Band News Archive

Firstly, an apology to all who have visited out page in hopes of news and have found me slow to update the page. I had a lovely holiday overseas and have found myself very pushed for time in the last couple of months!

So this weekend sees Soham Comrades heading west to Prestatyn for the Pontins contest. There are a huge number of people to thank for this venture. Our first thanks go to Matt Brown who conducted the band over the summer. Not only did he put in a lot of work on rehearsing and leading our summer programme of concerts but he also introduced the band to Blitz - the Prestatyn test piece. Unfortunately, he felt unable to remain with the band as our conductor after the summer was over. Consequently, we are indebted to Robin Norman (musical director at Ipswich and Norwich Co-op Band) for agreeing to conduct the band for the Pontins contest. We are also very grateful to Nigel Bramley (solo cornet with the GUS band) for helping with our rehearsals in the build up to Pontins.

Finally, there are many players who have swollen our ranks and will be playing with the band on Sunday. We are delighted they found the time to committ to the band and are all very excited about playing together at the weekend.

Following the twinning of Soham with Andrezieux-Boutheon, in France, Soham Comrades Band was invited by the Mayor of Andrezieux-Boutheon, to participate in their festival weekend from June 30 to July 2, 2006.

The trip started well: on leaving Soham, Matt Brown, our new conductor, declared that he had forgotten his passport, so he had to return home to collect it and meet us again en-route. We then got stuck on the M11 and subsequently missed our shuttle crossing scheduled for 11.30pm. The next crossing available was 3.30am.

Despite these hiccups, the band members kept cheerful with a few (well, maybe more than a few!!) tipples and by making their own entertainment (tooting tunes such as “the great escape” amongst others), in between catnaps.

When we finally arrived at Andrezieux-Boutheon, after 19 hours on our coach, we were met by Martine Crawford, our French host/translator and Peter Beer, Soham’s liaison and representative for the trip. We were accommodated within a superior hostel, and then given a late lunch before being invited to an evening reception/talent show at the Bords de Loire. Here, we sampled the local beer, Sangria and food, experienced a typical French loo (i.e. 2 footmarks and a hole), watched the local talent show and generally got into the festival spirit. Some of our members went onto a local bar to sample further French liquors and added a few euros to the town’s coffers.

On Saturday dinnertime, we gave an outdoor concert playing pieces such as Praise, Cushy Butterfield, Toreadors March, Shepherds Farewell and the French Military March. The concert also featured soloists, Steve (Walkabout) Perry playing Blaydon Races and Richard (The Legend) Franklin, playing “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” from Frankly Speaking. (Richard became a “Legend” on our tour for his snoring, his bottom burps and allegedly showering with his pyjamas on?!) Woody also performed well on bass trombone despite normally playing euphonium.

On Saturday afternoon, like true Englishmen, we put ourselves through the pain of watching England v Portugal. Unfortunately (or fortunately, some would say), we were only able to watch the first 90 minutes, due to our evening concert commitment. Seeing our team’s performance and Rooney being sent off was enough to convince us that it would be an uphill struggle for our heroes to reach the semi finals.

We returned to Bords de Loire to participate in the evening concert, which involved the local choir, two acrobats and us. We played a variety of pieces from our CD, some as background music to the acrobats, some as features within the choir’s musical selection, ending with a grand finale of Pomp and Circumstance with the choir singing a rousing rendition of “Land of Hope and Glory”.

The concert was a tremendous occasion and the band was very well received. The only disappointment of the evening was receiving that dreaded text message “we have lost on penalties again” and so ended England’s world cup dreams.

Andrezieux-Boutheon’s festivities continued with the showing of France v Brazil on a big screen (not that we are at all bitter about the result!!!) and another band from Italy, who have inspired us to consider a change to our band uniform (they wore pink polo shirts and Bermuda shorts!)

On Sunday, Soham Comrades Band plus friends returned home having had a tiring but very enjoyable French experience, thanks to the Mayor and our twinning partners hospitality. Friends included: Sally and Nigel (Lord Charles) Bramley, Steven Gilbey, Nathaniel (Steven Gerrard) Bonsar Ward, Woody (bass trombone soloist extraordinaire), Andrew Frost and Alan Sugars (not of The Apprentice fame).

