Saturday 9th February was a cold day, with snow still lying on the fields as the band members set out for Eaton Bray, a village some 15 miles from Aylesbury just over the county border in Bedfordshire. The occasion was an afternoon Children’s Concert in the parish church of St Mary, a fine church which dates back to the 13th century. With temperatures outside hovering just above freezing the heaters were struggling to warm the air in the building, but we’ve played in worse!

Less than 10 minutes before the concert was due to start the audience seemed very small, with very few children, but then a lot more people started arriving bringing their families with them. Being a children’s concert, conductor Claire Lawrence had designed a programme to appeal to youngsters, including The Muppets theme, Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang, and Pirates of the Carribbean. To show off the different sections of the band, each played a piece on their own: the woodwind played Nellie the Elephant, the brass played Pastime with Good Company, arranged by principal trumpet Norman Bartlett, and the saxes played Return to Sender. To illustrate the percussion, Claire handed out lots of percussion instruments to the children for them to bang, shake and rattle along to A Grand Day Out (the Wallace and Gromit theme), leading them in a conga around the church. That wasn’t the only audience participation, to the sound of a some German style oom-pah music she had the audience lean forwards, lean backwards, left and right, stand up and sit down, to much hilarity.

Other items in the concert included Stephenson’s Rocket, which draws a picture of the early railway engine, and Rob Wiffin’s medley of nursery rhymes Dancing Round the Nursery. There was more music from films and shows, such as Can You Feel the Love Tonight, James Bond, Jungle Book, Aladdin, and Harry Potter. The organisers had asked for a bit of the “Last Night of the Proms”, so the concert finished with the Hornpipe from Henry Wood’s Sea Songs and Land of Hope and Glory. The audience demanded an encore, so the band played Amazonia from Windows of the World by Peter Graham.

One toddler said he enjoyed the concert because “it made me happy”, we can’t ask for more than that. The band will be returning to Eaton Bray next January to play a New Year’s concert and, we hope, make people happy.

On Saturday 19th January Aylesbury Concert Band should have been performing a New Year concert in Holy Trinity Church, Penn Street, a village near Amersham. Unfortunately the day before, as is usual in this country, two or three inches of snow led to transport chaos, and on Saturday the roads around Amersham and in the village were still difficult to negotiate. So the organisers decided they had to cancel the concert.

This was disappointing for all concerned, we always enjoy playing there and the audiences enjoy our music. It is hoped that between us we can arrange another date in the spring. so let’s hope we can find one soon with more favourable weather.

The Band’s Christmas concert this year took place on Saturday 8th December in Aylesbury Methodist Church. It was mainly conducted by Robert Wicks, as Claire Lawrence didn’t know until the last moment whether she could be there or not. As it turned out she was able to attend, and to conduct some of the pieces.

The concert opened reflectively with A Vaughan Williams Christmas, a medley of three lesser known Christmas carols. Then Christmas carols featured again in modern guise in The Proclamation of Christmas by Stephen Bulla. The trumpet section were featured next in Trumpets Wild by Harold Waters, after which the woodwind played A Christmas Calypso accompanied by maracas shaken by the saxophone section. Then the whole band played Soul Bossa Nova by Quincy Jones. The Christmas theme returned with Troika by Prokofiev, then our guests for the concert, the Charles Pope Ladies Choir sang several pieces including Christmas carols. The first half finished with the audience singing O Come All Ye Faithful accompanied by the band.

After the audience had enjoyed refreshments, including mince pies, the second half began with two of Three Carols from Olde England by Duncan Stubbs, Ye Merry Gentlemen and Coventry Carol. Robert Wicks then handed the baton to Claire Lawrence to conduct the three pieces that the Band played to win a Gold award at the Midlands Concert Band Festival in November, Shining Sword, October, and Stephenson’s Rocket. After this came A Winter’s Tale by Philip Sparke. Five members of the brass came forward to play a In Dulci Jubilo, a brass quintet by Stephen Roberts based on the traditional Christmas carol, and then the whole Band played Fantasia on the ‘Dargason’, the fourth movement of Gustav Holst’s Second Suite in F. It was back to Christmas with the perennial favourite Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson, and the audience joined in singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

Robert Wicks then thanked the audience for coming, and thanked the members of the Band for all their hard work during the year. He also thanked the committee for their work running the band, and all the other people who help by selling tickets and organising refreshments. Finally the Band sent the audience away to the sound of We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

This was the Band’s last concert of the year, but there are still two more rehearsals before Christmas as we have to be ready for the concert at Penn Street in January.

