Gigs

“Sunny” Saturday Concert, Wokingham - 6th June 2009

The Reluctant Saxaphone Soloist
by Nina Bell-Williamson

As most people were aware I was more than slightly trepadatious about Saturday’s open air performance in Wokingham Town Centre. The two stalwart members of the Alto-Sax first’s team, Anna and Alan, who could be relied upon to play any solo going, at a moment’s notice - and play it in time AT THE RIGHT TIME - weren’t able to be there. Alison, at short notice, said she’d play a couple of the solos but the rest were down to me. ME!!

I didn’t sleep very well and was blamed for all the rain on Saturday as Marc Edwards the conductor had previously mentioned that if it rained hard we’d have to go to the pub instead. He was probably joking.

My wish for rain to stop play was very nearly granted as Saturday got rainier and rainier - but undaunted the BWCB band de-camped from the shelter of the Town Hall to play outside Waitrose, which at least offered some covering for the timpani (once we’d removed the trolleys).

For those who don’t know us well we are an ever increasing band of enthusiastic players, mostly wind instruments and timpani but also an electric guitar (we’re inclusive ~ anyone’s welcome if you can read the dots and have mastered a musical instrument in a previous existence). The actual blurb reads:

A Community Wind Band with open access to anyone over 19 with some band experience Do you have - A wind, brass or percussion instrument? - Experience of playing in a band with players of around grades 4-5 or higher? - Some music reading skills?

And we play anywhere where we can be accommodated, hence open air as there are about 90 of us registered!

Anyway back to the performance, we started with Puttin’ on the Ritz which went down well with the few inquisitive souls who delayed their shopping and braved the rain to see what on earth was going on, on their way into Waitrose! I think a lot of people were initially interested to see Marc gamely waving his baton whilst Jill tried to keep his music dry with an enormous umbrella.

A few more people arrived and hummed along to Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and listened to Bandology and Holst’s second Suite in F (The March). We played The Blue and The Gray a civil war tune and I got tenser and tenser. A solo was looming in 4 sharps. Phew, over nobody noticed.

Now the aptness of the next tune was unbelievable as we played Singin’ in the Rain. The alto-sax has a solo right at the end but this is the one I usually play, so I was fairly wobble free on this one. I have to say the flutes matched the real rain perfectly with their rendition of raindrops and it was my favourite piece of the day. Not such a favourite was Holst’s Song of the Blacksmith, who by all accounts is a grumpy old so and so and can’t sing in tune - which is just as well - the audience won’t know if it’s supposed to sound like that. Apparently it is.

The penultimate piece before we had a slurp of coffee and a chance to blow our noses was another crowd pleaser, Malaguena, with thankfully no alto-sax solos.

We reassembled and the Clouds darkened, as they rightly should, for The Dam Busters - but as it grew colder our fingers became number and number despite our trying to warm them up by playing A Klezmer Karnival faster than ever before - and the audience (still growing) laughed at our “Hoi” shouted at the end. Unfortunately Alison did not get to play her solo in Miss Saigon as the rain clouds loomed nearer and we skipped on to The Best of Bond where she did a sterling performance instead. We’d made it - we’d battled the rain and beaten the weather and entertained the Waitrose check out girls into the bargain. We’d had to skip another favourite, The Blues Brothers Revue (shame - no alto-sax solo in that) and Movie Block Busters. (phew another solo with 3 flats avoided this time).

Off to the pub for that long awaited pint!

Many thanks to all who helped load and unload the percussion, organise the day and generally make BWCB the best band ever!

First Anniversary Concert, Old Gym, Wellington College - Sunday 25th January 2009

No write up at present

Wokingham Winter Carnival - Sunday 30th November 2008

The View From the Second Flutes
by Pia Drake

This outing was a little more of a blur and you probably needed to be there to really appreciate the finer points. We met some more new faces in the brass section but I’m not sure they’ll be back as they were forced to play outside in the rain. We didn’t play “Singing in the Rain” as it was raining, but the second flutes all had very cold fingers by this point, so it was probably a good thing. The whole outing appealed to my sense of the ridiculous (how many of us could actually see Marc?) but was still a bundle of fun!

To round off, I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone involved in the idea and the running of the BWCB. It’s been great to dust off the flute after 25 years and be part of such a fantastic team of people. I’ve had a blast!

