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'NG8 Brass' raised the roof (almost) in their debut concert at the Nottingham Bluecoat school in Aspley on Friday 11 July. The concert also featured Newstead Abbey Brass (Paul Whyley) and Newstead Brass (Duncan Beckley) with the three bands playing individually and in combination. NG8 Brass is a 'starter' band for pupils receiving brass tuition at schools in the Aspley and Bilborough areas of Nottingham and has been put together as part of an ‘Extended Schools’ initiative by peripatetic tutor Simon Hooley and music teacher Neil Wright who shared the conducting of the band. This was only the tenth time the ‘NG8 Brass’ players had played as a group but they successfully showed both their current abilities and potential in a performance which was a credit to their parents, schools, tutors and themselves.
Congratulations to Stephen Lomas, Newstead Brass’ Bass Trombonist on his performance
on the other side of the world in the ‘Champion of Champions’ soloist competition
held as part of the 2008 National Brass Band Championships of New Zealand. Over
250 players take part in the competition, split into 13 groups for the differing
brass band instruments from Soprano cornet to BBb Bass and percussion. The 13 individual
‘instrumental champions’ then compete for the ‘Champion of Champions’ title. Stephen
retained the ‘Champion Bass Trombone’ title he won in 2007 (whist playing for Welsh
band BTM before returning for his second spell with Newstead at the beginning of
2008) to be the only UK based player in the final where he appeared against ex-
Wind problems didn’t prevent Newstead Brass entertaining picnickers at the ‘Friend’s of Chernobyl’s Children’ annual ‘Picnic in the Park ‘ at Newstead Abbey. Due to strong winds the event had to be moved to an alternative area in the abbey grounds to that planned but Newstead and musical director Duncan Beckley were warmly applauded throughout their programme. There was also entertainment from the visiting Children of Chernobyl who gave a very 21st century version of a traditional Russian dance and the picnickers themselves with an impromptu Salsa (tres Pardo) and twirling umbrellas to the late programme addition ‘Singing in the Rain’. The event is expected to raise hundreds of pounds towards bringing next years contingent of children form Chernobyl to Nottinghamshire.
Young local musicians are set to benefit from working with the award winning Newstead Brass.
On Saturday, June 14th, Newstead Brass appeared as guests of the North-
This concert was the second of three 'partnership' concerts by the Newstead band which conclude on Friday July 11th with the debut concert of the new 'NG8 Brass', a 'starter' band for pupils receiving brass tuition at schools in the Aspley and Bilborough areas of Nottingham.
Last minute help from local company Hucknall Van Hire enabled Newstead Brass to join with acclaimed soprano Sara Lawson and pupils from Bramcote Park School in a charity concert which raised found ‘a pot of gold’ of over £1400 for the Rainbows' Children's Hospice and the Clic Sargent Charity.
The event, themed as 'Music and Song' was organised by the Stapleford and Sandiacre Rotary Club and held at Chilwell Road Methodist Church, Beeston on Saturday May 17th. All the participants were in excellent form with the band featuring cornet soloists Kirk Turner and Blake Tague and Michael Cordon (flugel) in a wide ranging programme that began with Paul Lovatt Cooper's 'Where Eagles Sing' and concluded with music from 'Riverdance'. The Bramcote Park School Singers received rapturous applause for their selection of songs made famous in film and Sara Lawson ('the Sneinton Songbird') delighted the audience with selections from both opera and more recent stage successes before leading the band and audience in a rousing 'proms' finale. Compère for the evening was Radio Nottingham's Notts County football correspondent Colin Slater.
However, a mishap during the afternoon nearly left the band without most of their larger percussion equipment when the rear windscreen of the vehicle usually used by the band to transport equipment shattered during loading. A band spokesman continued, “We, and the beneficiaries of Saturday's concert, are indebted to Mark Gillborn at 'Hucknall Van Hire' who donated the use of a van for the evening.”
The band are hoping for a little less drama in their forthcoming summer appearances. More details can be found on this website.