The Band’s Christmas season began on the first weekend in December, starting on the 1st with Fairford Leys Carols. This is held every year in Hampden Square in the Fairford Leys district of Aylesbury. The Band entertained the gathering crowd with a couple of Christmas pieces, including Let it Snow, then the local church and school choirs combined to sing a couple of Christmas songs. After this the band accompanied the crowd singing carols, and then Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to let Father Christmas know where to come. Of course nobody sang loud enough, so they had to sing it again. This time Father Christmas did arrive, and handed out sweets and gifts for the children.

Then on the 2nd the Band went to St Mary’s Church to provide music for the Mayor’s Carol Service. Each year the Mayor invites local dignitaries, charity organisers and members of other civic organisations, as well as the public, to the carol service. As the Mayor arrived in procession from the town, some of the Band’s brass played a fanfare, then the Band and the organist accompanied the congregation is singing carols, interspersed with Christmas Bible readings. Broughton Junior School Choir sung a couple of items, including Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, with appropriate actions. One of the clergy read a version of the Christmas story which cleverly quoted the names of a lot of television programmes, while the Rector handed out sweets to any of the children (and adults too) who put up their hand when they recognised one. Then after the last carol, O come, all ye faithful, The Band played We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Sleigh Ride as members of Aylesbury Town Council handed out mulled wine and mince pies.

Aylesbury Concert Band entered the Midlands Regional National Concert Band Festival in Northampton on November 18th and received a Gold Award in the Community Band class.

The festival gives bands the opportunity to have their performance assessed by eminent adjudicators, which on this occasion were Rob Wiffin, previously Principal Director of Music of the Royal Air Force, now Professor of Conducting at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall, and John Greaves, advisor and conductor to the European Youth Summer Music School and acting Head of Service for Music Cornwall.

Bands can be awarded bronze, silver, gold, or platinum based on their performance of a short programme. Aylesbury Concert Band played three pieces: Shining Sword, by Rob Wiffin, October, by Eric Whitacre and Stephenson’s Rocket, by Nigel Hess.

The adjudicators were impressed with the standard and quality of the playing summarising their adjudication with “A well-contrasted programme with good colours, blends and dynamics, overall a very commendable effort”.

Conductor, Claire Lawrence, was particularly pleased “I’m delighted that all the band’s hard work in the weekly rehearsals has earned them a Gold Award. The festival performance contained a consistently high level of musicality, some accomplished solo and section playing and a great team effort to show the band at its very best.”

Martin Brown, Chairman of the band added “it is always great to see a band whose origins began in the Aylesbury community do so well in a festival such as this as it further reinforces our belief that Aylesbury Concert Band is one of the best in the area. Our band members come from in and around Aylesbury and we are hopeful following this result we will attract further players”.

This is the fifth time the Band has entered the festival, gaining bronze in 1999, silver in 2004, gold in 2006 and silver in 2008.

Every year since 2000 the Band has been providing the popular ‘Proms’ concert in Vale Park, Aylesbury, as part of Park Life organised by Aylesbury Town Council. This year the event took place on Saturday 1st September; during the day there was a big screen relaying coverage of the Paralympic Games from London, music from the stage, and many activities for children, including a rock climbing wall. In the evening it was Aylesbury Band’s turn to take to the stage.

Some of the past Vale Park Proms were blighted by rain, and after this year’s dismal summer we were justifiably nervous that this concert would be too, but to everyone’s relief the day was sunny and warm, and stayed dry the whole evening.

One drawback of our conductor, Claire Lawrence, being a member of the armed forces is that the demands of the service must take priority. Having been sent off for over two weeks to work in security for the Olympics (where she spent the whole time in mind-numbing boredom on the night shift) followed by another period for the Paralympics meant she was unable to conduct this concert. Instead her place was ably filled by Robert Wicks. As this was not only the year of the London Olympics but also the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, Robert chose a mainly English programme, opening with Concert Prelude by English composer Philip Sparke. Other English composeres featured included Guy Woolfenden, Rob Wiffin, Eric Coates, Edward Elgar, William Walton, and Sir Arthur Sullivan. You can read the complete programme here.