Thanks also go to Fred and Steve of Jan’s Coaches, Peter Beer, Martine Crawford, Gilles Gallera and Mr Monschein, concert organisers.

This weekend Soham Comrades braved 35-degree heat to make the long trip to Andrezieux-Boutheon, near Lyon in Southern France. The Mayor of Andrezieux, which is Soham's new Twin Town, had specially invited the renowned Soham Comrades band to perform at their July 1^st open-air spectacular on the banks of the Loire.

Together with a 60-strong local choir, the band and its Musical Director, Matt Brown, presented an hour and a half show of music, song and dance. Much of the programme was based on scenes from Bizet's opera CARMEN; there were also several numbers by the band alone, and the grand finale by choir and band together was a rousing rendition of Elgar's Land of Hope and Glory.

The enthusiastic reception, and the warmth of the welcome experienced, convinced the band that this was unlikely to be their last visit to the French town.

As I was unable to join the band on their trip to France I'm very grateful to Peter Beer for writing a short press release for me! I, like you look forward to seeing the photos and will be adding some to the website as soon as I can!

It's with great delight that I offer the congratulations of everyone at Soham Comrades to Duncan and Sarah Wilson who are celebrating the birth of Peter David on Tuesday last week. It looks like Duncan is getting to grips with the joys of parenting in this photo - Congratulations and best of luck to you both!

Every year the band plans a fun season of outdoor summer concerts. This year the seasaon started on the 11^th June in Woolpit. We were delighted to be part of the Woolpit festival, playing a concert on the grass at Green Hill. We were blessed with fine weather and despite the heat played a varied programme of brass band favourites. With entertainers making balloon hats and doing magic tricks and the band adding that unique sound track everyone there had a lovely afternoon and we hope to be back in Woolpit again soon!

To follow that, yesterday we were playing in Cambridge at the Chruch of the Good Shepherd Sumer Fair. While members of the parish sold books, bric-a-brac, cakes, clothes jams and all sorts of other things, the band played on the lawn adding the entertainment. Everyone had a lovely afternoon - some of us even staying for tea and cakes in the church hall afterwards!

If you've missed us sofar this summer fear not. There are plenty of opportunities to listen to one of the regions bes bands in action. Why not click here to find out when and where we're playing for the rest of the summer and come along to hear us?!

On the 6^th June, 2006 Soham Comrades held their annual general meeting at Soham Village College. A big thank you to all of our supporters who came to follow and add to the proceedings. During a brief meeting, Andy Johnson thanked all of the band and committee for thier hard work this year. In particular he thanked Phil Bignell for all the work as contest secretary, Neil George for mainting our finicial records as treasurer, Colin for arranging rehearsal venues for us, Carina for keeping up the website and Emma for bringing the box of music to a from rehearsals and concerts. He pointed out that the next year should be one of looking forward, recruiting more new players and working hard and of course another year of enjoyable music making. Matthew Brown was introduced as our new musical director. After some years following the fortunes of the band we are all delighted to have his leadership to take us to Folkestone, Pontins and the Area next year.

Our congratulations were offered to Steve Perry who was awarded the FJ Talbot memorial shield for the most imporved player. The Richard and Peggy Hillman trophy for the player of the year will be decided in the next couple of weeks so watch this space on that one!

The election of officers for next year saw Don Page continue his role as 'El Presidente' and all our vice presidents were re-elected. We thank them all for their continued support. Andy Johnson will continue as Chairman and Racehl Aves has taken over as vice chairman. David Aves was elected as contest secretary, taking over from Phil Bignell who has taken on this daunting job for many years. Andrea Bignall agreed to continue as librarian with Phil taking on the role of assistant librarian, taking over from Emma Strange. As Neil George and Carina Lobley both feel the time is right to step down and there were no volunteers, the positions of secretary and treasurer remain vacant, with Andy agreeing to find people in the near future.

Overall the evening was a great success finishing with plenty of time for us to get stuck in to learning a couple of new test pieces, in preparation for the busy Autumn contest season, as well as polishing our summer programme ready for the first of our summer jobs and the much anticipated trip to France!

