Nottingham Concert Band Brings British Summertime to Keyworth

23 July 2007

Guests for the evening were the appropriately titled "Four Blokes Singin’, a close-harmony vocal quartet led by Glenn Chaney.

The band celebrated British Summertime with a varied programme featuring selected works by British composers, including Gustav Holst’s Marching Song, Eric Coates’s The Dam Busters March and the exquisite Popular Song from William Walton’s Façade. The first half closed with Charivari, a challenging suite of three contrasting movements written for wind-band by Malcolm Binney.

After the interval, the band returned to the stage with a performance of Roy Kaigin’s Powergen march contrasting with Corsage for Winds by John Cacavas. Next came another William Walton piece, The Spitfire Prelude, followed by Percy Grainger’s Children’s March, where a simple melody is built into a powerful conclusion.

Other works included a symphonic rendition of the traditional Greensleeves and two up-tempo swing numbers: Jazzworks featured a solo spot by composer and saxophonist Andy Hampton whilst A Tribute to Benny Goodman left the audience cheering for more. Robert Parker and the band rose to the challenge with the theme from The Magnificent Seven. Not British perhaps, but certainly evoking long hot summer days.