The Proms concerts always feature at least one star soloist, and this year we were joined by soprano Alison Langer. In the first half she sang O mio babbino caro by Puccini, and later she sang Poor Wandering One from The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert and Sullivan. She is a very fine singer, and the crowd showed their appreciation with enthusiastic applause. Members of the band often play solo items too, and this year principal trombone Jon Pyefinch played an arrangement for trombone of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.

Of course the part of the concert many of the audience come to hear is the “Proms” finale, which as usual began with Jerusalem, with Alison Langer leading the singing. Then Henry Wood’s Fantasia on British Sea Songs with the rousing hornpipe, ending with Rule Britannia, again sung by Alison Langer, with the audience joining in the chorus. Finally the audience joined in singing Land of Hope and Glory to Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March no. 1, and as always this had to be encored.

At the end of the concert the Mayor of Aylesbury, Cllr Mrs Ranjula Takodra, came onto the stage and thanked the audience for their contributions to the Mayor’s Charity, Home-Start Aylesbury. She also thanked the Band for a wonderful evening of music that made her proud to be British. We’re looking forward to providing an even better and more successful concert in 2013.

On the 14th July the Band made its summer visit to the Fairford Leys district of Aylesbury to play at the Fairford Leys Summer Fayre. After the drenchings of recent weeks the weather was much kinder, it did rain a little as the band was setting up on the bandstand, but it soon stopped and brightened up. Netting and spikes fitted under the roof of the bandstand helped to discourage the pigeons who were a hazard in previous years, but instead a children’s entertainer set up in front of the bandstand provided a hazard of a different kind. Amplified through the PA loudspeakers next to the bandstand he was encouraging the children to scream and holler as loud as they could, and being children they were only too eager to oblige, between them making enough noise to threaten our hearing!

Other than that the day was almost routine. Claire Lawrence conducted the Band in a mixture of music suitable for a fête, the band played well, there were no disasters, and we did our best to add to the atmosphere of the occasion.

This was the last engagement before the summer lull, but in between holidays we must get ready for our next big event, the Vale Park Proms on 1st September.

On the evening of 7th July the Band travelled to Quainton for a Children’s Concert at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. Quainton Road station was once a junction on the Metropolitan and Great Central joint line, but passenger trains ceased running there nearly 50 years ago, though the line is still open for occasional freight trains. The station is now the site of a railway museum, and is a popular tourist attraction. The concert took place on the platform of the Rewley Road station, which was reconstructed here after being saved from demolition and moved from Oxford. The Band played here for the Steam Fair in September 2011.

The cheerful tone of the concert was set from the start as conductor Claire Lawrence led the band in the Muppet Show theme. The first half included Stephenson’s Rocket, a portrait of the famous early steam locomotive by Nigel Hess, music from the James Bond films, Jungle Book, and Aladdin, and Harry Potter. Appropriately for a children’s concert the Band played Dancing Round the Nursery, a clever medley of nursery rhymes written by Rob Wiffin, and in the second half, Cartoon by Paul Hart captured all the fun of cartoons with inventive music in the style of cartoon sound tracks.

To illustrate the various sections of the Band, the woodwind played an arrangement of Nelly the Elephant and the brass opened the second half with a fanfare written by Claire Lawrence herself. The sax section played Return to Sender, the Elvis Presley hit arranged for saxophone quartet. The children in the audience got the chance to participate as Claire Lawrence handed out lots of percussion instruments for them to shake, bang and rattle to accompany A Grand Day Out, the Wallace and Gromit theme. Also the tubas got a rare spot in the limelight when they played Tyrolean Tubas.

The concert finished in “Last Night of the Proms” style with Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March no. 1, but the enthusiastic audience wouldn’t let the band go without an encore, and the band obliged with a couple of Abba numbers: Waterloo and Thank You for the Music. It’s a shame the audience wasn’t a little larger, but those there certainly enjoyed themselves, and we enjoyed playing there. Let’s hope the organisers won’t be discouraged from inviting us back on another occasion.