It is with much regret that Soham withdrew from the contest in Norwich this weekend. Our preparations have been going well and it is unfortunate that in the last week a mixture of illness and unforseen circumstances meant that key players were unable to play. The band decided it was better to pull out rather than play with a band below standard. We are very sorry to have been unable to play and are now looking forward to our forth coming trip to France and summer schedule of concerts to perform, both the music we had prepared for Norwich and a whole selection of other treats!

It's been a period of change for the band since the Area contest, with the loss of Chris King, Leslie Aves and Jamie Clay and the gain of Colin Hales, Richard McCormick and Isobel Aves (no relation!). We're delighted Colin has stepped in to the gap left by Chris and is now preparing the band for the EABBA contest on 7^th May. for more information click here! In addtion we have gained the cornet playing of Richard McCormick, who will be playing principal cornet for the contest, and Isobel Aves who will be playing principal horn.

We're pleased to welcome all these players to the band and are always looking to swell our numbers so if you're interested please do contact us for more information!

It's very rare for me to use this space to advertise a concert but there's a first time for everything and I think this one is worth the advertising! This has been organised by Andrew and Phil Wainwright and I'm really lucky to be taking part! Anyway take a look and do try and come along if you're available - it should be absolutely fantastic as is all in aid of Brass Band Aid.

Some of the brass and vocal worlds’ most talented musicians will be participating in a special concert on Saturday 13th May 2006 to raise money for Brass Band Aid and to promote peace in our time. The event, entitled “A Time for Peace: A Musical Spectacular”, will be a ground-breaking concert sponsored by Smith Watkins Brass.

The first half will feature the Optimum Brass Band, a one-off, specially invited group of some of the finest players in the UK, featuring a fusion of Salvation Army, contesting and freelance players, from Britain’s finest brass bands. The band will be performing a number of exciting items, and within this will be included a “Soloist Showcase”. This will feature the exceptional talents of Chris Turner (cornet and trumpet), Owen Farr (tenor horn), David Childs (euphonium) and Katrina Marzella (baritone horn). Also performing will be the BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Musician of the Year, Ben Thomson (tuba), one of the other finalists, Steven Haynes (trombone), Jerry Clack of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (soprano cornet) and many other fine musicians.

In the second half the band will be joined by members of Bromley Temple Songsters of The Salvation Army, together with guest vocalists from other London choirs, and Cameron Burns (organ), for a performance of “The Armed Man - A Mass for Peace”, by Karl Jenkins, transcribed by Andrew Wainwright and Duncan Gibbs. The vocal soloists for the Mass will be Louise Turner (soprano), Marjory Watson (alto), Matt Woods (tenor) and Mark Norwood (bass). This will be only the second performance of the transcription, which was premiered with great success last April. The Musical Director for the evening will be Bandmaster Howard J. Evans.

The concert will be held at St Mark's Church, Westmoreland Road, Bromley, Kent BR2 0TB, starting at 7.30pm. For more information, visit the concert’s website at www.marseille.dk/brass Tickets are priced £15, £10, £8 and £7 (concessions, not available for £15 seats) and are available from Philip Wainwright on 07906 242 319, or by e-mailing atimeforpeace@hotmail.com. They will also be available on the door, but you are encouraged to pre-book to avoid disappointment. All proceeds go towards Brass Band Aid.

It is with much delight we can announce that, as a result of our Christmas concert, a donation of £200 has been made to the East Anglian Children's Hospice. The Christmas concert was a great success, thanks to the support of the children from St. Adnrew's School and the supporters of Soham Comrades Band and it is as a result of this success we have been able to make this donation. Many thanks to everyone who came to the concert and who gave money in support of both us and East Anglian Children's Hopsices.

Soham Comrades band has it's youngest new arrival. Pictured below is Alys Megan George, our principal trombonist, Neil's new born daughter. Congratulations to Neil and his wife and happy birthday Alys!

It is with regret that we have to say goodbye to some of our members. Firstly, Chris King has been transferred to Kneller Hall and can no longer continue as Musical Director. We wish him all the best with his new job and with his future brass banding career.

Not only will Chris be moving on to new challenges but so will two of our cornet players - Lesley Aves and Jamie Clay. Both players have made huge contributions to the band and will be sorely missed. Hopefully, both Lesley and Jamie will enjoy their extra free time and come back to visit us again soon!