It was a good Night's Vienna as Newstead Brass took runners-
Newstead Brass were one of the seven entries in the championship section and chose to play 'Vienna Nights', the piece on which they will compete in the 'Grand Shield' of the British Open Brass Band Championships on May 10th. Musical director Duncan Beckley invited Philip Wilby, the composer of 'Vienna Nights' to the band's rehearsal in the week before the contest where he gave additional insights into the development of the piece, a fantasy based on Mozart's piano sonata in A, as a celebration of that composer's life and times.
Contest adjudicator John Berryman complemented all the competing bands on their high standards, but added that he had agonised over the placing of the two outstanding performances he had heard. First place went to the Pemberton Old (Wigan) JJB band with Newstead taking second place for which they received the President's Trophy and a cash award with 190 points from a possible 200.
Congratulations to Dr Matthew Pollard and Graham Jacklin on their qualification from
the Midlands heat of the National Association of Brass Band Conductors (NABBC) ‘Conductor
of the year’ competition. Adjudicators Roy Newsome and Rob Wiffin placed them first
and second from the 5 competitors in this ‘Brass Band X-
There were ‘mid-
After two fine years in Section 4 (placed third and second in 2006 and 2007) Newstead
Abbey Brass faced the new challenges of Section 3 contesting. With conductor Paul
Whyley on paternity leave, bandmaster Lynden Cooper led the band through the set
test-
The slower movement featured good solos and controlled ensemble whilst they also had a bass trombone player with a sound that would blow your garden shed down with ease. Yes, the tuning problems were very costly, but this band will put that right, and then competitors, be scared, be very scared….’
Newstead Abbey Brass were placed 10th from 17 bands, a fine result for their first year at this level.
Newstead Brass and musical director Duncan Beckley faced the challenge of Eric Ball’s
‘Festival Music’. Originally written over 50 years ago to celebrate the bicentenary
of the birth of Mozart it’s still proving a challenge for the country’s top bands.
Newstead Brass also had to settle for mid-
Recently renamed Newstead Abbey Brass began their contest year with second prize and the award for ‘best percussion’ at the North East Midlands Brass Band Association (NEMBBA) competition held at Derby on Sunday 10th February, their first contest appearance since promotion to ‘division 3’ at the start of the year.
Although several bands had to withdraw from the contest due to the clash with school
half-
Pipped by a Point was Newstead Brass’ reaction as they took fourth place in the ‘Brass at the Guild’ contest held at Preston’s Guild Hall on Sunday 3rd February as Musical Director Duncan Beckley led the band through a fine performance of Eric Ball’s ‘Festival Music’ in a strong 16 band field with the prizes going to Pemberton Old (JJB), Timperley and London’s Zone One Brass just one point ahead of Newstead.
Newstead Abbey Brass is the new name for the Newstead Youth Band. Chosen by ballot across the organisation, the new name reflects the changing age profile of the band with a number of experienced players, mainly with Newstead connections, joining to provide teaching and stability as players move on to further and higher education. Newstead Abbey Brass will remain committed to youth development with Newstead Band Organisation’s musical director Duncan Beckley leading more development activities for Newstead Abbey Brass and the training group assisted by Abbey’s Conductor Paul Whyley, Bandmaster Lynden Cooper, Phil White and other members of Newstead Brass. More details can be found in this special feature. Instruments and tuition are available to those wanting to learn or enhance their playing skills. Please contact band manager Melanie Cooper on 07970 490773 for more details.
The National Association of Brass Band Conductors (NABBC) once again invited Newstead
Brass to host the annual midland’s area workshop on the 2008 Regional Brass Band
Championship’s test pieces. A small but enthusiastic group of NABBC members and
others enjoyed the event at Newstead Miners Welfare on Sunday January 6th when
Walter Ritchie, Duncan Beckley and Newstead Brass shared ideas and insights into
the test pieces for section 2 (‘Three Part Invention’ by Kenneth Downie), section
3 (‘Dark Side of the Moon’ by Paul Lovatt-
There were ‘Full Houses’ across the region as Newstead Brass and Newstead Youth Band completed a busy Christmas concert programme.
