Magnificent wind music at Mudeford Wood Community Centre

On Saturday 1 June Bournemouth and District Concert Band welcomed in summer with a concert to help raise funds for Mudeford Wood Community Centre – held at Mudeford Wood Community Centre (of course).

Trombone players

Mary concentrating hard playing trombone in our concert. Photo: @andrew_potter_photography

It’s a modern well-appointed centre surrounded by a large area of open grass and contains a hall with a wonderful and high wooden roof.

Suitably for 1 June it was a warm and sunny afternoon as we gathered for a rehearsal before the concert. Anxious that our audience should have a good time and spend money at the bar to help raise funds, Simon worked us hard. Exhausted and hot, we broke for a picnic tea on the grass outside; a perfect way to recover on such a lovely afternoon.

Now refreshed it was time for the real business, especially as our audience was already arriving! We rapidly changed into our concert dress and filed in to the hall.

A packed programme begins

Simon set us such a lively tempo for our opening number, ‘Amparito Roco’, that I could see steam rising from my trombone slide by the end! Goodness, he surely didn’t intend to do that with all our pieces did he? Yes he did! Our next item ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’ went by in a whirl, and although we missed the ‘Can Can’ dancers (!), our audience warmed to it and applauded loudly.

Band rehearsing at Mudeford Wood Community Centre

The band rehearsing at Mudeford Wood Community Centre before our concert

This was followed by ‘Tom Jones’ (an up-tempo arrangement of his songs – not the maestro himself!) at the end. It was clear the audience were having a good time. It looked as if the bar would do well!

The band looked really smart with good stage discipline and excellent choice of programme items to suit the occasion … thanks for a really enjoyable evening.

We continued with a good mixture of slow and fast, old and new pieces. These included a ‘Jazz Waltz’ by Shostakovich; the ‘Lion King’; ‘Pink Panther’ meeting ‘Batman’; ‘Seventeen come Sunday’ from Vaughn Williams’ English Folk Song Suite; ‘Abba Gold’ and an Irish dance ‘Cry of the Celts’. As we came to our final section we knew the bar had done well because the serving staff were dancing to our music!

Commemorating D Day

In June 75 years ago, thousands of British, American and Canadian soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy in the largest amphibious invasion ever; D Day. By the end of that day the Allies had a toe-hold in occupied France. It was the beginning of the end for Hitler and his Nazis. To commemorate this we ended with music from the film ‘The Longest Day’ followed by a rousing ‘Last Night of the Proms’ finale.

We finished to cheers and a standing ovation. I think Simon succeeded in giving our audience a good time and together we helped them raise much needed funds for their community centre.

By Mary on trombone