What a weekend - the band gave a quality performance at the London and Couthern Counties Regional contest. We gave one of our best performances of Journey to the Centere of the Earth by Peter Graham to earn ourselves 6^th place.

It was an eventful day with a rehearsal in the morning and the afternoon in Stevenage. Phil did a great job at the draw, getting us a 'not too early, not too late' 8^th position to play in. That gave us all just enough time for a quiet lunch and a warm up before performing. We gave our best on stage and were fairly rewarded with the adjudicators comments and our position.

Many thanks to everyone who helped make the day a success for the band, including those who played and rehearsaed so hard and Chris, Duncan Wilson, John Hammond and David Aves for conducting our rehearsals!

Well the first thing to say is a big apology to everybody who's been lookingat our website for updates on the band! I've been snowed under and just haven't had the time to update the web! Well now that's all changed and finally the web site has made it to the top of the list!

So there are many things to update you with. The National qualifiers at Stevenage are coming up! The band are in full swing of rehearsals and are getting up to speed on this year's challenging piece - Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Peter Graham. It's an exhilarating play, with passages of running scales, glissandi in all the part (even the antediluvian basses!) and slow, relaxing passages with sonorous melodies. Our rehearsals have been helped along with Duncan Wilson taking the two sectional rehearsals and giving us the benefit of his valuable experience. Well with all that help it's up to Chris to polish off the remaining corners and for all of us to finish that home practise and give it 100% concentration on the day!

As if ther areas preparation was not enough, there are other plans afoot in Soham Comrades. This summer we have been invited to play in Andrézieux-Bouthéon, near Lyon in France. This town has become the twin town of Soham and will be celbrating their river festival the weekend we visit them. We'll be playing two concerts in the town and are looking forward to an exciting, team building trip away!

Final news for now ... I had an interesting e-mail just after Christmas with a photo of the band attached. It's the band in 1957! Click here to take a look!

Happy New Year to all our supporters! What better start to the new year than to set up a news archive. All our news items from 2005 can now be found by clicking here or from our meun bar! That will leave this page free for all the news from this year. So if you have any news stories that need adding please do let me know!

On Sunday Soham Comrades put on their Christmas concert. For me it has been a privalege to leave reviewing the concert to an anonymous member of the audience (you know who you are - thankyou very much!). So in someone else's words:

What nicer way to spend a Sunday afternoon in Advent than by listening to and participating in a Christmas concert! With a delightful introduction from the Band’s Don Page, the music got off to a flying start with “O Come All Ye Faithful”. The audience took a rest to listen to the thrilling “Sleigh Ride”, and then Langford’s “Rhapsody for Trombone”, with a delightful Christmas cadenza, inserted one suspects by Neil George, the engaging principal trombone of the band. St. Andrew’s golden time choir reminded us of the special part children play at any Christmas event with a charming performance of the “Calypso Carol”, but before the audience could get too dewy eyed, along came three present and former bass players from the band, to demonstrate their ballet prowess, in a pink tutu’ed accompaniment to the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”, surely a unique sight!

The bon-bons continued in the second half, with solos from Steve Perry, principal euphonium, wandering minstrel-like through the audience with his performance of “Blaydon Races” and John Hammond, soprano, in more serious vein, playing “On with the Motley”. The clear, confident singing of the children’s choir brought us back to the real meaning of Christmas with “Such a Tiny Child” and then the band changed the mood with the feel good “Mr. Jums”, a lovely warm, mellow piece. From a modern band classic we moved to a twenty-first century treatment of the sixteenth century “Gaudete”, a remarkable demonstration of how a piece of music can be transformed through the ages. The seasonal “Frosty the Snowman”, played with great humour by Carina Lobley, principal bass, brought the concert to it’s final piece, the carol “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”.

This was a concert truly of the season, made complete by the addition of children’s voices and those of an audience keen to make themselves heard – a delightful start to Christmas celebrations.

We've had a bit of a change in personnel recently! Firstly, congratulations to Sarah Lenton who's moved on to play 2nd baritone for Travelsphere Holidays band. Many thanks for all her hard work and support - as well as that of her parents, particularly Trish. We've also seen the return of David Aves, who has come to play first horn for us. Hopefully the change of insturment will work out well!

