Help for Heroes.

Betteshanger Brass Band was proud to present a concert to support wounded British Forces.

The concert was held on a very windy and rain swept Saturday the 14th November at St. George's Church, High Street, Deal.

From 2009-11-14 Help for Heroes

This venue has been much improved in recent times and is an excellent venue both from a performers and an audience point of view. The old wooden pews have been removed since we last played there and replaced with more comfortable individual seats and the lighting has been radically altered giving the event far more atmosphere.

MD Dave Cutting had put together a varied programme and had made a conscious effort not to make the event too sombre. There was an obvious point to the evening and this was not lost but there was also an opportunity for the audience and band to enjoy themselves.

From 2009-11-14 Help for Heroes

The scene was set for the concert with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Cortege from Mlada and followed by the trumpet solo ‘Manhattan’ with yet another excellent performance by Solo Cornet player Nigel Bogue, despite his cold!’

Goff Richard’s ‘Doyen’ followed as did the Euphonium Duo ‘Softly as I Leave You’ which was beautifully played by Dave Mason, fresh from his ‘Best Euphonium’ at Folkestone prize, and his apprentice Benn Lunn.

Next up was the Phillip Sparke arrangement of ‘Cute’ before Keith Davies performed the moving ‘Concierto De Aranjuez’.

From 2009-11-14 Help for Heroes

It was nice to see Fred Thomson playing with the band again and Fred stood in on Second Baritone for the night. Of late Fred has taken something of a back seat from a playing point of view making way, as he puts it for younger players. It is testament to the quality of the band at present that we are able to put in a player of Fred’s quality as a reserve player!

Although it is a little early in the year the band played Fred’s arrangement of ‘Elegy on Away in a Manger’. This decision was taken because of the very emotive circumstances surrounding Fred arranging the piece. I will document these reasons for posterity in a future article but suffice to say that the band always plays this piece with the tenderness and subtlety it deserves.

This was, I believe, the first time many of Fred’s family had heard the piece and they had travelled a significant distance in numbers to support the concert, Fred and the ‘Heroes’.

The first half finished with Excepts from Tchaikovsky’s ‘Little Russian’, quite a blow at the end of the first half, but this exciting piece seemed to ensure that the audience did not disappear during the interval.

The second half opened with ‘Fanfare for the Common Man’ with the front row swapping their cornets for trumpets and set the scene for what was to follow.

We were extremely happy with the assistance of local Soprano singer Margaret Threadgold who joined with the band to perform a very moving arrangement of Michael Kamen’s ‘Requiem for a Soldier’ used in the TV series ‘Band of Brother’s’. This piece had been specially arranged at short notice by Baritone played Dave Alexander to allow the band to accompany Margaret.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ changed the mood again before a complete change of mood in the shape of 12th Street Rag. Given that I was one of the three soloists it would be inappropriate to say too much other than the fact that Rosie Cullen and Ian Warner were superb!!!!

We were now into the final part and climax of our concert and began a phase of music to specifically celebrate the young men and women who have sacrificed either their lives or their physical well-being in the conflicts. ‘Hymn to the Fallen’ was followed by ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’

This arrangement saw Nigel Bogue, Ian Warner, Rhys Warner and James Pooley perform the soloist’s part with Margaret Threadgold singing the well known words. I would defy even the most cold-hearted person not to be moved by this rendition which was accompanied by images of the troops who had made the ‘ultimate sacrifice’.

Margaret then led the audience in a rousing rendition of the ever popular and inspirational Jerusalem which preceded ‘Sunset’ performed by Ben Worsforld, James Pooley, Tiffany Adams and Rhys Warner.

The ‘National Anthem’ ended the concert and I, for one, thought that this was completely fitting and should be played at all concerts.

Special thanks for the organisation of this event must go to Band Chairman Karen Griffiths and to Band Manager Nigel Bogue who were the main driving forces behind the event and who spent many hours making the necessary arrangements, and to MD Dave Cutting who has driven the band forward to produce the standard of performance they did on the night.

The band was pleased to welcome, as its guest of honour, the Worshipful Town Mayor of Deal Bill Gardner and thank him for his support.

Thanks too must go to 2235 Deal Air Training Corps who assisted with the evening and who were, as always, efficient, organised and cheerful. This assistance was invaluable and we would like to return the assistance with a concert on their behalf in the future.

Sir Roger Manwood’s Grammar School Combined Cadet Force also assisted and we thank them for their support.

Dave Cutting had laboured long and hard, agonising over the programme, and made his final decisions last Thursday. I had given up hope of being able to produce a programme in time and was surprised to see Band Treasurer Andy Pooley on my doorstep on Friday night looking for all the world like Neville Chamberlain, and clutching a bit of paper. This turned out to be an excellent programme put together by James! Well done James.

The performance was recorded and we hope that the resulting recording will be of sufficient quality to use for a future project and would like to thank the two gentlemen, Mike and Mike, who gave up their time to do this for us and Emma who was a great help in setting up the venue.

Of course we would like to thank Margaret Threadgold who looked and sounded every inch the professional and we sincerely hope to be able to work with her again in the future.

This was a highly successful night in excellent surroundings to an appreciative audience. It was unfortunate that more people had not braved the weather to attend the concert given the nature of the event as all proceeds from this concert will be sent to the 'HELP for HEROES' fund which raises money to assist troops wounded in battle. The fund does not seek to justify the rights and wrongs of war but simply aims to support British troops injured in them.

Nevertheless even though there were some empty seats in the venue the turn out was more than acceptable and the people who had made the effort were treated to some excellent entertainment and contributed to a very worthwhile cause.