Hazel Grove Brass Band

With 2011 now behind us, let’s take a look at what happened with the band.

On the Contest Scene, the band competed in the 3rd Section at the North West Area Brass Band Championships for the first time in roughly 12 years. For the current band’s first outing in the Section, a very credible 7th position was attained. With the cancellation of the Buxton Contest, we attended the Kirkby Lonsdale Entertainment Contest in the June, at which we came 2nd in the 3rd Section as well as Gareth Beasley (Solo Euphonium) picking up prizes for Best Soloist and Best Instrumentalist. Great achievements all round. The final Contest was the Northern Open in November where we were awarded 3rd Place.

We’ve said goodbye to two players, Matt Humphreys and Iain Weir who both left the band to attend University.
On the plus side we’ve had in influx of new members:

• Greg Beards-Jones – 2nd Trombone
• Tom Callan – Repiano Cornet
• Ciaran Doyle – 2nd Cornet
• Steve Hallworth – Soprano Cornet
• Sally Hind – 2nd Horn
• Andy Myers – Eb Bass
• Mike Pennington – 2nd Cornet
• Connor Simpson – Percussion
• Will Szakal – Bb Bass

Along with players coming and going, there have been a few changes around the band too; Ben Aynsley (Solo Trombone) and Mike Topping (Bass Trombone) swapped seats, Sara Harcourt (Chairperson), Ian Barker (Concert Secretary) and Fred Cox (Tresurer) all announced that they will be stepping down from their positions within the committee. Replacements are yet to be found for Ian and Fred but Lynn Ramsbottom and Sue Goodare have taken over from Sara as Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson respectively.

With Contests cancelled we have had to pull out all the stops for fundraising this year. The Annual Band Quiz Night raised a staggering £1200 (again!!) to help re-coup some of the money lost from these contests.

We’ve also taken a more active presence on the internet with our new website and the new Facebook and Twitter pages to keep our followers informed with the latest news and events.

We must also mention the success that was our first full Christmas Concert since 2008 which also raised a large amount of money. Let’s hope this keeps up for the next one.

There have also been a number of congratulations over the last year too. These include:

• Lynn Ramsbottom (2nd Baritone and Chairperson) who recently got engaged to partner Andrew Swift
• Sara Harcourt (2nd Cornet) who, along with husband Mike saw the arrival of their baby girl Anna in March
• Holly Dolman (Flugel Horn) and Gareth Beasley (Solo Euphonium), who are expecting a baby girl in March 2012 – and of course Nigel Beasley (Musical Director) who is to become a Grandad
• Cheryl Heppenstall (1st Horn) and Sally Hind (2nd Horn) who both passed their auditions for the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain

We are now looking forward to seeing what 2012 has instore for us as we work towards to stabilise and improve on our position in the 3rd Section.

Happy New Year to all.

While people were busy going to bed earlier in anticipation of a visit from Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, a few members of the band were out playing carols to raise money for the East Cheshire Hospice.

Les Hall, Tom Callan, Maxine Holmes, Ian Barker, Sue Goodare and Matt Humphreys visited a few pubs and restaurants around Poynton and Hazel Grove and managed to raise nearly £130 for the Hospice. Les has taken a group out on Christmas Eve for the last few years, although the rain meant the total was not as high as the previous years.

This weekend saw the Band’s first FULL Christmas Concert since 2008. The concert in 2009 was called off due to adverse weather conditions and the concert in 2010 was called off after the 1st half due to a suspected gas leak.

This year the band turned out in top form to deliver, according to members of the audience “an outstanding concert”. The first half was mainly non-christmas items such as ‘Star Lake’ and ‘Get Happy’ and there was a solo from Philip Heywood (Principal Cornet) who played ‘Candlelight Carol’. At the request of Holly Dolman (Flugel Horn), ‘The Snowman’ was also added. The second half consisted of item such as ‘Santa Claus-trophobia‘, ‘Sleigh Ride’ (featuring Rachel Steadman with “The Whip”) and not forgetting the all important ‘Schnee Waltz’.

As a twist, Nigel had arranged for someone to come along and sing a coupld of “big band” items with the band.
Helen Rodgers (Music Teacher at Bramhall High School) gave fantastic renditions of ‘The Lady is a Tramp’ and ‘Santa Baby’ and was also joined, after having his name pulled out of a hat, by Ben Aynsley (Solo Trombone) to sing a duet of ‘Baby Its Cold Outside’. Who would have thought Trombone players could sing???

A huge thank you should go to Helen for performing with the band and we look forward to a possibility of working with her again in the future.
Another huge thank you should go to the Stockport and Macclesfield Co-operative Committee for Sponsoring this event and to their two Representatives who attended.

The evening raised £360 for the band and after £500 was added by the Co-operative Committee the total came to an amazing £860.

Thank you to all who came and we hope you come again next year.

This evening saw the band perform at Brookside Primary School in High Lane along side the Brookside Primary Brass Band (under the Musical Direction of Mr Tom Haslam) and the Poynton Junior Brass Band (under the Musical Direction of Mrs Joyce Hall).

The first half consisted of pieces played by the School Band and the Junior Band, the Second half was for Hazel Grove.
The band perfomed a number of festive items such as ‘Christmas Festival’, ‘Christmas Swingalong’ and Derek Broadbent’s famous arrangement of ‘Jingle Bells’ which was accompanied by the audience and their ‘bells’. Despite this being a Christmas Concert, there had to be an appearance by the Baritone Section of the Band (Ian Barker and Lynn Ramsbottom) who played ‘The Syncopated Clock’. The Clock was played by a member of staff at Brookside Primary.

