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Pershore Midsummer Festival of Brass
The picturesque Worcestershire market town of Pershore was the destination for the Hook Norton Brass Band’s band day out on 9 July 2011.
Pershore Midsummer Brass is known in the brass band world as one of the nicest days out to enjoy brass bands. The annual festival started in 1990 as a non-competitive event devoted to bringing brass band music to new listeners and quickly became a staple of the local brass band calendar. After a five-year break, it made a comeback in 2010. The 2011 festival featured around 25 bands of all standards playing short 20-30 minute programmes in four venues across the town.
The four venues were Pershore Abbey, Pershore Baptist Church, a marquee in the grounds of the Angel Inn and Chapman Court outside the Asda supermarket. The venues were chosen to each have a different character, to encourage the bands to perform varying styles and moods of music and to attract different audiences.
Hook Norton Brass Band kicked off the day’s music in Chapman Court with their up-beat programme, which included ‘Under the Double Eagle’, ‘Robbie Williams Swing When You’re Winning’, ‘And All That Jazz’ and ‘42nd Street’. Not long into the set, however, our knight on tenor horn, Mick Taylor, had to spring into action to help a passer-by who had suffered a fall, quite possibly overwhelmed by the emotion of the occasion.
After a second set in the idyllic setting of the garden of the Angel Inn, the band enjoyed a well-earned lunch in the pub and then settled down to a hard afternoon’s grind of enjoying the rest of the day’s concerts. It was an opportunity to enjoy some old favourites, be impressed by the might of Championship section bands, and smugly observe the deleterious impact of beer on some bands’ performances.
Unfortunately, holidays and prior engagements meant that the band’s numbers were slightly depleted although it was ably supported by deputies on cornet, flugel horn and Eb bass. Those who did make it declared the day to be a resounding success, and a return visit for the 2012 festival is already marked in the band’s calendar.
Older News
- Brassed Off with the Banbury Cross Players
- 2nd Prize in the Oxford & District Brass Band Association Entertainment Contest, 2010
- Band Trip to Bournemouth, May 2010
- 3rd prize at the Oxford & District Brass Band Association Entertainment Contest, October 2009
- Band Trip to Whitby
- Summer 2009
- Isambarde
- Training Brass Band Impress Audience at Christmas Concert Debut
- International Guests join HNBB
- Double Contest Winners
- Hennef Visit - June 2006
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