The View From the Percussion Department
by Claire Fellows

Well the view from the percussion department was not much in fact. With BWCB spilling out from the main stage in the middle of Wokingham and the brass section exposed to the elements the percussion section found themselves behind standing ranks of woodwind. This was OK for Dave who is a little over 10ft tall, but not for Claire and Ryn (who aren’t) and Andy (seated at the drumkit). Andy also having to sight-read never really had a chance to see Marc’s baton. Somehow, with Andy’s head bobbing out to see Marc at critical moments and the occasional query from the back of ‘have we started yet?’, tempos were passed round the band reasonably well most of the time given the circumstances.

The compressed layout of percussion kit created the need for some improvised manoeuvres. Dave needed to reach a gong at one point put was is was off stage and Dave was unable to reach it so Claire saved the day with some hastily improvised gonging. Ryn also had to carry out some gymnastic stretching moves to reach the bongos once she had managed to actually locate them. Claire and Ryn leaping over barriers entertained the, somewhat drenched trumpets, from time to time.

We have now also discovered why the percussion section often have long sections of bar counting to carry out - it’s to provide an opportunity to warm frozen hands under armpits which was a good job on this occasion. Despite the circumstances, a shortened programme of “Dies Irae&rdquo, “Sergeant Pepper&rdquo and “Best of Bond&rdquo was delivered by the band with typical panache, and Wokingham shook once more to the mighty sound of BWCB.

Additional Photos

There are some photos of the event on the Wokingham Times website. You’ll have to enter carnival or winter in the “Search Term” box and click on the search button. Anyone caught laughing at the horn player in the hat will be severely reprimanded.

Winter Warm-up, Waitrose, Wokingham - 22nd November 2008

Saturday 22nd November dawned cold and bright with a blast of cold air descending from the Artic to chill east Berkshire and set an appropriate seasonal mood. BWCB were booked to perform a unique brand of extreme busking at 2:15pm outside Waitrose in Wokingham, as an advertisement for the Wokingham Winter Carnival taking place the next weekend.

Preparations had started a few hours earlier with some trusty helpers (thanks Richard, Andy, Tony, Claire, Fay, Phillip et al) descending on the Open Learning Centre to load percussion. chairs and stands into the van very kindly provided by Tony Angus. Claire had identified our equipment needs well in advance and the usual confusion over what to take and how to pack it was avoided (there was only one concert on this day and often BWCB plays on the same days as other Maestros bands using them same kit so the logistics can get very hairy!).

A short drive later the kit was being unloaded outside Waitrose. A very helpful duty manager organised the clearance of the trolley park area and in double quick time percussion, chairs and stands were installed in front of some rather bemused passing shoppers.

The rest of the band materialised clad heavily in thermals, fleeces, gloves, hats and every other possible device for retaining heat. There had been some apprehension about the location and conditions for this performance but as it turned out the band fitted compactly in the available space and the surrounding buildings provided a reasonable acoustic.

A short warm up on a couple of carols and we were off! The wall of sound which is the band’s signature tune of “Dies Irae” assailed the shoppers of Wokingham (much to the alarm of a young girl passing during one fff moment!). The bands improvised layout with sections standing on both wings gave a nice stereo quality to the brass soli on this piece.

We rocked our way through the “Sergeant Pepper” medley and evoked the spirit of the US Civil War through “The Blue and the Gray”. Within the ranks of the band Victor and Alan mused uneasily on the origins of the title of the tune “Tenting Tonight”. (Was this a euphemism for some unmentionable 19th Century practice?).

This was followed with some more carols. With the bands ears still ringing after “Dies Irea” the inevitable chinese whispers followed the calling of the tunes (“OK we’ll do number thirteen.” “What did he say?”, “Thirteen”, “Thirty?”, “No Thirteen” “Eighteen?”, “No Thirty!”). Then it was off to the movies and we thundered our way though “Best of Bond”, “Movie Blockbusters” and “Singing in The Rain”.

A few carols to finish, (notable for a failure of the brakes as Marc tried to bring the band in on a final rall on “We Wish you a Merry Christmas”!) and we were home and dry.

Huge thanks to those who braved the cold to come and watch, and especially those who helped with all the loading and reloading of the kit on the day. The band played a blinder and Waitrose and the Wokingham Winter Carnival were delighted with the end result. Onwards and upwards!

