English Nationals Gala Concert

Leyland Band,
Conductor: Russell Gray
Soloist: Brenden Wheeler
Compere: Melanie Sykes

One of the abiding memories of seeing Leyland on stage at the National finals celebrating their win was the appearance of Richard Evans.  Richard was the man behind the band's success in the late 1970s onwars laying the foundations for where the band is right now. 

The band's former MD is a born entertainer and the hallmark of Leyland's concerts under his leadership (now replicated at Grimethorpe) was entertainment from the first note to the last.

Having played under him as a solo cornet player, Russell Gray has engineered a real upturn in fortunes for the band in the past year or so with them now performing at a level and above that Richard Evans set them in the past. This Gala Concert was an upbeat entertaining affair, including neat touches of choreography and a sense of real enjoyment, and after the intensity of the contest it was the perfect antidote of an acceptable length for the audience before the announcement of the results. It is also worth pointing out that it was also made enjoyable by the band performing to the standard it had done earlier in the day.

Frode Rydland's ‘Tour de Band' was the opening number with sections of the band coming on and standing front of stage before taking up their respective positions. The cornets stood either side of the band and played with real flair, as did the tuba section. This big band number was an impressive start.

The mood continued with a composition by Darrol Barry entitled Rockatta – rock music meeting Bach's style of music of music and this UK premiere went down well with the audience.

Always a favourite with audiences is the cornet feature, ‘Hora Staccato' performed with that real bit of razzamatazz on this occasion (and with a fair degree of clarity too) before a change in mood with Pat Metheny's ‘Letters from Home'.

The tempo returned to an upbeat one with Sandy Smith's arrangement of Leroy Anderson's ‘Fiddle Faddle' complete with some fine ensemble player.  Brenden Wheeler then stepped forward giving an indication of why he took the soloist award in the contest with an imperious performance of ‘MichaelAngelo'.

As an interlude, the band's percussion feature gave a virtuoso display of their talents before the band went in ‘Eyala' – music from the pen of Norwegian Jan Magne Forde that featured some fine trombone playing Runar Vaernes along with the band exercising their vocal chords. At the precise moment this piece came to an end, England went out on penalties when Cristiano Ronaldo popped one into the English net from the spot. It says a great deal for the professionalism of the band that even though the match was screened on a television set at the side of the stage, they grinned and beared it – not one tear of disappointment!

The official final number was a mix of funk, jazz and folk music entitled ‘Unisons' that was written for the Eikanger Bjorsvik Band as part of a winning programme at the SIDDIS Entertainment Contest in Norway a few years ago.

Throughout the concert, the links were done by compere Melanie Sykes.  Familiar to millions of television viewers throughout the UK, the local lady heralds from a family esteemed in banding and in the past she has played the baritone.

Melanie was invited to join the band in the encore; a cracking little contest march entitled ‘Black Rock' written by her grandfather Sam.  From the pictures taken by the banding press, it seems Melanie really enjoyed the experience of performing a very personal piece of music with the National Champions.

The overall length of the concert was just right; not too long and not too short either. Some fine playing, good entertainment and highlights of some (if not all) of the concert are due to appear on the DVD from the day itself later in the year. It rounded off a pretty good day.

Malcolm Wood

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