Saturday night wasn’t a great success because of Dr Who, Strictly or even I’m a Celebrity!, it was down to the people of Thornton Cleveleys Band and the Poulton Peoples Choir.
Two hours of fantastic brass music by the band and singing by the choir.
The Mayor and Mayoress of Blackpool along with over 200 members of the audience enjoyed a first half of brass music cleverly delivered by the band who were spread over the ground floor and first floor, playing a mixture of music to get the show started, they were then followed on by the choir who at 70 odd strong filled the entire stage, it’s a good job all of them weren’t there tonight, there’s 150 on the books…!
The Poulton people’s choir presented a mixture of well known music that was splendidly performed, they even got good audience participation with a South African song that had the audience singing and clapping, finishing off all to soon with a rousing version of ‘Do you hear the people sing’ from Les Miserables.
The second half was again opened by the band, this time seated on the stage, playing the signature march of the Rotary Club, Service Above Self, followed by an old favourite of the Sally Army (after all we were in the Blackpool Citadel!) The Old Rugged Cross, this arrangement having a New Orleans twist to the original was played fabulously by Martin Scragg on solo trombone, the final solo item from the band was ‘Windows of the World’, a suite of six pieces covering different styles of world music, Nicola Swann, Natalie Beddows, David Cummins and Paul Cooper all delivered top notch solos keeping the audience captivated throughout, though we can’t forget our percussionist, Matt Hill, who provided the captivating drum rhythms throughout the entire suite.
The final section was a mini last night of the proms with band and choir joining forces to raise the roof with Land of Hope and Glory, Rule Brittania and You’ll Never Walk Alone.
The whole night was summed up by the president of the Blackpool Rotary and the band a choir closed the evening with Jerusalem.
All in all an excellent night and plenty of money was raised this evening for the Rotary Club’s charities.
We must give out a big thank you to Steve Simpson for all his hard work and effort in bring this the 15th Brass in Concert to fruition, and to all the hard working members of the Round Table of Blackpool, whom, without their tireless work and generosity would mean local charities would be far worse off. Well done to all involved
A final Well done one and all, looking forward to next years Brass in Concert already.