Marsden Band Blog

Pontins, Curry, Scotland and New Faces!

2009-10-16T10:31:00.002+01:00

Pontins is only one week away now and the hard work seems to be paying off and our Montage is taking shape. For MD Glyn Williams (and his wife Helen - our regular flugel dep) there is one obstacle in the way though - the Nationals with Fodens this weekend. I'm sure everyone at Marsden will be rooting for the lads and lasses from Sandbach! (The band would also like to thank Norman Law for taking charge of our preparations this week, in GW's absence) There will be no rest for our MD though as we plough straight into what will be an intensive week, with a rehearsal on Sunday after our annual harvest festival concert.

Joining us on stage next sunday will be some new (and not so new) faces around the stand. Making their contesting debuts with Marsden will be Alistair Campbell (not the MP!), a student at the RNCM on Solo Cornet and Andy Griffiths on Eb Bass, who joins us from neighbours Holme Silver. Andrew Woodward has returned to the band on Percussion after a brief sojourn at Holme, Nick Lees has dusted off his cornet again to very ably prop up the cornet section and Paul Pugh's work commitments have allowed him to rejoin the bass section in time for Pontins. Kathleen Coton has switched to 2nd Baritone for the contest and after a bit of swearing has become accustomed to her new role (well doneKC!!) We will be using one or two deps but these are all very familiar faces at Marsden and we are very grateful for their help.

It would be nice to be able to sit back and take a breather after working on a tough piece like Montage but the band faces another few weeks of hard work in preparation for our inaugural appearance at the Scottish Open. All the backroom work is in place, coach booked, hotel booked and so on but we do have to keep fundraising for what is an expensive venture without any sponsor help. So, what better way to raise dosh than holding a Curry Evening? This will be on Saturday 21st November (8pm) at the Band Club, tickets are £8 each, everyone is welcome and all proceeds will boost our Scotland coffers. On the subject of fundraising, we must say a big 'well done' to the intrepid trio of Chris Hoyle, Luci Lamb and Matthew Schofield who tackled the Three Peaks of Yorkshire to swell the Scotland fund.

We will keep you informed about our Pontins adventure and hope it will be good news - keep everything crossed!

Summer Update (Back To The Hard Slog)

2009-09-17T12:26:00.001+01:00

Let's start by taking things up from where we left the last 'Blog'. Our concert at Brighouse Methodist Church was a great success with guest conductor Paul Andrews charming the healthy audience, which included some noteable banding names. Cornet soloist Richard Marshall amazed everyone with his virtuosity in Charivari and Willow Echoes and showed his lyrical qualities in People and a delicate Rusalka's Song To The Moon. Our resident 'dep' on flugel, Helen Williams, also gained a lot of praise for her solo contributions in the band items. Oh yes, the band did pretty well too! Not quite as well as they did two days later though! We managed to retain our title at the 10th Brighouse March & Hymn Tune Contest, by a considerable margin over Hammonds Saltaire to boot. Along with the title we were awarded Best Contest March, Best Hymn, Best Soprano and as winners we have received quite an exciting invitation for 2010! The contest organisers were offering a trip to compete in EuroBrass Drachten (Holland) next year. The adventure will be over a few days and will include concerts as well as the competition itself.

After all the euphoria of the weekend and the thoughts of being all 'cosmopolitan' next year we were soon back to earth with a bump when we returned to Durham for the annual Miners' Gala. It's a very tough, long but thoroughly enjoyable day and it's nice to see that the people of New Herrington have really welcomed us into their tight-knit community with such warmth. Our main showcase piece this year was the exciting and jazzy 'Valero' which went down well with our audience but some of them really wanted a repeat of last year's Post Horn Galop!

The band actually managed to have a few weeks holiday this summer, the break only interrupted by the odd rehearsal and a 12 Piece concert in Marsden Park. The week starting August 17th was far from a break though. Several members of the band that could spare some time off fulfilled four days of engagements at York Races for the Ebor Cup meeting. We mainly provided background music throughout each race day, surrounded by people quaffing Pimms and champers! The cornets were suddenly thrown into the spotlight though, delivering a fanfare to mark each day's big race from the top of the main stand. We even made it onto Channel 4 Racing, with our girls getting a close-up on Ladies Day (they panned out when it came to the blokes - a good thing perhaps!!!)

