Last weekend was very busy for the Pemberton Old Wigan DW Band, with two concerts, a Remembrance Parade, a Trombone Sectional and a full band rehearsal in preparation for our assault on the Scottish Open.
It all began on Friday night when we played the first concert of the weekend, at our local church St Matthew's, Highfield. The concert included many of our typical concert items, such as 'The Thin Red Line', 'Largo al Factotum' (featuring Steve Parfitt on E-flat Bass), 'Prelude to Act III of Lehongrin', 'Nightfall in Camp' (a remembrance item featuring Steve Hyde on Cornet), 'Pizziwato Polka' (our novelty item from our Wychavon programme), 'Jewish Wedding Dance' (also from our Wychavon programme) and finished our first half with 'MacArthur Park'.
The second half had travelling theme, beginning in Brazil with 'Tico Tico', moving to Wales for 'Myfanwy' (featuring Euphonium player Nick Birch), then Ireland for 'Gaelforce'. At this point, we were a little lost and Jason Nowell (Bass Trombone) stood up to 'Show me the way to go home'. We then played our popular version of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' followed by the 'Syphonic Dances from West Side Story'. To finish we performed our ever-popular rendition of 'You are my Sunshine'.
On Saturday, we had our second concert, this time in Rainhill at St Ann's church. We reprised many of the items from the night before, but also included our 'Last Night of the Proms' set. The first half was exactly the same. The second half was a little different. We began with 'Symphonic Dances from West Side Story', followed by 'Show me the way to go home' (again featuring Jason Nowell on Bass Trombone), then 'Bohemian Rhapsody' before our Proms items, 'Fantasia on British Sea Songs', 'Jerusalem' and finally 'Pomp and Circumstance'.
For both of these concerts, our guest principal cornet was Iain Culross, principal of the Fairey Band, because our regular principal, Jo Johnson, was in New York to celebrate a 'fairly big' birthday, with her husband Richard. Many thanks for your help Iain.
Sunday was our busiest day. The senior band were in Hindley parading and providing hymns for the Remembrance service there and the 'B' band were in Atherton for their own duties. It is a privilege for both bands to be able to pay tribute to those people who have given their lives in previous and current conflicts, both abroad and domestic. Regardless of how cold it is, we are honoured to be able to pay our respects for these Heroes.
Immediately after we had finished in Hindley, the trombones had a sectional at the bandroom which was to then be followed by a full band rehearsal of the set test piece '...and when the river told...' by Simon Dobson, which we will be performing in Perth on Saturday to try and 'do one better' than our result last year at the Scottish Open where we were placed second.
Our busy schedule doesn't stop there, we're rehearsing every night this week (except Thursday!) in preparation for the weekend. We will travel up on Friday and rehearse in Perth before our performance at the contest on Saturday. 4barsrest have already previewed the contest and given their prediction. The contest is pioneering this year, with 'open adjudication' with the composer sitting watching the performances, Howard Snell, one of the most respected conductors of previous years and Hannes Buchegger, conductor of Brass Band Oberosterreich.
