The West Lothian Spring Concert series 2008 saw the band take part in a concert on Sunday 15th March at St Margaret’s Academy in Livingston. Also participating in the event were the West Lothian Schools Pipe Band, the West Lothian Schools Wind Ensemble,and the West Lothian Schools Guitar Ensemble.
The event kicked off with five pieces from the West Lothian Schools Pipe Band, including the obligatory “Highland Cathedral”.
The West Lothian Schools Wind Ensemble, conducted by Camille Mason then performed a further five items which took us to the interval.
The Guitar Ensemble began the second half of the concert, conducted by Phillip Thorne.
Finally, it was West Lothian Schools Brass Band’s turn to take to the stage, conducted as ever by Nigel Boddice MBE.
The band began with excerpts from the soundtrack of the “Lord of the Rings”, arranged by Andrew Duncan.
This was followed by “Rainforest”, from Windows of the World by Peter Graham.
It was time to feature the band’s principal percussionist, Calum Gardiner, who performed Goff Richard’s “Zimba Zamba” on the marimba.
Next up was the “1712 Overture” - no, it’s not a typo, it was the 1712 Overture by P. Schickele and S. Smith, not the more famous piece by the perhaps better known composer, Tchaikovsky.
It is a measure of this band’s ability that they produced a memorable performance of this piece, given that even the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland experienced some difficulty with it a few years ago after an intensive week’s study and rehearsal.
Finally, or so Nigel Boddice said with a wink of the eye, to the band’s final piece of the evening. Nigel invited the Fiddle Group onto the stage to perform the “Gael”, written by Trevor James, and arranged for brass band by Andrew Duncan.
As the band stood up to receive their ‘final’ applause, Nigel took kindly to the shouts of “more!” from the appreciative audience, and, given that he had previously hinted that the band had never received a request for an encore (not!), he kindly responded by giving us one final treat. A special mention to anyone who can tell me what that final piece was - my memory’s not what it used to be!
And that was it. Now it’s down to the hard work of preparing for the National Youth Championships in Manchester in April. Wish us luck!