Despite (or maybe due to) wet and windy weather the performance tent at the 3 day ‘Newstead Abbey by Night’ illuminated festival was packed for the nightly concerts by the bands whilst St Paul’s Church at Carlton was also full for Carlton Male Voice Choir’s annual Christmas concert with Newstead Brass as their guests. Gedling Borough Council held their Civic Carol Concert at St Paul’s church in Arnold and there were again no spare seats as a packed audience enjoyed performances by Newstead Brass and Bestwood Male Voice Choir. There was a full church for ‘Carols with (Newstead) Brass’ at St Wilfrid’s in Kirkby and large crowds gathered for the Newstead Youth Band’s performances for the Christmas tree lighting ceremonies in Newstead and Linby.
The Newstead Band organisations annual Christmas concert at St. Mary Magdalene’s church in Hucknall drew another full house for seasonal selections from the Newstead Brass, Newstead Youth Band and the Newstead Beginners group. Soloists Lynden Cooper, Michael Cordon, Colin Davenport, Sadie Fletcher, David Hanson, Sandra Kowalenko, Blake Tague, Kirk Turner and Ian Woffenden were all in fine form during the month with musical director Duncan Beckley, conductors Paul Whyley and Phillip White and bandmaster Lynden Cooper keeping everything in order.
The year ended with another full house at Newstead Miners Welfare for the ‘twixmas’ big band night when Newstead Brass played a selection of music made famous by the likes of Ted Heath, Count Basie and Glen Miller. Teresa White received the annual award for ‘bandsperson of the year’.
The band would like to thank everyone who supported the above events, and those who filled our collecting buckets when playing Christmas carols in the Westfield centre at Derby and Sainsburys at Matlock. We hope to see you all again soon, and advise ‘early booking’ for the bands’ Christmas 2008 programme!
Veni, Vidi, Vici (We Came, We Saw, We Conquered) was the cry on Sunday 18th November as Newstead Youth Band’s performance of ‘Roman Triptych’ gained first place in the Wilkinson Northern Open Brass Band Championships (Class D) held at the Theatre Royal in St Helens. Principal Euphonium player David Hanson also took the award for best soloist in the class.
The result came just a week after the players were involved in the annual Hucknall, Nottingham and Kilburn Remembrance Sunday parades and immediately followed a successful ‘Young At Heart‘ concert with Kirkby Light Operatic Society and pupils of Farndale Music held at Ashfield School on Saturday evening (November 17th).
The band chose to play ‘Roman Triptych’ by Leigh Baker, the piece with which they finished tenth in the National Brass Band Championships at Harrogate in September. This time their performance was even more successful with adjudicator John Maines giving them a two point lead over Formby, the band which won the National Championships.
Newstead Brass competed later in the day in Class A of the contest playing Peter Graham’s ‘On Alderley Edge’, the piece on which they came seventh in the English National Championships earlier this year. However they could only partially emulate their younger compatriots. Whilst principal euphonium Lynden Cooper took the awards for both best euphonium and best soloist in the class, the band just missed out on the prizes with experienced adjudicator James Scott placing them fourth among the 12 entrants.
A band spokesperson commented, “A great day for the Youth Band and a good result for Newstead Brass sets us up well for our Christmas programme. It’s great for Newstead Youth to sign off with a win before their promotion to section 3 from January and we’re delighted to have brought a prestigious ‘Northern Open Champions’ title back to Nottinghamshire, home of the championship sponsors ‘Wilkinson’”.
The Maggie’s Appeal benefited by over £1,600 from a concert by Newstead Brass and Newstead Youth Band on Friday October 26th at 8.00 pm in the Great Hall of Nottingham University.