Saturday 23rd June was the date for the third and final concert of the “Little Missenden Little Proms”. The Band had been asked to step in at short notice after the initial plans for the evening hadn’t worked out, and it was held in the gardens of Little Missenden Manor House near Amersham. On a warm summer evening it would have been a beautiful location for a concert, but once again in this soggy June the occasion was blighted by rain. The rain started during the pre-concert rehearsal, it rained before the concert, it rained during the concert, and continued to pour as everyone went home afterwards. Undaunted, the band squeezed onto the small stage sheltered by a barely adequate canvas roof with some holes, which from time to time dumped water onto some of the clarinet players. Then as the evening progressed the roof began to bulge and sag under the weight of a pool of water growing ever larger, but despite the gleeful anticipation of the trumpet section it held, and the saxophones were spared a drenching.

Amazingly, by the time the concert was due to start a sizeable audience had gathered, sheltering under a sea of umbrellas, while some well organised people put up gazebos. They were obviously determined to enjoy themselves, and enjoy it they did, especially the traditional “Proms” finale, Jerusalem, Henry Wood’s Sea Songs with Rule Britannia, and Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March no. 1 including Land of Hope and Glory. The Band were joined in this by mezzo soprano Christine Rice, a professional singer who is more usually to be found at the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, or Glyndebourne, or even at the real Proms in the Albert Hall! On this occasion she wisely eschewed the glamorous frock and instead wore jeans and a coat, not that this affected her glorious singing in any way.

But thanks to 12 year old Marnie Shutter, here is an account of the concert and the music from the audience’s point of view…

The Little Missenden Proms started with a light shower, which progressed into a full torrent of rain. However, despite the fact that the rain leaked through the top of the stage cover (and that most of the woodwind section spent the evening dodging the leaks) the concert still progressed. With great flourish, Claire Lawrence welcomed the audience and the band began to play a classic – and given the rain very appropriate – English piece by Philip Sparke, Yorkshire Overture. That warmed the audience up and got the night off to a great start. The band continued with many more glorious pieces in their first set. Highlights of the first set were a Beatles Medley, and Greensleeves with every section in top form! (My personal highlights of the night included Claire’s outstanding piccolo solo in the Beatles medley and the beef-burgers!)

The Second set began, with the cold June weather forcing all the audience and a few band members to wrap up warm. Stephenson’s Rocket by Nigel Hess was warmly applauded, as was Nimrod and the James Bond medley. However, it was The Dambusters which really got the audience clapping wildly! The soloist of the night, mezzo soprano Christine Rice was welcomed on stage. With a brilliant start, Jerusalem was played to begin the Grand Finale! Her voice with the band was a classy combination. Afterwards, Land Of Hope And Glory was played, followed by the National Anthem. Christine’s wonderful voice captivated the audience, a lot of flags were waved, and then to finish this already amazing night off, a grand display of fireworks were set off, producing a spectacular show.

Overall, the Little Missenden Proms proved a brilliant night and a perfect way to finish the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

June this year is shaping up to be the wettest since records began, and as the date for Cublington fête approached, the weather forecasts suggested that heavy rain on the day might prevent the event happening at all. Fortunately although the day was overcast and windy, the rain held off for most of the afternoon, which must have been a great relief for the organisers.

After last year’s experience the Band set up in a fair sized marquee, which helped to shelter us from the wind. Before our first session the Master of Ceremonies announced that we were going to play, and remarked that one of the players was “local celebrity” Ali Lovatt, much to her and our amusement. Conductor Claire Lawrence led the band in the march Trafalgar, and other popular pieces such as Birdland and Chitty-chitty-bang-bang.

There was meant to be an inordinately long gap of an hour and a half before our second session, but a display of “Street Dancing” ran into trouble getting their sound system to work (hint: use live music!) so the Band was asked to play instead. As we left, half an hour earlier than expected, a few drops of the inevitable rain began to fall as we walked to the car park.

This was the Band’s first engagement since February. In previous years we played at the annual Mayor Making in May, but now this has moved to Aylesbury College following the closure of the Civic Centre, the council decided not to have us play this year. Instead we have been making use of the time to work on improving the Band, and rehearsing some harder pieces which we can perform later in the year.