2006 news

The AGM was held as usual at Millhouse Institute.

The main points from Chairman, Peter Crossley, and MD, Graham Bates, was to

obtain additional players, especially on the cornet section. Anyone who is interested should contact Richard Searby.

The officials of the band were elected and can be viewed on the Officials page

I thought the web site needed a face lift. It has been running since December 1999, and it had a second design in 2001.

The interest in the web site has grown gradually and as at the beginning of 2006 had over 8500 visitors. I think this is pretty good for a village band site. We have had e-mails from

Australia, Canada, the USA and Spain as well as many from UK.

Hopefully with a new look, we will attract even more interest.

Should anyone find any problems with the new look, could you please e-mail peter.crossley@thurlstonebrassband.org

We are pleased to announce two new young members, Kyle and Lewis Bettles. Kyle, aged 12, play EEb Bass, and Lewis, 10, plays Tenor Trombone. It’s great to see young enthusiasm. Kyle, Lewis and mum, Debbie, joined the Band at what as turned out to be the Band’s annual 10-pin bowling competition. (See photos).

We hope Kyle and Lewis have a long and fruitful stay with us.

Also it has been good to see Joanne Fisher come along on a regular basis to rehearsals and engagements. Joanne plays Principal Cornet with the Skelmanthorpe B Band and is a valuable asset on the front row. Skelmanthorpe B

had an excellent win recently in the C Section of the Pogson Bray Contest, beating two Third Section Bands and Emley, who qualified to play in the National Championships at the Yorkshire Area Contest in March. Jo obviously enjoys our company, she also came 10-pin bowling.

It’s another trophy in the cabinet for the Band’s young Tenor Horn player, Jonathan Bates who has just been

awarded the “Soloist of the Year” at Stocksbridge Band Club.The Band Club holds a series of Sunday evening

concerts every year, with mainly South Yorkshire based Bands from all sections taking part. At the end of the series

Again, despite the predominant weather of the week, the weather at the Wetherby Riverside Bandstand was cold. There were a few showers which unfortunately put off a number of visitors. The hardy ones persevered throughout the concert.
Graham Bates, Musical Director, acknowledged this was the first engagement of our two newest members, Kyle and Lewis Bettles.

Solos performed were, “If” by James Broadhead (Euphonium), “The Bombastic Bombardon” by Jill Goddard (EEb Bass) “Streets of London” by Jonathan Bates (Tenor Horn) and “Georgia On My Mind” by Peter Crossley (Euphonium) who also performed a duet with James of “Softly As I Leave You”.

Photos

presentations are made to the Band of the Year and the Soloist of the Year. Thurlstone’s concert took place in February, and as part of our programme Jonathan played Ray Woodfield’s arrangement of “The Streets of London”.

Jonathan, aged 11, started playing two years ago, and has become a regular soloist with the Band. His performances have been received with many favourable comments. He

has become a regular prize-winner at several Slow Melody competitions; was recently awarded “Most Improved Player” at Thurlstone; and will compete in the Final of the British Open Junior Soloist Championship later this year.

Tenor Horn soloist Jonathan Bates has enjoyed further success at three recent Slow Melody Competitions. Firstly he won the Hade Edge Band 13 & Under Section, at which he was then invited to compete in the 16 & Under Section, where he came 3rd. The day after at Elland he won the 11 & Under Section, and was awarded the ‘Best Tenor Horn of the Day’, following in the footsteps of the last two years’ winners, Katie Eggleshaw (Finalist in this year’s BBC Young Brass Musician of the Year), and Billy Rushworth (Former Solo Horn at Black Dyke Mills Band) – not bad company to be in!

The following weekend he was at it again – this time at the Friendly (Sowerby Bridge) Band where he “swept the board”, winning both the Under 12’s and Under

14’s sections and ‘Best Tenor Horn’ Under 14. Following the conclusion of the Senior and Open Sections, he was then also awarded ‘Best Tenor Horn of the Day’ and the Adjudicator’s Special Award. All of this on the back of being awarded ‘Soloist of the Year’ at Stocksbridge Band Club only a fortnight earlier. Ten awards in two weeks is not a bad return.

Jonathan has played two different pieces, both regarded as classic Slow Melodies for Tenor Horn – The Holy City and The Star of Bethlehem, both written by Stephen Adams. (Those people who were with the Band in the late 1970’s may remember past member Belinda Gaynor, who enjoyed similar success with the latter piece).

Despite being faced with an ever-increasing engraving bill, proud dad, and Band M.D. Graham said “We try to encourage soloists of any age at the band if they wish to ‘have a go’, and Jonathan’s success can be partly put down to the opportunities given to him here at Thurlstone, along with his own efforts and those of his teacher, Laurence Mann MBE”.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, Thurlstone Brass Band were not able to perform at the Country Fair held at Cannon Hall on Sunday 06 August. Unfortunately the

organisers had been unable to obtain an adequate performance licence allowing us to take part.

Gradually Thurlstone Brass Band is obtaining the numbers to strengthen the band. This will allow the Band to train the inexperienced players with more challenging music and give our Musical Director less of a headache when

requiring deputies to stand for missing positions.

The latest recruits are Richard Cheetham and David Flather. Rick is playing Cornet and David plays Euphonium. They have

both performed at the last few engagements and hope they enjoy their time with us.

My apologies that the web site has not been updated for a few months. However, during this period we are very pleased to announce that Joanne Fisher has agreed to play Principal Cornet with Thurlstone Brass Band. Joanne also plays with Skelmanthorpe B Band. We hope she has a full and enjoyable time with us. A previous principal player, Paul Long, is

also coming along regularly during his “retirement”. We welcome and appreciate his attendance.

Another regular helper from Skelmanthorpe B Band is Murray Preston on Soprano Cornet. Thanks Murray.

Two new starters at Thurlstone must also be mentioned, playing on Third Cornet. They are Freya Pearson, aged 10, and Robert Barnett, aged 8. It is always encouraging when children take up this hobby and I hope they continue for a very, very long time. When you see them please give them a warm welcome into the Band.

Many of you may not be aware that Thurlstone Brass Band is a member of the Brass Band Webring. Webrings are communities where someone with a keen interest creates a Webring for like minded people to join and spread their web accessibility. Gavin Holden from the Harrogate Band is one of those people and we joined several years ago.

I have also linked us into a few other webrings including UK Brass Bands, White Rose and Wakefield.

Please have a look around the webrings and if you see a webring you feel we should be involved in please let me know

The talented Peter Moore from Wingates on trombone retained Junior Slow Melody title and with it the NWCBBA Trophy and £300 worth of tuition, whilst second place and the Joseph Pool Trophy went to Jonathon Bates of the Thurlstone Brass Band. He also picked up £200 worth of tuition. Finally, third place was awarded to Jodie Russell of the Oldham (Lees) Band who won the British Open Trophy plus £100 worth of tuition.

Proud mum, Debbie Bettles informed the Band of Kyle and Lewis’ outstanding results at their recent Music Board Grades:

“Since joining the band they've come on in leaps and bounds, and they've worked incredibly hard with the endless support of their fabulous teacher, Jonathan Beatty. Lewis got a Distinction at Grade 4 (136/150), and Kyle a

Merit at Grade 5 (127/150 - missing out on a distinction by just 3 points - unfortunately his singing let him down!). They were examined by Alan Morrison (principal cornet, Brighouse & Rastrick) who apparently has a reputation for being pretty strict, so quite an achievement for both of them”