2pm - 2:45pm and 3:45pm - 4:30pm.

July

Saturday 5th	Pershore Festival of Brass 10:30am Abbey, 12.10pm Angel Inn www.midsummerbrass.ic24.net
Saturday 12th	Autosleepers Rally - Three Counties Showground, Malvern. 2pm-2:45pm, 3:45pm-4:30pm.
Sunday 20th	Stanway House, 12:00 - 3:00pm.
Saturday 26th	Cotswold Beer Festival, Postlip Hall. 12:00 - 3:00pm.
Sunday 27th	Stratford Park Bandstand, Stroud. www.bandsinthepark.org.uk

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