The concert was inspired by Teresa White, a cornet player with Newstead Brass, who is both a patient and an employee of the oncology (cancer) unit at Nottingham City Hospital. Earlier this year Teresa was diagnosed with peritoneal cancer but fortunately has responded well to treatment and the bands were delighted to give their full support to the event in aid of the Nottingham Evening Post “Maggie's Campaign” which aims to raise £500,000 towards the £3M needed to establish a Maggie’s cancer support centre in Nottingham to add to the five successful centres already in other parts of the UK. Teresa received a standing ovation for her effort in organising the concert, and her solo performance of ‘Ne Partez Pas Sans Moi’; Celine Dion’s winning song from the Eurovision song contest.
England’s Rugby World Cup Semi-
The Newstead Youth Band are celebrating after finishing in the top 10 in this year’s National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain held at Harrogate on September 29th and 30th.
The Newstead Youth Band were competing in ’section 4‘, the lowest of the five grading levels used in British brass band contesting, which featured twenty finalists selected from the 125 original entrants in 8 regional ‘section 4’ championships.
The Newstead Youth Band were making their second consecutive appearance at the National finals. This year’s test piece, ‘Roman Triptych’ by Leigh Baker, was specially published for the championships and provided a suitably challenging piece to separate the bands.
Musical director Paul Whyley led a good performance from the Newstead Youth Band including some impressive playing from the band’s soloists. Adjudicators Allan Ramsay and David Hirst placed the band tenth overall.
The winning band was the Formby band from Merseyside with Amington (near Tamworth)
taking runners-
A band spokesman commented, “Although the band are obviously a little disappointed with the result, there’s no shame in finishing in the top ten of a field of this quality and a good improvement on last year’s 20th place (from a mammoth 22 band entry). It’s also good to have beaten 3 of the eight regional champions in the process.”
The Newstead Youth band’s consistent performances in the 2006 and 2007 Midland Championships have already secured promotion to ‘section 3’ grading from January 2008.
Newstead Youth Band will be Nottinghamshire.'s only representatives in this year’s National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, with most of the awards due to be decided in Harrogate this coming weekend.
Over 500 bands entered the eight regional qualifying events, with over 125 of them,
including Newstead Youth, competing in ‘section 4‘, the lowest of the five grading
levels used in British brass band contesting. Newstead Youth obtained the runners-
A total of 84 bands entered the 5 divisions of the Midland Championships, 11 of them from Nottinghamshire, but Newstead Youth were the only one to be rewarded with a place in this year’s National finals.
Newstead Youth Band, making their second consecutive appearance at the finals, will play a piece specially published for the championships called ‘Roman Triptych’ by Leigh Baker, a player with the famous Brighouse and Rastrick brass band. The band are enjoying learning the challenging piece which has three sections entitled ‘Charioteers’, ‘Pilgrims’ and ‘Coliseum’. A band spokesman commented, “The Triptych proved popular when we included it on a recent concert at Nottingham’s Albert Hall so we hope that the ‘trip’ to Harrogate will ‘tick’ all the right boxes for the adjudicators and we’ll return with a prize.” The band will be led by their founder, Paul Whyley.
The Newstead Youth band’s consistent performances in the 2006 and 2007 Midland Championships have already secured promotion to ‘section 3’ grading from January 2008.
Position(s) Vacant: Newstead Brass are currently seeking a Tutti Cornet player to
replace Paul Coupland who is relocating after completing his post-
Sharing a Vision as Newstead Brass supported the British Open Brass Band Championships
at Birmingham on September 14th -
A band spokesman commented, “It was a delight to give one of the first performances of Kenneth Downie’s new work, a piece which has been really appreciated by the competing bands and the audience. It has certainly strengthened our ‘vision’ to take the final step up from the ‘Grand Shield’ qualifying event to the British Open Brass Band Championships. It is however, a concern that most of the 18 bands in this year’s final have considerably greater financial resources, through sponsorship and wealthy benefactors, than Newstead giving them access to better instruments and facilities than we are able to afford.”
TRANSFER NEWS! It’s not just the football clubs that were active in the transfer market during August, and Newstead were more successful than our local teams with the band and Musical Director Duncan Beckley welcoming several new players for the coming season (fortunately without the need for any transfer fees to be paid!).
