The Besson Scottish Solo & Ensemble Championships Gala Concert
Saturday, February 3rd at the Regal Community Theatre, Bathgate
The band were honoured to perform at a Gala Concert held in the Regal Community Theatre in Bathgate, supporting the Besson Scottish Solo and Ensemble Championships. Also, courtesy of Besson, they had the pleasure of performing with two world class soloists - Roger Webster and Lesley Howie.
The band were conducted, as usual, by Nigel Boddice MBE.
West Lothian Schools Brass Band kicked off the first half of the concert in upbeat style with ‘Gonna Fly Now’, the theme from the hit movie Rocky, written by Bill Conti, arranged by Alan Fernie. They continiued with ‘Vitae Lux’ by Frode Alnaes, arranged by Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen.
For their third item, the band returned to the Rocky movie series and this time it was time to up the tempo for ‘Eye of the Tiger’, an original hit for American rock group Survivor, written originally by Frank Sullivan & Jim Peterik and arranged by Rieks Van der Velde.
The band were then joined by guest cornet soloist, Roger Webster who performed ‘Share my Yoke’ by Joy Webb, arranged by Ivor Bosanko.
It was back to the movies again, but this time it was Austin Powers and the groovy ‘Soul Bossa Nova’ composed by Quincy Jones and arranged by Andrew Duncan - and because it was Roger’s ‘birthday’ (?), he was given the honour of joining in with the band to play the jazzy solo.
In a complete change of tempo, the band then played ‘Benedictus’ from The Armed Man (A Mass for Peace), written by Karl Jenkins and arranged for brass band by Tony Small.
The band were then joined by their second guest soloist, the magnificent tenor horn player Lesley Howie who played the ‘Ballad’ from the ‘Concerto for Tenor Horn’ by Benjamin Tubb.
By complete coincidence, it was also Lesley’s ‘birthday’, so she was invited to join the band for their penultimate item - ‘Hey Jude’ written, of course, by Lennon & McCartney and arranged by Derek Broadbent.
And so to the band’s final offering, ‘Caravan’ by Duke Ellington, arranged by Steve Sykes.
Despite rapturous applause from the appreciative audience, there was no encore on offer on this occasion, so it was time for the interval!
The second half of the concert was provided by the Scottish Co-op Band under the direction of Alan Ramsay.
They began with the march ‘Keighley Moor’ written by Joe Cook. They followed on with an unusual arrangement by Mark Freeh of Jerome Kern’s ‘Ol’ Man River’.
Guest Soloist Lesley Howie then joined the band for ‘Tarantelle for Horn ’La Napolitain’ by Oscar Bohme, arranged by G. Westwood.
Time for some Mozart next, and ‘Ave Verum Corpus’, arranged by A. Jakeway.
It was the turn of the band’s excellent trombone soloist Paul Kiernan who performed Gordon Langford’s ‘Rhapsody for Trombone’ - fantastic!
‘I’ll walk with God’ by Nicholas Brodsky was the band’s next piece, arranged by Goff Richards.
The final guest soloist of the evening was once again Roger Webster who wowed the audience with one of his more popular solos - ‘Napoli’ by Herman Bellsedt, arranged by Geoffrey Brand. Rodger’s magnificent cornet playing was worth the ticket price on it’s own!
And all too soon it was time for the band’s final offering - ‘Rince Eireannach’ by Jan Sorensen.
All in all, an excellent evenings entertainment with a wide variety of music on offer from both bands. And thanks once again must go to Besson for providing the funding to allow Roger Webster and Lesley Howie to perform as guest soloists.