The end of August saw a return to Ilkley to play for the very popular Proms concert in the town centre. The weather wasn't at its best but there was still a good crowd to listen to our main pieces such as Force of Destiny and Gaelforce and then all the Proms favourites that they all have a good sing and wave their flags to.

The band is pleased to have welcomed former Faireys soprano player Mark Harrison to the band and has said goodbye to baritone player Leah Grebenar who has gone on to pursue other banding challenges. We are also looking forward to announcing one or two new faces in the coming weeks. Next on the cards for the players is Pontins where we have to tackle the demanding Montage by Peter Graham but are hopeful that we can build on the hard work and go there with our heads held high as Senior Cup winners. The end of November sees us venture up to Scotland to make our debut at the Scottish Open.

From now on I promise that these blogs will be me more regular and thus a lot less long-winded!! (My fingers are worn out now - need them for Montage!) Look out for news of new signings, our progress for Pontins and beyond!

Marsden Keep Going!

2009-06-23T16:58:00.002+01:00

Well. it was nice to have a short break after the antics in Blackpool, but the action was soon upon us! First on the agenda was the band keeping their fingers crossed in support of our MD Glyn Williams and his wife (and regular Flugel dep) Helen when they competed with their Fodens band at the 2009 Masters Contest in Cambridge. There was no need to worry though as they regained their title and Glyn picked up his third major contesting Best Soloist prize in under twelve months!!

So, what has the Marsden Silver Band been up to since the heady days of early May? We took in a little marching practise at Scapegoat Hill up on the tops above Golcar on the morning of Whit Sunday, followed by a trip over the border to Springhead and Lees in the afternoon. We were blessed by gorgeous weather and it could not have gone better! One prophet of doom (who shall remain nameless) forecast a much darker end to the following week though!

Whit Friday morning in Saddleworth couldn't have been better, perfect conditions for marching - not too hot but nice and bright and all was well with the processions from Diggle into Uppermill. (A special thanks to all the guests that turned out to give us a 'boost', some from far afield!!) Unfortunately, the same could not be said of the evening adventures! The rain was threatening upon arrival at the bandroom around 3pm, it held off to an extent as we rehearsed and performed our 'first over' at Greenacres but our arrival at Lees signalled the unwelcome use of the 'special coats'. With everyone togged up in our very attractive rainwear we battled on through the storm! With the drive and unquenchable (pardon the pun!) enthusiasm of our guest MD Richard Evans we ploughed on through rain and queues to finally compete at seven Saddleworth & District contests. Our final tally saw no places lower than ninth and the highest came at a miserable Uppermill where we came second. The Saddleworth & Oldham District Central Prize for Best Local Band was our main award - resulting in a grand prize total of £1600 for an evenings work!

After such a hard weekend you could forgive us for putting the breaks on again, but no we had to keep going, 'silly season' has officially started for Marsden Silver Band! Just eight days after a tortuous Whit Friday the band decided to enter the St Helens Hymn & March Contest, no big deal you may think - but on the same afternoon as our own Hymn & March Contest was to be held!! A 'quick' dash over the tops to St Helens and back saw the band scoop the awards for Best Championship Section Hymn and March, but due to the prize structure at this contest miss out on the overall 'Best Performance' prize which went to JJB Pemberton Old.

One of the (very) local bands at this contest - Rainford, had decided to follow us home and compete at our own contest later in the evening. We were blessed with some good weather and Rainford were blessed with the larger share of the spoils for their efforts. A comprehensive run down of the results will follow soon.

Last Sunday (21st) saw the band in Hymn & March Contest action yet again, this time at Morley. It was great to see the band retain the overall winners title, winning in the best band on the march and contest march sections. The hymn tune and deportment awards went to Silk Brass and our neighbours Meltham respectively.

Our next main venture will be the concert in Brighouse on Friday 3rd July with guest soloist Richard Marshall (Principal Cornet of Black Dyke Band) which will be held at the Methodist Church and is part of the weekend festival there. This weekend will culminate with the famous Hymn & March Contest to be held on Sunday where we will be hoping to retain our title. We will keep you posted!!

SENIOR CUP CHAMPIONS 2009!!

