Saturday 16th October

After a Covid lockdown enforced break of 18 months it was fantastic to be back performing a full blown concert at the Verwood Hub on Saturday 16th October. The audience, some 150 strong, certainly welcomed being back too and was thoroughly entertained by each of the bands.

Please see the programme contained in the photos section of this posting for all the news of what the bands have been doing over that time in lockdown, and much more.

The newly created Verwood Community Band opened the concert under the baton of Mike Dunnings. It may have looked much like the Training Band of old but the new title much better reflects the improved abilities of the players and the ethos of inclusivity to welcome players to come and play fun music together well.
As the Community Band made way for the Verwood Concert Brass Band, Bill Ferrier with his group of new starters played a selection of their favourite training pieces.

If there was any concern that the Championship Section Verwood band may have lost some of its edge during lockdown this was quickly blown away by a superb first half set conducted by Kevin Smith. This showcased the full versatility of a brass band and included fantastic trumpet playing by Elaine Close and new signing, Jason Glynn, in Freddie Mercury’s “Innuendo”.

The second half was opened as usual by Verwood Town Band with an equally varied selection of music, although one piece, “The Lazy Trumpeter”, had to be dropped from the programme as the band’s principal cornet player and soloist for that piece, Steve Rowland, could not attend due to having come down with the dreaded Covid (Glad to say he has recovered now). A big thanks to Trevor White of Verwood Concert Brass Band for stepping in at short notice to take Steve’s seat for the other pieces.

As well as Kevin Smith being the musical director and conductor for Verwood Concert Brass Band, he has also taken on this role for the Town Band too. This follows Emma Button, the Town Band’s previous MD and conductor, having decided to step down. Emma was presented with a bouquet of flowers as a thank you for the brilliant job she has done with the band since 2014 and in particular achieving the band’s promotion to the 3rd Section of the West of England region.

In fact there were two other presentations made during the concert. One for Kay Reeks in celebration of having completed an amazing 50 years of banding and all with Verwood Concert Brass. Please do read her story in the programme which is at the end of the selection of photos.

The other was for Kevin Smith, who has now been musical director for 10 years and deserved huge thanks for not only raising the standard of the band to be amongst the best in the West of England but the style and manner in which he has achieved this. Again please do see the programme for Kevin’s story.

The programme also contains a tribute to Nigel Tiller, one of the band’s longest serving members who sadly died of kidney cancer earlier this year. A special concert will be held in the New Year to celebrate his life.

The concert closed out with another breath-taking set from Verwood Concert Brass Band. If you look at the programme pieces you will see it included the finale from Mendelssohn’s “The Violin Concerto”. There were, of course no violins, and who needs them when soloist, Graham Carter, astounded all by playing the piece in a dazzling performance on Tenor Horn.

It was a long 18 month wait to perform a concert again but well worth waiting for. All being well our next Verwood Hub concert will not be such a long wait – it’s our ever popular Christmas Concert on Saturday 18th December. We look forward to seeing you there.

Please Click here to see our programme and photos from the Concert