Hathern Band

Mrs Margaret Atkin

April 11, 2012

I am very sorry to have to inform you all that Margaret died in her sleep on Wednesday evening. As many of you know Margaret had terminal cancer and had refused any treatment, but with pain killing drugs she had a peaceful end.

Margaret and Roy (for those of you who don`t know Roy played in the Band for many years) were Hathern Band! and were the main stay of the Band for many, many years. We will all miss Margaret keeping us in order at band practices! Margaret`s funeral will be at St Botolph`s Church in Shepshed at 12 noon on Tuesday 24th April. I am sure many of you will want to pay your respects

News update March 2012

March 16, 2012

Saturday 10th March saw the Senior Band compete in the 1st Section of the Midland Regional Brass Band Championships in Bedworth, Warwickshire. The music was `Mountain Views` by Swiss composer Bertrand Moren. Drawn to play 15th out of the 18 competing Bands, we were awarded 4th place, one short of sending the Band to successive National Finals. However, a pleasing performance and place, which leaves us 3rd overall in the League Table.

During the preparations for the contest, the Band had a visit from Russell Gray, the conductor of Desford Colliery Band, the premier Band in the Midlands. Russell invited us to take our Youth band to one of their rehearsals, which we gratefully accepted. So the Monday prior to the contest we crowded into Desfords Band room to hear their preparations for the Championship Section. To say the young players had an eye opening experience, would be putting it mildly. They were mesmerised by the playing and hopefully inspired to copy it. Needless to say Desford Colliery Band won the Championships in impressive style.

News update February 2012

Feb. 9, 2012

This time of year is traditionally a quiet period for Bands, at least for Bands appearing in public. The Senior Band are preparing the Midland Area Brass Band Championships of Great Britain to be held in Bedworth, Warwickshire on 10th March. A group from the Senior Band did play in Shepshed last week at the wedding of Tom Hill and Kelly Taylor, who’s family have been associated with the Band for many years.

Concert Brass are preparing new music for this years programme and the Training Band will also be facing new challenges following their appearance on 5th February at the Family Service in Hathern Church.

One Band that hasn’t been mentioned is the Youth Band. The Youth Band does not appear in public, all the players being members of one of the other Bands in the organisation. The sole purpose of the Youth Band is to improve all aspects of Band training, equipping them more readily for Concert Brass/Senior Band. Where as our other Bands practice a piece of music with a view to performing in public, as soon as a piece of music has reached that standard with Youth band it is immediately replaced with something else, the idea being to present fresh challenges to the young players on a weekly basis.

The Senior Band will, as always, have an open rehearsal at Hathern Church on Tuesday 6th March at 7.45, prior to the Area Contest on the following Saturday. Everyone is invited to come and listen to the Band rehearsing Mountain Views composed by Bertrand Moren.

LOROS Concert

Jan. 14, 2012

There was a packed audience at Burleigh Community College, Loughborough for Hathern Band’s Charity concert in aid of LOROS, the Leicestershire & Rutland Hospice. This is the Band’s 11th concert in support of LOROS and as in previous years, the concert has benefited from support by Barclays Bank under their ‘£ for £ Scheme’.

The Band was certainly in sparkling form for their first concert of 2012 and together with Musical Director David Newman, treated the audience to a lively programme in variety of musical styles, which emphatically demonstrated that brass bands don’t just play marches!

There was a lovely selection from the musical My Fair Lady, a big band number, Swing When You’re Winning and we were treated to the Sounds of Simon & Garfunkel, which had been arranged by Neville Buxton, the Band’s solo euphonium player. Unusually, Neville’s arrangement included a part for keyboard and this was expertly played by the multi-talented Susan Robinson, a member of Hathern’s cornet section.

The concert included a number of solos; Jack Hardy gave a very soulful and moving performance on cornet of the Michael Bublé hit Cry Me A River and the flugel horn solo of the song Alfie was beautifully played by Lesley Bentley. The Band’s principal cornet player Mike Wood swapped his cornet for the post horn and stunned the audience with his brilliant rendition of the Post Horn Gallop and all without the aid of any sheet music! It was a busy evening for Mike as he and the rest of the cornet players, plus the horn section set the toes tapping with the Jackie Wilson number Reet Petite and Mike also featured in Someone To Watch Over Me, a great jazz classic brought to prominence in recent times by the late Amy Winehouse.

The solo, Zirkus Renz performed by percussionist Joe Southgate proved that he is certainly a virtuoso xylophone player but his talents also extend to excellent arrangements. The Band played Joe’s arrangement of the Dr Who theme, which was very evocative and one almost expected the Tardis to make an appearance. To conclude a great evening’s entertainment for a great cause the Band played the powerful hymn How Great Thou Art, which perhaps should be sub-titled “as seen on TV” following the Band’s performance of the hymn on The One Show a few months ago. Indeed, it was a superb evening of uplifting music and David Newman’s amusing anecdotes and introductions to the numbers certainly added to the entertainment.

The concert was a huge success and raised £2,105.00 for LOROS, including a donation of £750.00 from Barclays Bank under their match funding scheme. The cheque was accepted by Adrian Walker of LOROS who thanked everyone for achieving such a splendid amount and said that both he and his colleague Peter Barnes had thoroughly enjoyed the evening’s entertainment. Mr Walker went on to say that in addition to its 300 employees, there are 900 volunteers and each year the Hospice needs to raise £4 million to continue its work within the local community to provide free care to terminally ill patients and also give support to their families.

On behalf of Hathern Band, David Newman thanked Barclays for their on-going support of this concert, which has now raised over £23,500.00 for LOROS since the first one 11 years ago. He also thanked everyone involved with the concert, particularly the audience, as without such support it would not have been possible to raise over £2,000.00 for the Leicestershire & Rutland Hospice.

Press release