After a great dress rehearsal last night the band and cast from Congleton Players are all set for five performances of Brassed Off. Tickets have sold really well and if you want to see the show there may be a few left at Congleton Tourist Information Centre or available on the night at the Daneside Theatre box office. We've had loads of fun rehearsing and promoting the play with the cast and below are a few photos of our journey......
djudicate the top flight bands, with Sandy Smith overseeing the First Section and Kevin Wadsworth the Second. John Doyle will be in the Charter Theatre to make the all important decisions in both the Third and Fourth Sections.
Source: Plenty of bands after the brass at the Guild | 4barsrest.com news
Our friends at Keele University Brass Band will be hosting a joint Concert of Remembrance with us at Keele University Chapel on Saturday 14th November. The concert promises an enjoyable evening of music, reflection and commemoration.
Tickets at £7 for adults and £5 for students/concessions. These can be bought on the door or by emailing soc.brassband@keele.ac.uk
Posted by Nantwich Events Photography on Saturday, 27 June 2015
On the 29th May Rode Hall Silver Band boarded a coach bound for Saddleworth to take part in the annual Saddleworth & District Whit Friday Brass Band Contests. The contests are also known as ‘The Greatest Free Show on Earth’ because around 100 bands from all over the country, and beyond, travel from village to village playing two marches at each contest to both a ‘blind’ adjudicator and an appreciative crowd, before boarding their bus and moving on to the next village. Each contest typically hosts between 50 and 70 bands, from non-contesting to world class bands.
This year Rode weren’t able to perform at as many venues as previous years, due to congestion and queues at the venues, however we did manage to achieve our minimum target of six contests. These were Diggle, Uppermill, Dobcross, Scouthead, Lydgate & Denshaw. The band are particularly proud of their second place prize in the 4th Section at Lydgate. The weather was pretty cool all evening, but dry until our very last performance at Denshaw. As we watched the penultimate band perform, the heavens opened. Torrential rain turned to an onslaught of hail stones as our band played on to a handful of equally plucky spectators. As the last band of the contest, we brought the contest to a close with a soggy National Anthem.
The band would like to say a big thank you to our MD Nigel Butler, our band manager Steve Twemlow for organising the coach, and to our guests on the evening.
See our Lydgate performance below and keep an eye on our Media Gallery for more videos and photos from the day.
SWEET MUSIC AT MOORSIDE FOR CHARITY
Moorland Voices, Rode Hall Silver band and Shelley Ann Rivers have been asked by Sue Wardle, Chairman of Leek and Moorlands NSPCC to perform in a concert at Moorside High School, Cellarhead on July 11 to raise funds for Carole House, the local NSPCC children's centre. Sue Wardle is enthusiastic about this concert. “It will be the biggest concert we will have organised for the NSPCC – Moorland Voices (with whom I sing) will be joined by the wonderful Rode Hall Silver Band and a talented young soprano Shelley-Ann Rivers, also a local girl. It should be a great night for music lovers and we are hoping to sell over 200 tickets for this event.” Tickets will cost £8 (£5 for concessions) and will include light refreshment. The programme will begin at 7.30. More details from Sue on 01782 550258 or checkleysue@aol.com
MOORLAND VOICES
After recently celebrating 12 months of singing together, Moorland Voices has a busy schedule of concerts for 2015. This co-operative choir of 26 singers has no overall musical director but uses talent from within its ranks to choose music, conduct and inspire. They sing a huge variety from classical to Beatles and rely on close harmonies in a largely a capella style.
The choir includes members based in Leek and Cheadle but attracts singers from all over Staffordshire. Don Taylor, chairman of the choir, stated, “We have worked very hard to improve our overall sound and blend of voices. Apparently we are the choir to watch and in this second year we want to seriously impress our audiences, so we have been working on new and exciting pieces for our upcoming concerts.”
SHELLEY-ANN RIVERS
Shelley Anne Rivers is a classically trained singer and actress. She studied musical theatre at Laine Theatre Arts and continued to train in Opera at The Royal Northern College of Music.
Her theatre credits include, Tuptim in the 'King & I', Maggie in 'A Chorus Line', Mrs Anderson in 'A Little Night Music', Pitti Sing in 'The Mikado', Phyllis in 'Iolanthe' for the Buxton G&S Festival, Tchaikovsky's Opera 'Eugene Onegin' and Janácek's 'The Cunning Little Vixen'. She performed in the UK tour of 'The Pirates of Penzance' alongside Rosemary Ashe and Paul Nicholas and she has also performed in the Chichester Festival Theatre's production of 'Iolanthe'.
