The Bradwell Bugle December 2010 Page 2
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The Bradwell Bugle Newsletter of the Bradwell Silver Band December 2010 Inside this issue: From the Editor Supporters’ Club — 1 Hi everyone Update It’s a very busy time of year for the band and the Christmas season is now in full swing. Thank you Keith for once again sending in a very detailed engagement report and some interesting snippets of Engagement Reports 2-4 information. As always contributions to the Bugle are very welcome, please get in touch with your memories or stories. What did you just 5-6 As the next newsletter will not be out until 2011—I wish everyone a joyous Christmas and fabulous sing? / New Bradwell New Year! Memorials Engagements 7 Steph Contacts 8 Membership List 9 SUPPORTERS’ CLUB UPDATE MID-DECEMBER By Gerald England The Supporters Club has had a busy year running fundraising stalls on behalf of the band, running the back of house activities at concerts and providing refresh- "A full moon shines ments for the band at the recent recording weekend. We would like to thank over the morning frost; everyone who has supported us and donated raffle prizes, cakes etc. the lanes are full of late- fallen leaves; walking across the mulch is almost as tricky We would also like to say a big thank you to Maggie Snape, who has expressed a as treading over ice. wish to step down from the Supporters Club in the new year to free up time to pursue other interests. Maggie has done stirling work with the Supporters Club In town the carol-singers and her exceptional organisational skills have made sure that everything gets are in done on time and runs smoothly. Thank you Maggie. crowding the shopping- mall, We are in the throws of sourcing new merchandise for the stall, including draw while a group of muffled string bags with the band logo on, frisbees etc, so keep an eye out as stocks are musicians expected to go fast. They will make excellent presents! play by the outside mar- ket. This year but two robins As always, we would love to see new members join us. It is good to have fresh on the early christmas faces with new ideas. With Maggie leaving we are currently looking for a new cards; Secretary too! If you are interested, please give Lisa a call on 217429. the squirrel still runs along the fence skirting our newly- erected shed. MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE BRADWELL BAND SUPPORTERS CLUB www.bradwellband.co.uk THE BRADWELL BUGLE DECEMBER 2010 PAGE 2 Engagement Reports — by Keith Jones Thursday 11th November The Centre Milton Keynes A group comprising Sue, Dan, Sam, Karen, Keith, Luke, Fraser and Robin met outside Boots in the city centre for a two hour session. Playing music from the Christmas pads and carol books, they managed to fill the playing time without having to resort to some of the more traditional Christmas carols. This included the likes of “Reindeer Express” and “The Jolly Rein- deer” as well as “A Winter’s Tale”. A good balanced sound was achieved with the players available and the efforts were ap- preciated by the management of the store. Sunday 14th November New Bradwell Remembrance Parade and Service On a cold but thankfully dry afternoon, Bradwell Silver Band met at the school for the annual remembrance parade organ- ised by the New Bradwell branch of the British Legion. Playing “Slaidburn” we marched to the Clock Tower where the rest of the parade was forming. With Band at the head of the parade we marched round on to Newport Road for a short service. “Last Post” and “Reveille” was sounded by Tug and the Band played “Supreme Sacrifice” as wreathes were laid by many of the local organisations including one Bradwell Band. The parade then proceeded to St. James Church for the service of re- membrance, the marches being played were “Death Or Glory” and “Blaze Away”. We moved inside the church and played as the congregation took their seats. The service was led by the Reverend Chris Collinge and began with the reading of the names of those from Bradwell who have died in conflicts. It is very moving to hear such a long list of names (over one hundred) being read out, mostly from the Great War. One can only imagine what a devastating effect these losses had on the local community at the time. “Last Post” and “Reveille” were again sounded by Tug with a period of silence observed. The Band provided accompaniment for the singing of the three hymns, “All People That On Earth Do Dwell”, “For The Heal- ing Of The Nations” and the last sung to the tune of “The Londonderry Air”. During the service the Reverend Chris Collinge informed the