Hazel Grove Brass Band

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.

The Band would like to say a huge thank you to a number of its Officials who have decided to step-down from their respective positions.

Sara Harcourt will be stepping down from her role as Chairperson at Christmas. Sara has been the band’s Chairperson for a number of years now and has done an outstanding job. Due to the amount of work she has had to do, it has been decided that Sara’s role should be split into two. Lynn Ramsbottom and Sue Goodare will be gradually taking over the roles of Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson respectively between now and Christmas, the latter a new position within the committee.

Ian Barker has decided to step-down from his role of Concert Secretary. This is a very demanding role as it involves booking the bands concerts and liasing with the venue staff or hiring body on the running of the event. Ian has said he will continue with this role until a suitable replacement can be found.

Last but not least, Fred Cox has also decided to step-down from his position of Treasurer. Fred has held this position for around 15 years and has done a brilliant job keeping track of the bands accounts. He will hand over the role at the end of the tax-year in April 2012.

It was a sad evening at band on Thursday as we said goodbye to two of our members, Matt Humphreys and Iain Weir as they both leave the band for Uni.

Iain played Eb bass with the band since 2008, a real team player and always reliable. Iain is leaving the band to study Sport and Exercise Science at Manchester Metropolitan University. It was great that Iain was able to play with the band at the concert on the 24th after his freshers week, although he did say he’d been drinking since the Sunday the week before!

Iain will be missed by all the band but we look forward to him returning at Christmas to help us out. Best of Luck Iain and thank you.

Matt has played cornet with Hazel Grove for the last four years and in that time been a real asset to the band. He attends every rehearsal and is a huge support ‘behind the scenes’. The only time Matt was missing was at the North West Area when the band won first prize. Our promise to Matt was that when we went to Harrogate we would do our best to replicate Blackpool, and so we did!

Matt will be missed by every member of the band, but we all wish him every success at Bangor University. We are delighted that he is staying registered with the band so that he can play when he’s back at home and that he ahs agreed to update the website for at least another year. Good Luck Matt and Thank you.

 
Post Written by Sara Harcourt, Chairman

This evening a concert was held at Hazel Grove Methodist Church to mark some great achivements attained by both the Hazel Grove Brass Band and Poynton Youth Brass Band.

Last year Hazel Grove were awarded 1st Place at the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain and were crowed 4th Section National Champions. This year Poynton Youth came 2nd in the National Youth Brass Band Championships and were given a Gold Award.

The programme was carefully selected by Musical Directors Nigel Beasley (Hazel Grove) and Mike Eccles (Poynton Youth) to show each band at their best. Each band also showcased some of their finest soloists.

For Hazel Grove, Philip Heywood (Principal Cornet) played a spectacular rendition of the popular “Share My Yolk” and Gareth Beasley (Solo Euphonium) again, took to the stage in top form to play his ‘signature tune’ “La Belle Americaine“.

For Poynton Youth, Ben Jones (Principal Cornet) played “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” form Jesus Christ Superstar, Cheryl Heppenstall (PYBB Solo Horn and HGBB 1st Horn) performed “On My Own” from Les Miserables and Rachael Jones (Solo Eb Bass) played an arrangement of the well known “Danny Boy“.

Thankyou to all who came and supported the bands and keep an eye out for other Joint Concerts in the future.

This afternoon the Band perfomed at Poynton Show alongside Poynton Youth Band and Stockport Silver Band. Despite a rather wet and gloomy start to the day, the sun came out as Poynton Youth were playing and stayed out for Hazel Grove Band. The programme included pieces such as: “Wind Beneath My Wings” and “The Syncopated Clock” featuring Ian Barker and Lynn Ramsbottom (Baritones) and not forgetting Gareth Beasley (Solo Euphonium) who played “The Clock”.

Over the last couple of years the band has gone from strength to strength. This has been reflected in the many contest results:

• Buxton Contest – 1st Place (2009 and 2010)
• Pontins Contest – 1st Place (2009 and 2010)
• North West Area – 1st Place (2010)

and not forgetting the icing on the cake: 4th Section National Finals 2010 – 1st Place

Not only were the band winning on the contest stage, they were the talk of the brass band world. Going from the bottom of the North West 4th Section to 4th Section National Champions within 18 months (Feb 2009 – Sept 2010), accumulating 6 consecutive victories along the way. They were nominated in the catagory for 4Barsrest Lower Section Band of the Year, which they won thanks to the votes of friends and family …. and dare I say, fans across the country!!!

The band were promoted to the 3rd Section and before long the Area Contest had arrived, the band gained 7th Place (the highest the band had ever achieved in its existance).

The band performed at the Ring O’ Bells Pub in Marple this afternoon (24th July).

The band played to a large crowd who all seemed to enjoy the program, expecially Derek Broadbent’s arragement of “Brazil” which featured a number of the band (and some audience members) joining the percussion section. The performance also featured solo’s from Phil Heywood (Principal Cornet) playing “Share My Yoke” and Gareth Beasley (Solo Euphonium) playing “La Belle Americaine“.

The afternoon concert helped to raise around £300 for the band.

Today (10th July) the band attended Wilmslow Show on what was a nice sunny day…. that was, until the band started playing and before long before the rain had joined us. This resulted in the band tent becoming rather cosy as spectators dived for cover but everyone enjoyed the music regardless of what it was like ‘outside the tent’. The programme included a Horn feature “Hey Jude” played by Holly, Tanya, Cheryl and Sally, a Cornet Trio “Trumpets Wild” played by Phil, Les and Steve and “Get Happy” featuring the Back Row Cornets.