Shelley's concert and corporate work has taken her all over the world. She regularly appears with comedian Kev Orkian, dueting with him in a comedy opera routine that Kev previously performed with global opera star Katherine Jenkins. Shelley recently performed in Bobby Davros' "Gala Spectacular" alongside Joe Pasquale, Gary Wilmot and Gareth Gates. Through 2014, Shelley appeared as a guest singer abroad with her own classical show for TED UK.
RODE HALL SILVER BAND
Rode Hall Silver Band was formed in 1837 as a fife and drum band, changing to its current brass band format in 1886. It is believed that the Band was originally formed to lead the local people to services at Astbury Church before Rode Church was built.The Band today plays at many events throughout South Cheshire and Staffordshire. The Band is also planning to participate in a number of contests that will challenge the players and develop the sound of the Band.
The band recently achieved a 4th place finish at Brass at the Guild 2015 and followed this up with a 6th place at the hotly contested 2015 North West Regional Championships. The band is forward-thinking, and aims to progress further and further up the results table in the years to come. The band's president is Lady Baker Wilbraham of Rode Hall
Rode Hall Silver Band will be holding a concert at St. Mary's Church Astbury on the 11th April 2015 at 7pm.
Tickets are on sale from band members or at Congleton Tourist Information Office for £6.00 (£5.00 Concessions).
Admission on the door will also be available subject to ticket availability.
The band travelled to Blackpool Winter Gardens on the 1st March to compete in the North West Area Regional Championship 4th Section. The day began at 9:30am for a rehearsal at the Duke of York pub. The first half of the rehearsal went well enough for our stand-in conductor, Aidan Howgate, to allow us to break for bacon sandwiches kindly prepared for us by the licencees. After eating our breakfast we completed the rest of the rehearsal before making our way to the Winter Gardens for registration. We were drawn to play 5th out of a field of 14 other bands and we eventually went on to play in the magnificent Empress Ballroom at approximately 4pm.
The piece we played was An English Pastorale by Dean Jones and it seemed to fly by on stage, as such performances always do. The band were invariably pleased with the performance and excited to find out where we had placed. With another 9 bands still to play we had enough time to grab a bite to eat and return to the ball room for the final performances and results. After a lengthy deliberation the adjudicators placed Rode Hall a very respectable 6th overall, high enough to receive one of the trophies presented by Fanfare North.
Full results from the 4th Section:
| Pos | Band | Conductor | Draw |
| 1 | Formby | Louise Hough | 8 |
| 2 | Skelmersdale Prize | David Chapman | 14 |
| 3 | Manx Youth | Ian Clague MBE | 4 |
| 4 | Stalybridge Old | David Ashworth | 9 |
| 5 | Valley Brass (Haydock) | David Chadwick | 1 |
| 6 | Rode Hall Silver | Aidan Howgate | 5 |
| 7 | Tarleton Brass | Gillian Bould | 6 |
| 8 | Brindle | Keith Richmond | 7 |
| 9 | Sale Brass | Joshua Hughes | 2 |
| 10 | Thornton Cleveleys | Stephen Simpson | 12 |
| 11 | Blackley | Daniel Price | 10 |
| 12 | Cadishead Public | Craig McFarland | 11 |
| 13 | Denton Brass | Matt Bailey | 3 |
| 14 | Mereside Brass | Mike Phenton | 13 |
Rode Hall Silver Band traveled to Preston on Sunday 1st February 2015 to take part in the Brass at the Guild contest, organised by Lancashire Contests. The contest saw 39 bands performing either their respective test piece for the up coming Regional Area contests, or their piece from the Butlins Mineworkers Championship.
The band performed An English Pastorale by Dean Jones in preparation for our outing at the North West Area Regional Championships in Blackpool on the 1st March. The band achieved an improvement on last year's contest with a 4th place finish. With a month still to go until the Blackpool contest the band have high aspirations of putting on a good show at the Areas under the baton of our stand-in conductor, Aidan Howgate.
Prior to the upcoming contest, the band will be playing at an 'Area Test Piece Preview Evening' on the 22nd February hosted by the Foden's Band at Sandbach Boys School, Crewe Rd, Sandbach. Keep an eye on our events and engagements page for details or follow our Facebook or Twitter pages.
Below are a few photos of the band just before going on stage at Preston...