2009-05-11T11:48:00.003+01:00

Yes, it's true - you are not seeing things! The Winter Gardens area of Blackpool became very noisy for a while when the Marsden players and supporters started their celebrations on hearing the results of the Senior Cup section of the Spring Festival! The potential 'banana skin' of an early number four draw was avoided by really pulling out all the stops with a performance of Herbert Howell's 'Pageantry' that 4barsrest.com described as 'scorching'. To get a result off an early draw requires a very solid account and MD Glyn Williams told his players to make sure we were the best band in the first ten to play, this we did and some! Principal Cornet player Jason Evans was recognised for his great playing by being announced as the best soloist of the section. All the principal soloists throughout the band had a good day and we are lucky to have such great section leaders.

All the hard work that our players have put in clearly paid off, despite the disappointing result at Holmfirth contest, it became a faint memory and served as good preparation for the big one. The concert at St Bartholomew's, where the test piece was given another airing the week before, also gave the players a lot of confidence.

The band is now only one step away from appearing in the British Open, the Grand Shield awaits us next year and there are some fine bands to overcome. Then again, it was a great achievement to progress from the Senior Cup at the first attempt, so why not surprise people again in 2010? An appearance in the British Open may mean a change of conductor though - Glyn would be playing against us with Fodens!

The band is now looking forward to Whit Friday on June 5th where we will be looking to pick up several trophies to sit alongside The Senior Cup and swell the coffers by a few hundred pounds as well! This will see a conductor change though, Glyn's commitments as Solo Euphonium of Fodens mean that the legendary Richard Evans will be leading our players in the evening contests. 'Dick The Stick' has a good record on Whit Friday and lets hope some of his magic rubs off on us to continue our winning ways!

Stayin' Alive!

2009-03-13T09:41:00.003Z

Yes, to quote The Bee Gees we're "Stayin' Alive!" (please note blogger isn't a massive fan). Despite a disappointing eighth place at the Yorkshire Regionals, on a performance that had a lot of positives about it, we are still a Championship Section band in 2010. The often tense and complicated situation on the day meant that we had to beat certain bands by a certain number of places, which thankfully we worked hard enough to do and the gods (well, Steve Sykes and Nigel Boddice!) smiled on us!

Some of the positives came from the adjudicators' remarks. Nigel Boddice referred to a 'fine sounding band' that gave a 'performance of some merit' whilst Steven Sykes mentioned 'great sop & solo cornet', a 'lovely rich ensemble' in the 2nd movement which also had a 'super conclusion' and in the 3rd mvmt 'euph sings well' and 'solo cornet has lovely sound'. Clearly Yorkshireman 'Syko' appreciates a good Yorkshire sound rather than the Scottish Mr Boddice! Third and unofficial adjudicator Debbie Lea (Solo Horn) claimed that 'Man of The Match' should be shared between Lofty and J for their Sop/Solo Cornet duet! British Bandsman's Kenny Crookston (another kilted one!) was kind enough to mention us in his report, 'Glyn Williams drove Marsden to eighth with an energetic performance that featured some terrific soprano playing'.

So, what next? More hard graft to come on yet another 'oldie'. Herbert Howell's 'Pageantry' will provide a stern test at Blackpool in a few weeks, as the band are aiming to build on their promotion to the Senior Cup and go straight out of it (in the right direction!) into the Grand Shield. The general consensus is that it will suit the band and with the usual work ethic in place there is no reason why we can't move 'onwards and upwards'!

Contest Time Again!

2009-02-23T16:37:00.002Z

The band is now very close to the Yorkshire Area 'qualifier' for the National Championships. This is to be held on Sunday 8th March at its usual venue of St George's Hall, Bradford. We will be up against the biggest names in banding, Black Dyke, Brighouse & Rastrick and Grimethorpe to name a few! Hopefully the hard work that we have already put in on Gilbert Vinter's popular work 'Salute To Youth' will pay off and we can match or even better the respectable 6th place that we gained at last year's event.