From the Depths of the Second Flute Section
by Pia Drake

A large group of musicians gathered hopefully outside Wokingham’s Waitrose, looking slightly out of place, and played some lovely loud music - didn’t we have fun! The great thing about belonging to a wind band, if you’re a little flute player who tootles away nicely, is being part of such an enormous big sound. What a tremendous pleasure to feel the noise and vigour of a well co-ordinated brass section behind you!

(The additional beauty of playing in such a large, tightly-knit, band is that your flute neighbour to the left has their instrument pointing into your left ear and you could volunteer several comments as to their tuning etc....... Whereas your own musical offerings are far away, being melodiously delivered into the ear of your neighbour on the right, which gives you a strange feeling of unaccountability......!)

We started with some carols - set A4 plastic wallet to landscape - accompanied by the merry tinkle of flutes hitting music stands every time we brought them up to play and tried to find a direction to point them in! Then - back to portrait - we played “Dies Irae”, well, faster than we’ve ever rehearsed it. On to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, played with feeling and expression. We were even looking up to see what the beat was by the second line.

Next was “The Blue and The Gray” where the flutes played beautifully together. We played the solo together, the duets together and the unison parts together. In fact, we were so together that we all forgot to come in for one section near the end and were, together, surprised to find that the band went on without us. (Phew - think we got away with that one chaps; don’t think Marc noticed.)

Marc - what a cool guy! - with his best busker’s smile for the passers by - and conducting in his shirt sleeves (I imagine some kind of thermal vesting arrangement going on there, but......calm down ladies....best to stop imagining!)

More carols - landscape. Standing up, I saw faces across the band that I’ve never seen before. “Best of Bond” - portrait - probably the best we’ve played it, without a peep during any of the G.P.s and lots of lovely loud vigorous bits. By the time we got to “Movie Blockbusters” some of the clarinettists looked frozen solid (hint: fingerless gloves in Claire’s for just £2) and the flutes were gently dropping warm spit down their neighbours necks. Then “Singing in the Rain” with not a drop in sight. We plinked and we plonked with increasing pride as it really isn’t often that the 2nd flutes get to lead the whole band.

More carols - landscape. Plenty of applause from the audience made it all worthwhile.

Ascot - 20th July 2008

No write up at present

Brassed Off Day, South Hill Park - 13th July 2008

This performance was part of an inaugural fringe event to the Bracknell “Big Day Out” Festival and was christened “Brassed Off” day as it featured several Berkshire Maestros brass and wind bands as well as BWCB. After uncertain weather throughout the Summer this particular Sunday dawned bright and fine and this helped set a lovely atmosphere for the day. From 11:00 onwards streetband music from one part of South Hill Park mingled with the sounds from the main stage and the audience could have a relaxed picnic whilst they enjoyed the carnival atmosphere.

BWCB were on stage in the middle of the running order and just managed to all squeeze on even though the stage was quite substantial. The repertoire on this occasion reprised most of the tunes from the April concert with the addition of an Abba medley and “Pirates of the Caribbean”. The sound on stage was in fact earsplitting at times (although not when the percussion section bravely decided to preface the British Grenadiers with an extract from John Cages 4’ 33”). After another rousing performance the band transformed themselves back into the audience again to soak up the ambience, try out some very tasty Indonesian noodles and a fair quantity of beer!

Inaugural Concert, Wellington College, Old Gym - 27th April 2008

The band is well and truly christened with this inaugural performance at the Wellington College Old Gym. With only 3 months elapsed since the first ever rehearsal in January nerves on stage were running a bit high prior to the start. However “Dies Irae” got things off to a start blazing start and there were some hairs rising on the backs of several necks as the intro blasted out and the brass section raised the tension during their gripping soli in the middle of the piece.

After this nerves were steadied and the band never looked back as it steamed through Majestia, The Lion King Medley, Grundman’s English Suite, Holst First Suite in E flat, a Duke Ellington medley and the Liberty Bell march. After this it was time to bask in the praise of the audience who included some quite hard to impress teenage offspring (who were impressed) and Tony Angus’s workmate who was going to take the mickey on Monday morning but discovered he couldn’t because, “actually it was really good”! Rare praise indeed - onwards and upwards!