We are delighted to confirm the appointment of KIRK TURNER on principal cornet. Kirk joins from the Leicestershire based Wigston band, having played ‘on loan’ for Newstead at both the Grand Shield and the English Nationals competitions earlier in the year.
Kirk is a welcome addition to the band’s strong line up of soloists, which is further strengthened by the arrival of JIM BRAILSFORD to fill the recently advertised position of principal baritone. Jim joins with a wealth of experience gained at the highest levels, having previously played with the William Davis Construction Group and the Ransome band. The Newstead band would also like to thank all the other applicants for their interest.
Further ‘squad flexibility’ is provided by the additions of SHARON STANSFIELD (Musical
Director of the Long Eaton Band), SIMON CHEETHAM and ANDREA HANSON (both former members
of the Riddings Band). These add flexibility to the cornet team which will be temporarily
losing ALAN GREGORY as he begins his post-
Summer IS Over was Newstead Brass’ thought as the rain poured down before (and during) their concert as part of the regular Sunday Night series at the Three Stags Heads public house, Darley Bridge on Sunday September 2nd. Despite the poor weather a good crowd of locals and brass aficionados turned out to hear the band in their second concert after the summer break. Our first concert came the previous Monday when Newstead joined with Newark Town and Kibworth bands for ‘Brass Explosion’ in the shadow of Newark Castle which attracted over 1,000 people and ended with a spectacular firework display.
Happy at the Abbey as Newstead Youth finish 2nd of the 4 section 4 bands (and 5th overall from 8 entries) in the North East Midlands Brass Band Association ‘Sounds of Brass’ entertainment contest held at Rufford Abbey (Rufford Country Park) on Sunday July 15th.
It was the young players’ first foray into an ‘Entertainment Contest’ (where each
competing band plays a short ‘concert’ programme rather than a set ‘test-
Newstead in Seventh Heaven with their excellent result in the English National Brass Band Championships held at Preston Guild Hall on Saturday June 30th.
The contest featured the six English regional champions from 2006 together with nine
of the highest ranked English bands from the official world rankings and Newstead
were amongst the ‘pre-
However, inspired leadership by musical director Duncan Beckley and moments of magic from the band’s soloists, including newly appointed principal cornet Kirk Turner, principal horn Sandra Kowalenko and euphonium Lynden Cooper, gained the band an excellent seventh place for their performance of the set test piece ‘On Alderley Edge’ by Peter Graham on a day when many more fancied bands delivered performances marred by unforced errors.
The Newstead band would also like to thank Sue Mercer (Third Cornet, Ransome Band) for her help at this contest.
Winners of the contest were Grimethorpe Colliery Band who took the £5,000 first prize and will now represent England at the 2008 European Brass band Championships in Norway. Full result available at 4barsrest.com
Picnic puts on the Pounds: Newstead Brass played for the annual ‘Picnic in the Park’
fund raising event for the local branch of the “Friends of Chernobyl’s Children”
(FOCC). This year’s event, on 17th June at Newstead Abbey, managed to dodge the
thunder, rain and showers prevalent throughout the weekend and raised £2,000 for
FOCC. Newstead entertained a large audience as they consumed their picnics and wine
while the band took them on a ‘musical journey’. Soloists Kirk Turner (Cornet), Teresa
White (cornet), Michael Cordon (Flugel) and Sandra Kowalenko (Horn) all drew rapturous
applause whilst compere Lynden Cooper (euphonium) finally met his match in the ‘Fantasy
on British Sea-
A Grand Day Out as Newstead Youth Brass Band completed their first visit to the ‘Whit Friday’ Brass Band March contests on June 1st.
This traditional event, which has been running for over 120 years, began as the culmination of the local ‘Whit Walks’ when the bands which had led parades and services during the day got together in the evening for a bit of friendly rivalry. This year over 130 bands, of all grades, took part in what is sometimes described as ‘the greatest free show on Earth’ with contests taking place in over 20 villages. Bands travel from village to village, playing two marches in each, with their ‘contest march’ being judged and prizes awarded.