Some new faces will be making their first Marsden appearance at the contest. JJ Lees and Helen Stott, both former members of the now defunct Pennine Brass, have joined the solo cornet ranks with Graeme Taylor moving to strengthen the back row. Another former Pennine player is the experienced bass player Peter Denton, who has filled our empty BBb Bass seat. Peter played in the same Point of Ayr band as Mark Rodgers, enjoying some great successes in the late 1990's. Other interesting links with our assistant principal cornet Mark are that he was JJ's tutor for several years and Helen started out at Delph Youth Band where Mark is now a conductor and teacher. (It's a small world isn't it? But then again Mark does admit that he's been around a bit!!) The fourth new player is Leah Grebenar on second baritone, who is a familiar face at Marsden having helped out in the past, especially on the Riverhead CD recording. Laura Hobbins is coming out of retirement to play flugel at the contest, Johnathan Eastwood has returned to the band on second trombone (so not really a 'new' face) and finally, Nichola Rathburn has joined on first horn. Nichola was a member of the BT Band, which later became Stockport Brass before sadly folding at the start of the year and previously played in the same VBS Poynton Band as our other BBb bass Drew Goodier . We would like to take this opportunity to welcome all the new players and hope they enjoy life at Marsden!

So, the new look band is hard at work at the moment but one person who is doubly busy is our MD Glyn Williams. He will be performing Salute To Youth a week before at Blackpool, as solo euphonium of the famous Fodens Band, who will be looking to add to their impressive record of North West Area wins. We wish them all the best, hoping that they do win, otherwise we will know about it in our final week of preparations!!

Hopefully we will have good news in our next blog and before we know where we are we will be getting ready for the Senior Cup in May when we will be tackling another old masterpiece, Pageantry. There's certainly no rest for the wicked!

What have we been up to since October?

2008-12-14T12:05:00.010Z

(Modified 29/12/08)

Unfortunately we have to start this update with bad news. We did not manage to match our great result at Pontins 2007 this time round. Despite a good middle field draw of 11 and a solid performance of John McCabe's "Cloudcatcher Fells", the adjudicators didn't see it the same way and saw fit to award the band eighth place. Disappointing yes, but we came off stage pretty happy with our day's work on a piece that had many technical and stylistic pitfalls.

So, on with the positive! November was a quiet month for us (at last) but we did fulfill our usual engagement at the Mechanics Institute in Marsden for the Remembrance weekend. Along with our guest vocal soloist we entertained the audience with a good balance of patriotic music and wartime favourites.

December has seen 'Small Team' engagements at 'The Drop Inn' at Elland and 'The Shepherd's Rest' in Sowerby Bridge, where we entertained the regulars with a blend of standards and of course christmas carols! The other engagements along these lines included our popular Christmas engagements at Woodsome Hall Golf Club, providing background music for the diners in the grand hall before becoming 'wandering minstrels', offering several carols to the guests in each dining room. Our final ensemble concert was a new but local one to us. Around a hundred people ventured out into the cold of Sunday 14th to attend a Carol Concert held in Marsden Park. With the band playing from the well illuminated Bandstand, the hardy souls were rewarded with plenty of singing and refreshments of Mulled Wine and of course Mince Pies! Our refreshment came later when we returned to the bandroom - Brian and Edna's pie and peas! We did have to 'sing for our supper' though, rounding off the short concert given by our Youth and Training Bands with some carols. (You don't get owt for nowt round Marsden you know!)

Inbetween these bookings we ventured 'across the border', taking our passports with us, to Frodsham in Cheshire. We were asked to do this charity concert after the sad, recent demise of neighbours Pennine Brass, who had fulfilled this booking for a few years. It was an interesting experience for the band, new territory and some novel programming. Wartime favourites (straight from our November pads) stood alongside several pieces from our Riverhead CD and the inevitable festive favourites. The band also had a new conductor, the very cool and suave Paul Andrews of Wire Brass, deputising for Glyn Williams who was busy playing for Fodens Band. We pulled off an enjoyable concert, it was great to play to a large capacity audience and have been invited back next year!

As usual our final engagement came at the grand St Bartholomew's Church in Marsden, joined by the Colne Valley Male Voice Choir. The accoustics really do help make this concert a great event with both choir and band taking the opportunity to 'open up'. Glyn had found a new work for us to tackle in the shape of Eric Ball's 'Kingdom Triumphant' - a festival overture combining the carols 'O Come, O Come Immanuel' and 'Lo He Comes With Clouds Ascending'. Basically it was a great hit, bringing the house, well, church down at the end of the first half.