Brass Band Aid has been set up by players at Stanhope Silver Band. There have been several aims for the project including to raise awareness of the 'Make Poverty History' campaign and also to raise money for Wolrd Vision. One of the key acheivements to date has been the Brass Band Aid Celebrity Band CD - including a brass band version of 'Do They Know It's Christmas?'. The CD, brainshild of Stanhope's 15 year old trombonist, Briony Thompson, has been released and is availble for sale - buy your copy by clicking here! So far the CD has raised an amazing £9,000 almost reaching the £10,000 target for phase 1.

The launch of the CD was just the first stage in the project. The next stage is to generate more interest from the brass banding community so why not bookmark the brass band aid website to keep up to date with all the news: www.brassbandaid.com.

It was a happy coach load of brass banders that reutrned to Soham on Sunday night after this year's SCABA contest in Folkestone. We are delighted to have won the Hymn tune and to have been placed third in the Test Piece (with our rendition of Paganini Variations, Philip Wilby). It was a long day, leaving Soham at 8am on Sunday to arrive at rehearsal in Folkestone. After a quick play through and final polishing of the music for the day, we moved on to the Leas Cliff Hall for the draw. Phil did a fabulous job, drawing us 6th out of the ten bands in the Championship section. That gave us plenty of time to enjoy the sea air, catch up with the trade stands and friends in other bands, listen to some of the competition and get nicely warmed up for our own performance.

Chris gave us a final tune up and then it was time to go. We performed 'Dear Lord and Father of Mankind' as our hymn tune in a new arrangement written by Chris especially for the band to play at the contest (and previewed in our recent concert in St. Andrew's Church, Soham). We followed it with Paganini Variations and displayed some excellent playing all around the band. The main job done for the day, all that remained was to reload the percussion on to the van and have a celebratory drink while we waited for the remaining three bands to play (unfortunately, the tenth band had to withdraw on the day). Then it was a long wait for the results.

Having thanked everyone involded in the contest it was down to the adjudicator to give his opinion of the day. He was delighted by the high standard on the day and said that the winning performances not only played most of the right notes in the right places but also really communicated the music to the audience. We were delighted when 'the band who played 6^th were awarded first place in the hymn tune. In the very next breath we were winning third prize in the test piece. The remaining honours were split between Kortrijk Brass, who came second and won the Best Instrumentalist prize (Euphonium) and Zone One Brass, who won the Test Piece, Best Percussion Section, Best Bass Section and Best Conductor.

It was a great end to the day and there were celebrations all round as we returned to the bus and to Soham, trophies in tow!

This Tuesday the Soham Comrades put on another concert performance in Soham Village. This time we were playing at St. Andrew's church as part of the Soham Music Festival. We were pleased to be joined by an appreciative audience for a night of light entertainment and a successful concert. Many thanks to Peter Beer for inviting us to play and co-ordinating the evening, as well as to the Vicar and Curate at St. Andrew's Church for the venue for the evening.

Anyone who has followed Soham Comrades Band over the years will know the name Philip Bignell. Both as a trombonist and now as contest secretary and librarian (along with his wife, Andrea) Phil has offered his support to the band. It was with much delight we were able to wish him a happy 65 ^th birthday last week at a suprise party organised by his family. Cnongratulations Phil!

We've been delighted to try out a new rehearsal venue since the Village College has been unavailable for the school holidays. Since playing at the Soham Lodge Hotel VE Day celebrations, they have been giving us a lovely room for rehearsing is. We're all hopeful that the Soham Comrades Band form a strong connection with the Hotel, both by making use of the space they have made available to us and by the possibility of having another performance venue in the area. Most of all, it's great to have another space for rehearsals and more support from the Soham community.

Everyone at Soham Comrades was delighted to hear that Sarah Lenton has been given the Principal Baritone seat at this summer's National Children's Brass Band course. This course, directed by Dr Nicholas Childs, is the second time Sarah has been the prinicpal baritone in the band and we're all hoping the course goes well for her - congratulations and enjoy all the hard work!