Newstead Youth band played in 5 villages across Saddleworth and whilst not making
it into the prizes they did put a smile on the face of the huge crowds with their
performances of ‘A Grand Day Out’ (theme tune from Wallace & Gromit) as they marched
to each contest venue. The band were also featured on BBC live TV coverage of the
event -
Vacancy: The Newstead Band would like to hear from students planning to come to the Nottingham / Derby areas from September and looking to continue playing with opportunities in our Championship, Third section & training bands.
For more details, please contact Melanie Cooper 07970 490773 , Duncan Beckley 07973 389707, or Paul Whyley on 07811 448676. All enquiries treated in confidence.
Grand Shield Consolidation: Following their success in winning the British Open Spring Festival Senior Cup in 2006, Newstead Brass were promoted to the Grand Shield, the final qualification stage for the British Open Brass Band Championships, for the 2007 Spring Festival held at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens on May 19th.
Although the band were highly pleased with a fine performance of the immensely challenging
set test piece, ‘A Night to Sing’ by Bramwell Tovey, adjudicators Alan Morrison and
Frank Renton only gave them 14th place from the 19 entrants, consolidating the band’s
status at this higher level of competition which represents the top 40 bands in Britain.
Winners Polysteel and runners-
Due to university examinations and long term illness, the Newstead Brass performance
featured a re-
Three bands for the price of one: The capacity audience at Kirkby Festival Hall on April 23rd had a treat when the Newstead Brass and Newstead Youth bands were joined by the Newstead Training ensemble making it’s public debut. A special report is available here.
Rainbows Reward: The Rainbows Hospice for terminally ill Children is £1,250 better off thanks to a Charity Concert organised by the Rotary Club of Stapleford & Sandiacre at Chilwell Road Methodist Church, Beeston on Saturday 31st March. Newstead Brass were conducted by bandmaster Lynden Cooper and were joined by acclaimed soloist Sara Lawson (originally from Sneinton and now studying at the Royal Northern College). The programme took the form of a musical journey before the concert concluded with ‘Rule Britannia’ and ‘Jerusalem’.
Harrogate beckons as Newstead Youth band’s second place in section 4 of the Midlands Championships at Burton on Trent qualifies them for the national brass band championships (held in Harrogate in September) for the second consecutive year, where they will be joined by the qualifiers from the other 7 regional qualifying contests. The result also gains the band promotion to section 3 for 2008.
Meanwhile Newstead Brass cemented their position as the North Midlands leading band with sixth place in the closely fought Championship section, with the Staffordshire Band and Desford taking the two qualifying places.
The Midlands championships results mean that Newstead Youth Band will be Nottinghamshire’s sole representatives in the National Championships this year. Full results at 4barsrest.com; Sections 1 and 3 / Sections C, 2 and 4
New Euphs on the Block. Newstead are one of the first bands in the country to take
delivery of the new ‘Prestige’ euphonium launched by Buffet-
Aided by a grant from the Nottinghamshire Community Foundation (NCF), principal euphonium
Lynden Cooper has been one of the first to play this acclaimed new instrument, and
it’s already had contest success with Lynden helping the Virtuosi-
The band have now got a ‘matching pair’ with Brian Hanson taking the stage with a second euphonium, again purchased with grant aid from NCF.
Great start to 2007 Contest year as Newstead Youth Band take second place at the North East Midlands Brass band association (NEMBBA) contest held at Derby on 18th February.
This was the band’s first contest of the year and despite having to play first of the nine entries in section 4 they did enough to take second pace behind the Whitwell band. They received a trophy and nominal cash award.
All the competing bands played ‘The Seasons’ by Phillip Wilby, which is the set test piece for the Midlands Championships at Burton on Trent in March when over 20 division 4 bands will compete for one of the two qualifying places for the National Championships at Harrogate in September.