The Marsden Silver Band would like to take the opportunity to wish all our supporters and friends throughout the banding world 'A Happy Christmas and All The Best For The New Year!'

See you in 2009!

Busy Start To New 'Banding Season'

2008-09-02T20:15:00.002+01:00

After such a hectic summer it would have been nice to sit back and relax before the Contest Season. No such luck! Rehearsals have already started for our appearance in the Oldham Coliseum Theatre production of the very famous "Brassed Off". Marsden will be the first Yorkshire band to be invited over the border to feature in this massively successful production. Delph and Dobcross bands are returning with the local Mossley Band joining us as debutants this time round, in place of Boarshurst and Diggle. Our stint 'on the boards' commences on Tuesday 9th until the following Saturday which includes a matinee performance.

Prior to this we have a sponsors engagement at the "3 Pigeons" pub in Halifax and as soon as Brassed Off is out of the way we will be down to some extensive work on John McCabe's fine work "Cloudcatcher Fells" for the Pontins Championships at the end of October. Inbetween we have a return trip to Durham to take part in the Durham Miner's Memorial at New Herrington and the extremely popular Jazz Festival at home in Marsden.

An update on our November events and hopefully good news from Pontins will follow!

Successful Summer Season

2008-09-02T16:49:00.003+01:00

While most bands have been taking a well deserved rest over the past few weeks, we have been busier than ever! The engagements list between June and September saw an average of one per week (possibly more)!

Everyone knows of our reputation at march contests and we upheld this with three wins within the space of a month! These came at the Easingwold, Brighouse and Morley competitions. Along the way we picked up various individual prizes such as Best Contest March, Best Soloist, Best Hymn Tune and principal cornet player Jason Evans claimed yet another Best Cornet award at Brighouse, receiving a brand new Yamaha Zeno Cornet for his efforts!

We continued our annual tradition of taking part in the annual Durham Miners' Gala, regarded as the Whit Friday of the North East, with Jason again taking centre stage by delighting the crowds with two 'stunning' (according to reports) renditions of Post Horn Galop. Other engagements have included several '12 Piece' bookings for our sponsors Ossett Brewery at some of their pubs and inns around the region. Whilst being more relaxed concerts they give the band an opportunity to reach an audience that wouldn't usually listen to brass band music.

Even though we managed to fulfill one of our prestigious bookings at York Races this summer, a sun drenched Saturday at the end of July, our other engagements became victims of the terrible weather towards the end of August when all of the Ebor Cup meetings were cancelled. One engagement that did survive the weather was the Yorkshire Festival at Harewood House near Harrogate, a great venue where we provided fairly light music of a traditionally Yorkshire and British flavour inbetween the main events in the arena.

Our final concert of the 'Summer Season' saw us return to Ilkley yet again for the finale of their Summer Festival. This is always a big event held in the middle of the picturesque town, with hundreds of people lining the streets with some dining at tables in candlelight! Like the Harewood the concert it has a traditional and classic feel to it but we decided to make it more international this year featuring Hine Hine from New Zealand and Cappriccio Espagnol. Of course we included Scotland ('For The Love of a Princess' from Braveheart), Ireland (Riverdance) and as usual we had a Welsh conductor, although it wasn't our usual MD Glyn Williams, it was his colleague from The Fodens Band, Gareth Westwood. After the usual 'Last Night of the Proms' standards the climax of the evening sees Tchaikovsky's famous 1812 Overture accompanied by fireworks high up on the moors, overlooking the town centre.

This summer round up would not be complete without a special mention of congratulations to two couples from the band. Firstly, 3rd Cornet player Laura Maynard and 1st Horn Andrew Eastwood on the birth of their son Alfie and secondly the marriage of our MD Glyn Williams to Helen Fox, Flugel player of Fodens (and resident 'dep' at Marsden!). The band's best wishes go out to you all!

New Band Website

2008-08-31T13:42:00.002+01:00

Welcome to the new Marsden Band Website. Features include:

This blog to keep you up to dat with what is going on.
A calendar so you can see what the band is up to.
Contact information.
Details of CDs we have featured on.
Information about our sponsors.
Photos and videos of the band (thanks YouTube!)

We hope you can find any information you are looking for and enjoy using the new site.