The Thurston Prom was once again a resounding success this year. If you missed it you missed out - it is difficult to describe the evening! Not only were we treated to a fly past but there was brass band music (from the combined forces of Soham Comrades and Haverhill) and the Galaxy Big Band. The evening was rounded off with performances Land of Hope and Glory and Fantasy on British Sea Songs (including Rule Britannia) followed by Crown Imperial with added fireworks!

It was lovely to see so many people turn out to support the event and we were truly fortunate to have a wonderfull sunny evening this year - many thanks to all involved!

After our concert in Hockwold, we were delighted to hear from Steve Perry, a euphonium player who had heard us that night. Listening to the performance rekindled his interest in brass bands and we're very pleased to welcome him to the band.

This weekend the Soham Comrades were busy celebrating 60 years since the end of World War 2 in Soham. The day started bright and early (much to the disappointment of some players) at St. Andrews Church, Soham where the band joined the congregation in the morning service. After a short break it was straight off to Soham Lodge Hotel to play the hymns for a service of remembrance. It was a privaledge to have several Normandy verterans in attendance, as well as several people from the South of France, involved in the town twinning programme.

The afternoon was rounded off with a short concert outside the Hotel. We played a rousing collection of 1940's music with a good helping of patriotic tunes to keep the crowd entertained. What with the beautiful weather and the good music I think we all had a great day.

Last night Soham Comrades put on a concert of light music to entertain an audience in Hockwold, Suffolk. We were playing in fabulous marquee in the grounds of Grange Farm. It was lovely to see so many people turn out to listen to a programme including excerpts from the musicals, West Side Story and The Sound of Music, and the brass band favourites 'Let's Face the Music and Dance' and 'Toccata in D Minor'. Despite the heat, the band put on a stirring performance and the music was enjoyed by all.

All in all the concert was a great success due in no small part to our guest conductor for the night, Robin Norman (Ipswich and Norwich Co-op Band), and the other players who helped out - many thanks to all!

Last night we had our Annual General Meeting. We were fortunate to have a good turnout for the meeting and all the formalities went very smoothly. The general message from Andy Johnson (chairman) was that of thanks for the last years hard work. Particular mention was made to Paul Filby, Duncan Wilson and Nigel and Sally Bramley. Chris King (musical director) commented on the good morale within the band and the happy sociable nature of the bandroom. In addition he gave us an idea of what we can expect from him over the next year. In summary, I'm looking forward to a year of more fun, some personal hard work and some challenging reherasals! Neil George (treasurer) showed that this year the band has been essentially self-financing but pointed out that, as ever, we must maintain that.

Chris awarded the FJ Talbot Memorial Shield for the most improved player to Sarah Lenton (2^nd Baritone). This had been a very difficult decision in which Ryan Duffield came a very close second. Andy then awarded the Peggy Hillman Trophy for the player of the year to Carina Lobley and the cup was presented by Mrs Hillman.

The final business of the evening was the election of officers for next year. In summary, Don Page was re-elected as president, Andy Johnson was re-elected as chairman, Kevin Hopkins was re-elected as vice chairman, Carina Lobley was elected as Secretary, Phil Bignell agreed to continue as contest secretary, Neil George is to continue as treasurer, Selina Palmer sent a message agreeing to be our auditor, Andrea Bignell agreed to continue as librarian and Emma Strange has taken on the role of assistant librarian. Our vice presidents were re-elected en masse and will be listed shortly (when I've got an accurate list!)

Michael Dawson (Eb Bass), the newest member of Soham Comrades, has been very busy recently. Not only did he play with Soham Comrades in the Senior Trophy and with Fulbourn and Teversham in the EABBA Spring Contest (Norwich), but last weekend he auditioned for the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music. We were delighted to hear this was successful - congratulations Michael!

This weekend the band travelled to Blackpool to compete in the Senior Trophy Contest at the Winter Gardens. We gave a fairly solid performance of Connotations (E. Gregson), but, unfortunately it was not enough to beat the other bands on the day and we were placed 17^th. That means we have been relegated from the contest and it's back to the bandroom to start building on our strengths and working on those weaknesses.