The finale of this concert differed from previous years. This time, instead of playing, the Junior and School bands took to the stage to sing along to Hazel Grove playing ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’. A brilliant venture which was loved by all

A special thanks should go to Maxine Holmes (Headteacher and 3rd Cornet ~ HGBB) and Joyce Hall (2nd Trombone ~ HGBB) for the massive amount of work they put in to make the evening a huge success again. This is a Concert everyone looks forward to …… Bring on Next Year!!!!!

Hazel Grove Brass Band have ventured into the land of Facebook this weekend. We aim to keep our new Facebook page up-to-date with the latest news, events and hopefully a few images too.

For those of you who are already on the Social Networking Site, you can find and ‘like’ our page here or click on the Facebook link at the top of the page.

If anyone of you are currently ‘tweeting’ you can follow the band here or click on the Twitter link at the top of the page.

Following the recent 3rd Place at the Northern Open Contest, the Band would like to Officially welcome Andy Myers to the Bass section. Andy played with us for the Contest and we are glad to have him signed up on Eb Bass.

Our Bass Section may now be complete but we are still looking for Back Row Cornets and a Percussionist. If you could fill one of the positions please get in touch.

Today saw the band take to the Contest Stage in the 3rd Section for the second time at the Northern Open Contest. For this the band peformed Labour & Love by Percy Fletcher. After an early start to the day the band were drawn number 4 and took to the stage around 1.00pm, the Adjudicator: Mr Paul Andrews.

Working hard as a team, they were awarded a very credible 3rd Place in a field of 7 bands. A special mention should go to the Soloists of the day: Philip Heywood (Principal Cornet), Steve Hallworth (Soprano Cornet), Holly Dolman (Flugel Horn), Tanya Cooney (Solo Horn), Ian Barker (Solo Baritone), Gareth Beasley (Solo Euphonium) and Ben Aynsley (Solo Trombone). All of whom performed brilliantly and of course to Nigel Beasley (Musical Director) who was also on top form as usual.

Well done to City of Bradford Band and Trinity Girls Band for achieving 1st and 2nd Places respectively and to all the other bands who performed on the day.

Full results can be found here.

Saturday 29th of October saw the 2nd Hazel Grove Brass Band Quiz Night. A ‘spookily’ themed Civic Hall was the venue and a staggering 124 people attended the event making up a total of 23 teams. Ian Barker was ‘Jeremy Paxman’ for the night in charge of asking the questions, assisted by Gareth Beasley aka Carol Vorderman who provided the technical support and kept track of the all important scores. Holly Dolman and Sara Harcourt did their best ‘Nigela’ impressions in the kitchen and cooked up a mouthwatering hotpot!

The ‘Brian Buckley Fan Club’ team arrived early and began working on the table top questions in a hope to retain their ‘top spot’ from last year. Competition was a little tougher this year with a team headed up by Mike Goodare from Intellident Solutions, Mike’s great leadership and amazing general knowledge meant that his team were always in the running…… After all the questions had been asked, hotpot eaten and drinks drunk it was the ‘No Eyed Dears’ that came out top, Christine Widdowson a member of the winning team felt it was her husband Geoff’s contribution that had clinched it for them! Team Intellident finished in second place and the Brian Buckley Fan Club in third.

A huge thank you goes to John Woodall of Woodall Estates who sponsored the event for us for the second year running, his financial support is much appreciated. In total the band managed to raise a whopping £1,200 which goes some way to plugging the gap left by Pontins non payment of our £2,500 prize money.

A great night was had by all, thank you to all those who attended.

Full results can be found here and images of the night here.

The Band would like to officially welcome some new players to its ranks:

Will Szakal who also plays for Poynton Youth Band has joined us on Bb Bass,
Connor Simpson makes a move from Mossley Band to join our Percussion section,
Tom Callan joins the Cornet section, he has moved from the Hawk Green (Marple) Band.

We hope they enjoy their time with the band as we look to progress and improve our position in the 3rd Section.

Tonight the Band were at Hazel Grove Methodist Church again, this time as guests of the Hazel Grove Male Voice Choir. The Choir celebrate their 60th anniversary this year and it was their wish to have the band join them in a concert. The last time the two came together was some 15 years ago.

The band opened the programme with Philip Sousa’s King Cotton, written to celebrate the importance of the cotton trade to America, that was followed by the overture Pineapple Poll, Share my Yoke (Cornet Solo, Philip Heywood) and to finish A Carmen Fantasty.

Next was the turn of the choir, they began with a rousing “Oh when the Saints” conducted by their Musical Director Richard Lawrence. One of the highlights of their first half performance was a moving arrangement of Sullivan’s “Lost Chord“.

The second half of the evening featured the bands Solo Euphonium, Gareth Beasley to play “La Belle Americaine” which went down a storm with the audience. Gareth’s encore was played by Ian Barker and Lynn Rammsbottom on Baritone with their rendition of “A Syncopated Clock“. Musical Director Nigel Beasley accompanied this with a delightful ‘tick tock’, just incase the audience doubted his musical ability!!

The choir then went on to sing an unaccompanied Negro Spiritual piece, “Sailing” and finished their set with “American Trilogy“.

The band and choir came together for the two final pieces, “Ratchie” and “Gwahioddad“. The audience had a great evening and it was a pleasure for the band to be asked to play with the Choir.

Congratulations to them on their 60th Anniversary!

Many Thanks to Sara Harcourt for providing a write up of the event.