The Band’s Christmas concert this year was held in the beautifully restored surroundings of Aylesbury Methodist Church. Although we have played here once before for a wedding, this was something of an experiment to see if the church was suitable to become a regular venue for our concerts, and on the whole the answer seemed to be yes. Admittedly the band was a tight fit in the chancel, not helped by the large Christmas tree at the back, but after some juggling the whole band managed to squeeze into place. There are certainly advantages for the audience, the church is more accessible than St Mary’s, there are no pillars in the way to obscure the audience’s view of the band, and those who wished were able to sit in the balcony to get an even better view. Rod Wynne-Powell was on hand again to take photos, which you can see here.

The concert opened with Fanfare and Hark the Herald Angels Sing, a quirky modern arrangement of the Christmas carol by Chip Davis for the group Mannheim Steamroller^[Wikipedia] (who are very popular in the USA but virtually unknown in this country). This was followed by Alfred Reed’s Festive Overture, then Black and White Rag and the four Gypsy Dances Puszta by Jan Van Der Roost. Vanessa Owen and Annalie Ibison played the Flower Duet from Lakmé arranged for flute and oboe by James Curnow. After Christmas Recollections and a carol sung by the audience, the first half ended with A Vaughan Williams Christmas.

After the interval the second half opened with Troika by Prokofiev, and New York by Nigel Hess. Another new piece came next: Good Swing Wenceslas arranged by Sammy Nestico. A quartet from the sax section then played three entertaining pieces, Ceilito Lindo, Solitude by Duke Ellington, and Five foot two, eyes of blue. The old favourite, Carol of the Drum was followed by the 3rd movement of Pineapple Poll, Broadway Showstoppers, and of course, White Christmas. After another carol sung by the audience the concert ended with Sleigh Ride and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Near the end of the concert, conductor Robert Wicks publicly thanked the members of the band and the committee for all their work in the past year, and John Dablin presented him with a gift in recognition of all the hard work he had done over the Christmas season conducting the band in the absence of Duncan Stubbs.

So ended another year. In January rehearsals start for the next concert in Penn Street, and it will be time to start preparing for another Band Development Weekend in March, as well as the Spring concert. So there is much to look forward to in 2010.

On Saturday 5th December the Band returned to Fairford Leys (a district of Aylesbury) to provide music for carols. As the band set up under an arcade at the side of Hampden Square there seemed to be a distinct lack of people come to sing, but shortly before the start at 5 o’clock a crowd appeared from nowhere, many carrying umbrellas against the gentle rain. The band played We Need a Little Christmas, White Christmas, and Sleigh Ride and then accompanied the crowd in half a dozen carols.

Then on Sunday the 6th came the annual Mayor’s Carol Service in St Mary’s Church. For some reason the procession of the Mayor and dignitaries from the town centre was late, meaning the whole service was 20 minutes late starting. The band shared the accompaniment of carol singing with the organist, playing alternate verses and joining together in the last, so when the organist started playing one carol in the wrong key it caused considerable alarm. Some frantic signalling from conductor Robert Wicks alerted the organist to his mistake, and he performed an acrobatic improvisation before the next verse to modulate into the correct key!

The next Friday, 11th December, it was Wendover’s turn for carol singing. It was a cold but dry evening as the band set up on the Manor Waste in Wendover High Street. A good sized crowd soon arrived and spent the next hour singing 15 carols accompanied by the band. The event was organised by Wendover Parish Council, who must have been quite pleased with the good turnout.

And so to Waddesdon to play slightly premature Christmas music at Waddesdon Manor. The weather forecast predicted showers, and they were right if your definition of showers is heavy rain for 20 minutes every half an hour. Last year we played in the stables, but the recent downpours had left them flooded, so we played outside the main house, under a permanent gazebo that serves in summer to protect al fresco diners from the sun. Today it protected us from the rain. Amazingly it also protected some of the audience, while others stood under umbrellas to listen. Only in England…

The band played a mixture of Christmas carols, Christmas music such as White Christmas, and some of the other pieces we have out at the moment, such as Black and White Rag and Broadway Showstoppers. Considering the awful weather we were lucky to have an audience at all, but those who did stop to listen certainly seemed to appreciate the band, applauding each number. If we’re invited back next year, let’s hope it will at least be dry!

This is the blog of Aylesbury Band. Here you can read news about concerts and other events involving the Band. You can add your own comments to the articles, and read other people’s comments, by following the ‘comments’ link at the end of each article. Also, on the front page you can find links to older news stories in the column on the right.

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