Despite the disappointing result, the band had a great time in Blackpool. With the opportunity to listen to other talented bands, catch up with old friends and explore the fun to be had in Blackpool it would be difficult not to have some fun! Click here to see pictures and a little video of the weekend!

Sarah Lenton (2^nd Baritone) was very busy over the weekend playing at the Solo and Quartet Contest in Leicester. She came second in the under 15 solo category, playing The Last Rose. She also competed in the Slow Melody section, coming 5^th and the Junior Air Varie section coming 6^th. As if that weren't enough, she paired up with her friend Emily Braverman (Fulbourn and Teversham) to come 2^nd in the Duets. What a fantastic set of results - Well Done Sarah!

Saturday evening saw four players from Soham Comrades Band join players from Buy As You View (Cory) Band and the Salvation Army bands in Hendon, Enfield, Regent Hall, Croydon, Bromley, Worthing, Chatham, Bristol Staple Hill as well as the International Staff Band of the Salvation Army, to form the 'Virtuosi Brass Band' playing the world premier of an arrangement of Karl Jenkins 'The Amred Man: A Mass for Peace' for brass band, organ and choir. The band included the renowed players; Chris Deacon, the former principle trumpet of both the European Union Youth Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, David Childs, the International Euphonium Player of the Year and our own Sophie Rhodes as BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Musician finalist. As well as Sophie, Soham Comrades Band was represented by Richard Franklin, Phil Wainwright and Carina Lobley.

It was a privaledge to have Karl Jenkins in the audience and to hear a little about his background and musical inspirations. The arrangement by Duncan Gibbs and Andrew Wainwright (our principle horn Phil's brother!) was a great success with both the players and audience enjoying the music.

Sunday saw the band perform in the London and Southern Counties Regional Finals in Stevenage. Having become aware of the scientific proof that drawing number one was a disadvantage (see below), I suppose I cursed the band to play first. Still, someone has to start the afternoon off and we made the most of that opportunity.

On the day the band gave a pleasing performance, that fairly reflected the work we put in to Rienzi. With a new musical director and several new players it was our first opportunity to test ourselves and a solid seventh place proved we are more than capable of holding our own.

So now the band are moving on to rehearse 'Connotations' (Edward Gresgson), for the Senior Trophy in Blackpool. We're hoping to keep up the 'good sound' David Read noted in his comments!

Watch this space for photos of the day out!

Whilst reading this week's New Scientist, I was interested to find that our annual fear of being drawn first is very justified. Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have studied the scores in world and european figure-skating and at the Eurovision Song Contest. They have seen that those contestants who performed later in the contest score better. In the Eurovision song contest, for example, the final performer has twice the chance of success than the first performer. Apparently, this is because adjudicators are more likely to notice ways in which a performance is better than the ones that came before, than to see ways in which they are worse.

If the same holds true for band contests we all better keep on hoping we don't draw number one on Sunday - fingers crossed!

If you want to read more it's New Scientist, 12/03/05, p16 and the original study is in Acta Psychologica, vol 118, p245.

While the band were busy performing in Soham (see below), Sophie Rhodes was busy performing as a solosit with the Black Dyke Band and Nicholas Childs in Manchester, the prize for reaching the final of the BBC 2 Young Brass Soloist Competition. Sophie performed the first movement of the Euphonium Concerto by Joseph Horowitz and 'Softly as I Leave You' arranged by Alan Catherall. Although Brendan Wheeler (Hepworth (Persimmon Homes) Band) won with his performance on the night, we're all very proud of how well Sophie did in this competition.

Last night saw us open the years concert programme with our annual celebrity concert, featuring Owen Gunnell and Oliver Cox as 'O Duo'.

The mood was set with 'Prelude for an Occasion' (Edward Gregson), followed by the first airing the test piece 'Overture to the Opera "Rienzi"' (Wagner, arr. Lorriman), a valuable experience for band and audience alike! Young and old enjoyed the 'Disney Fantasy' (arr. Goff Richards) that followed.

Clapping their way in to the hall, 'O Duo' arrived in style, playing their own composition 'Bongo Fury', a fitting title. They followed this with marimba music by Ravel, a perfect combination of two people playing as one. Owen joined the band to accelerate through 'Xylophonia' (Wilby).

