Author: James Screaton

on by James Screaton

GUS Summer report 2024

After a busy first half of the year, now is a good time to take stock and review the GUS Bands’ successes over the past six months before it reconvenes after a short summer break to begin preparing for an exciting second half of 2024.

As reported here, January saw the band present the Lower Sections Workshop in Kings Sutton following their recording of the Area Test pieces for the 3rd and 4th sections, while February included the now regular concert at the Holy Trinity Church, Rothwell.  This church has such a beautiful acoustic and the concert presented the band with an opportunity to include in the programme the forthcoming Midland’s Area test piece, Variations on an Enigma, (Philip Sparke).  So, March saw the band successfully qualify for the National Finals on this piece.  The Band returned to the Stroud Subscription Rooms in April with a highly successful concert and also appeared as guests at the inspiring Northampton County youth bands concert, (NMPAT) at the Spinney Hill Theatre, Northampton.  May included a trip to Blackpool, competing in the Grand Shield contest, a concert in Morley Town Hall and an afternoon performance at Stowe School.  Finally, the Band was back in the recording studio in July and rounded off the first six months of 2024 with a highly enjoyable concert at St Mary’s church, Titchmarsh.

Sadly, we’ve had to say several goodbyes to players but have also welcomed new faces; more to come about these exciting new signing shortly.  It was also with great sadness that we heard of the passing of David Read, former principal cornet player with the GUS Band and member of the famously successful GUS quartet in the 1960s.

That was the first six months but looking ahead, firstly, September sees us travelling back up North to the Doctor Martin’s contest in Yarm, to defend our winning title gained last year.  The band will also be playing in a joint concert with the Harborough Band at the Welland Park Academy Theatre, Market Harborough on the 28th.

The GUS Band will return to the Royal Albert Hall in October to compete in the National Finals, playing the test piece Harrison’s Dream (Peter Graham).  There will also be a concert presented by the band at St Hilda’s Church, Ashford on the 13th.

November will see the band return to the Holy Trinity Church, Rothwell on the 9th to present a Remembrance concert before heading to Gateshead to perform at the Brass in Concert entertainments contest at The Glasshouse.  This is a lovely concert hall to play in and GUS are looking forward to performing a new programme there.

Before we know it, December will have arrived with an exciting, festive live performance of the Snowman planned at the Royal and Derngate Theatre, Northampton on the 1st.  There will also be our now annual matinee concerts at St Peter and St Pauls, Kettering on the 7th and 8th and the GUS Band will round off the year with a family Christmas Concert at All Saints Church, Northampton on the 20th.

Tickets for all the concerts for the remainder of this year can be obtained via this website and we really look forward to seeing you soon at one of our appearances.

on by James Screaton

Regionals Workshops for 3rd and 4th Section Bands

Following their recording of the 3rd and 4th Section Regional test pieces last year, the GUS Band were put through their paces again on Sunday 21st January when they took part in two workshops for conductors and players of bands who are going to be playing these pieces.  Facilitated by the British Bandsman and sponsored by Barnes Coaches, over eighty delegates representing bands from afar afield as Northumberland to Cornwall attended the morning or afternoon sessions at the Kings Sutton Millennium Memorial Hall near Banbury, Oxfordshire.

The test piece  to be played by 4th Section bands across the country will be Alan Fearnie’s Music of Jock Tamson, which was commissioned by the Scottish Brass Band Association in 2021.  This was the focus of the morning workshop and the title of the music refers to a Scottish phrase, which can be interpreted as “we are all God’s children” or in this case, “music for everyone!”.  The piece is in three movements: the first, “Nyay Fearties”, is based around a popular Scottish cartoon character, the second, “Inchkeith”, describes the picturesque island in the Firth of Forth while the title of the third is a shortened version of the toast, “Wha’s Like Us?”.

Chris Bond, the Band’s Musical Director, took the Band through some typical warm-up exercises including hymn tunes and a contest march, in this instance the Contestor, before focusing on the test piece.  The band played through the test piece as a performance before zoning in on particular aspects that bands could focus on and demonstrating possible pitfalls when performing the piece.

The afternoon workshop concentrated on the 3rd Section test piece, which this year is Corineus by the GUS Band’s very own Chris Bond.  Corineus was a medieval warrior and legend has it, the founder of Cornwall and the piece is based around his story.  It begins with heraldic fanfares, while the middle section is slower and reflects on Corineus’s daughter’s longing for her husband who has eyes instead for a German princess.  The final section portrays a battle and includes a reference to the Cornish national anthem, Trelawny.

The afternoon forum followed a similar format to the morning’s  and each of the workshops ended with a question and answer session, with some great observations, concerns and queries raised by the delegates for Chris to answer and advise on.  There were lots of appreciative comments from those attending and the GUS Band wishes all the bands in the 3rd and 4th section Regional contest this year the very best of luck.