Members of Shipston Town Band have been spreading good cheer across south Warwickshire and Oxfordshire this December – with the wonderfully festive sounds of brass.
The band have been out and about in towns and villages across the area, bringing smiles to faces with their extensive repertoire of Christmas classics – from traditional carols to contemporary compositions. All of this was on display at what has become an annual highlight of the band’s calendar – its Christmas concert at the Townsend Hall, Shipston, which took place on Sunday (8 December).
In a wide-ranging programme, the band opened with a spirited Christmas Joy, a veritable overture of carols which proved the perfect curtain raiser. Next came Prokofiev’s unavoidable Yuletide great, Troika. The band took the audience on a journey through the festive classics, taking in The Snowman, Infant Holy and a very seasonally appropriate selection of film music in the form of Goff Richard’s A Disney Fantasy (who doesn’t watch Mary Poppins at Christmastime?).
There can surely be no contemporary composer more festive than John Rutter, so it is always a delight to hear his music played at this time of year – and Shipston Town Band didn’t disappoint, with an enchanting arrangement of his 1984 masterpiece Candlelight Carol.
Principal cornet Paolo Pezzangora and 1st trombone Tom Evans joined forces for a duet A Foxtrot Between Friends, which received a warm reception from the packed audience. Leroy Anderson’s festive belter Sleigh Ride – complete with appropriately bombastic whip cracks – brought the curtain down of the first half.
An inventive arrangement of Bolero with a seasonal twist opened the second half, which contained highlights including Carol of the Bell, Still, Still, Still, Christmas Singalong and The Twelves Days of Christmas. The soft tones of the flugelhorn were the star for a masterful solo of Away In A Manger by Darran Wheeler. Frosty the Snowman gave bass player Adrian White a chance to shine, with an energetic and highly entertaining solo. Another highlight in an afternoon full of them was Goff Richard’s warm and wonderful Christmas Piece – a truly heart-warming original composition by the brass band master arranger.
The 40th anniversary of Band Aid’s December 1984 smash Do They Know It’s Christmas? was marked with a brass arrangement by Derek Broadbent, bringing the concert to its festive crescendo. There was however time for one more musical stocking filler from the band, in the form of Derek Ashmore’s now classic Jingle Bells.
It may have been the end of the concert – but it was merely the start of the band’s busiest season. Groups of players will be out and about until Christmas Day, visiting supermarkets and other locations to give a brass band accompaniment to Christmas shoppers everywhere. The band will also be performing at the Nine Lessons and Carols at 5.30pm on Sunday 22 December at St Edmund’s Church, Shipston.