Next came a change of pace with 'Hymn for Diana' (Turrin),a title that didn't seem contentious when we planned it! The first half came to a thunderous conclusion, with Saint-Saens 'Bacchanale' from Samson and Delilah (arr. Wilkinson).

The second half opened with 'Arnhem' (A.E.Kelly),a march with quotations from 'Die Valkyrie'. One of the evenings highlights was the 'Fantasy on British Sea Songs' (arr. Gordon Langford) a piece in which the whole band shone.

The return of 'O Duo' saw audience participation with a jazzy performance featuring Oli on marimba AND drumkit! There followed a wonderful performance of part of 'Marimba Spiritual' (Minoru Mikei), an evocation of the famine in Ethiopia. This was originally composed with three drum parts, all of which Oli played (and who knows how?), and marimba from Owen. A quick tumble through 'Helter-Skelter (Lemon) took us to the penultimate piece, a boisterous band performance of 'Let's Face the Music and Dance' (Berlin, arr. Goff Richards). The concert concluded with 'Shine as the Light' (Graham), a journey from darkness to light.

A successful and enjoyable concert was had by all, thanks to the combined efforts of the Soham Fesitval Society, 'O Duo' and the band, not forgetting the audience!

Earlier this week Sophie Rhodes, who recently joined Soham Comrades Band as principal Euphonium, reached the final of the BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Soloist Competition. Sophie is one of four finalists and is in the company of Brendon Wheeler (Hepworth (Persimmon Homes) Band), Nick Walkley (Yorkshire Building Society Band) and Vicki Reynolds (Hathern Band). Sophie, originally from Harrogate, moved to Cambridge in October to begin her medicine course at Pembroke College.

The final is taking place at the Royal Northern College of Music on the 19^th February. Competitors will have the opportunity to play the piece of their choice, accompanied by the Black Dyke Band conducted by Nicholas Childs. The winner will then go on to perform with another quality championship band as a soloist at the Radio 2 Live Music Festival.

We all wish Sophie the best of luck with the final and hope she has a great time in Manchester!

The year starts with the appointement of our new musical director. After five very good auditions from some very talented and committed musicians, Chris King was chosen by the band to be the next musical director. To find out more about Chris take a look at his biography.

We were delighted to have such strong candidates auditioning to become MD and are grateful to everyone who took part in the process. This not only includes the applicants themselves, but also those players who filled spare seats during the rehearsals! We'd also like to thank Paul Filby for his commitment as musical director and Duncan Wilson for his dedication to the band through what has been a challenging nine months.

2004 has been an busy year in Soham Comrades Band. The following review covers the main events as an introduction to this 'news' page. Other items will be added as they occur throughout 2005!

The band have competed in the London and Southern Counties Regional Championship in Stevenage, the Senior Trophy in Blackpool and the SCABA contest in Folkestone this year. This involved performances of Tristan Encounters (Martin Ellerby), Concerto for Band (John Golland) and Pageantry (Herbert Howells), respectively. We gave good performances in all three contests being placed 6^th, 10^th and 6^th in the respective contests.

As the hangovers cleared following Blackpool, our musical director, Paul Filby, regretably announced his resignation from the band. With a busy summer schedule we were delighted Duncan Wilson stepped into the breach to conduct. Subsequently, we have been auditioning and selecting a new permanent conductor for the band. As there's still one audition to go, you'll have to watch this space to see the outcome!

The band was represented at British Open Solos and Quartets Championships in Hyde in November. Duncan Wilson became 'British Open Trombone Solo Champion', while Sarah Lenton came fourth in the Intermediate Slow Melody competition (despite being one of the youngest entrants). Both the Bass section and the Trombone section entered quartets and both performed well with the Basses coming fourth and the Trombones coming sixth.

As if that wasn't enough, we've also put on a selection of concerts this year. This has included a performance in the Soham Music Festival, several outdoor concerts over the summer (mostly in the rain!) and finally two Christmas concerts and several cold hours carolling!

Towards the end of November, as a result of persistent paperwork, the band obtained charity status and is registered charity 1106828. This is in recognition of our importance to the community and has a variety of benefits for the band, not least of which is being able to take advantage of the Chancellors generosity when it comes to tax!

© Soham Comrades Band 2007