congregation that one of the people present who collects on behalf of the British Legion Poppy Appeal had this year been personally responsible for reaching more than £14,000.00, beating last year’s record total. The sermon was given by the Rev. Liz Baker. Liz is Director of the Well community at Willen. She has recently been licensed as associate priest in the Stantonbury Ecumenical Partnership. At the conclusion of the service the National Anthem was sung and there were more hymn tunes played by the Band as the congregation made their way out of the Church. It was an excellent effort and the best turn- out in terms of numbers that the Band has had for a long time. There were marching debuts for Jonathan and Orla. On a day when services were being held all over the country, Bradwell Band is privileged to play its part in the local com- memorations. We thank Tug for playing with us today and our thanks also go to our Musical Director Brian Keech for not only conducting but also playing the bass drum on the march. Earlier in the day Keith had played “Last Post” at the service held in Castlethorpe and Lucy played with Wolverton Band at their local parade. On Armistice Day itself Byron played “Last Post” in Wolverton Works whilst Lisa did likewise at the Cen- tral Milton Keynes Police station. www.bradwellband.co.uk THE BRADWELL BUGLE DECEMBER 2010 PAGE 3 Engagement Reports — by Keith Jones Sunday 21st November Dobbies Garden Centre – Santa’s Arrival Fenny Stratford After our performance here during the summer, we were invited back as promised to be part of the launch of this busy Gar- den Centre’s Christmas season. It was cold but apart from a bit of earlier drizzle it stayed dry for our performance. With Brian conducting, we managed to assemble a healthy number of players although the front row of cornets did have an unfamiliar line-up with Clive and Lisa joining Julia. With additional help on the melody line from Karen, a good balance was achieved on the items played from the carol books. We also played a number of items from our forthcoming Christmas pro- grammes which included “I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day”, “All I want For Christmas Is You”, “Mistletoe and Wine”, “Its Gonna Be A Cold Cold Christmas” We were provided with chairs outside in the garden centre car park but unfortunately had our backs to where everything was happening so could not actually see what was going on. Welcomed hot drinks were available during our break and after we finished playing there was hot food provided for those who wanted it. With Father Christmas arriving in a horse drawn carriage, vintage cars and a kiddie’s fairground ride this had been a good way to start our busy Christmas season. Thursday 25th November The Centre Milton Keynes A group comprising Sue, Dan, Sam, Keith, Graham, Luke, Fraser and Robin met at Boots in the city centre for the last of three sessions booked for this year. With items from both Christmas pads and carol books they played for nearly two hours. We received several requests but carried on playing anyway! We had people approach to say how they were enjoying the music. Particularly well received were “Calypso Carol”, “A Starry Night” and the up tempo version of “Mary’s Boy Child”. Graham said he wished he had brought his maracas with him. He also some other things which unfortunately cannot be reported in a family oriented publication. Dan also came out with a politically incorrect impersonation from a classic John Cleese sketch. This was a good playing session with Sam providing back-up on the melody line as lips understandably began to tire. After we finished playing we had a moment of drama as someone who will remain nameless (but whose name begins with F and ends in r) had managed to lose the key to the room where our cases had been stored. Saturday 27th November Christmas Lights Switch-On Bletchley Town Centre Organised by the Bletchley and Fenny Stratford Town Council, this was the second year we had been invited to part of the proceedings. We were playing in Stanier Square whilst at the other end of Queensway the Milton Keynes Youth Band was performing near the Bandstand. We had five members playing with both ensembles: Dan, Adam, Jonathan, Vince and Luca. They had a busy afternoon racing between the two locations; at least it warmed them up a bit! It was a bitterly cold day and we struggled for numbers due to non-availability of playing members. We were booked for three sessions, the first of which ran from 1:30 to 2:00. The second session went from 2:30 to 3:00 and then we had an hour to kill before the final shorter session at 4:00.