Watford Band

The band have recently competed at Butlins Championship in Skegness. The piece they performed was called Diamonds, composed by Tom Moss. The piece was based on what Tom Moss terms his little gems . The little gems being players he had met in the youth band scene in the St Helens region.

In any organisation there are those that complain about anything and nothing and usually sit on the fence when decisions have to be made. There are the one or two that end up carrying and fetching the “heavy stuff” to and from band jobs. There is usually one that does all the arrangement but is unable to please everyone.

However there is, if you are lucky, one or two gems of your own within the group.

At Watford Band we have some long-serving members and included in this category are two young ladies who joined the band when there were 14 and 10 respectively and have been ever present since.

The players in question are our two principal cornet players, Sharon Wells and Karen Dovey. They have continued to play throughout their teens, twenties and dare I say it, early thirties only taking time off for some maternity leave.

Sharon is from a family of teachers and qualified as an Accountant, a job she continued until just after the birth of her second child Katie. She is married to Ian who is also a brass player (Ware Brass) and also has a son Alex. Having given up her accountancy profession Sharon found she had more time to practice but playing the cornet did not help with the domestic budget. So what did she do! Became a baker – yes, she bakes cakes, and they are delicious. You can see her details on www.hertfordshirecupcakecompany.com

Next we come to Karen, not a baker but is from a family of butchers. Karen joined the band at the age of 10 and is a successful Insurance Broker in the City of London. She lives with Martin (Watfords ex MD) and has a 2 year old son, Harry. Prior to the arrival of Harry, Karen was a very active Committee Member. After Harry arrived Karen decided to work part-time and continues to juggle her busy family, business and social life so she can fit in with the band’s twice weekly rehearsals.

So there you have it Watford Band’s own "Diamonds" or as Tom Moss would put it "little gems”. Long may they continue with their cornet playing at Watford.

Following a very successful pre Christmas period of concerts and open air carol playing the band wish to thank all those customers of Tesco and the Harlequin Centre for their tremendous support.

The band wish all it supporters a Happy and Successful New Year.

Watford Band gave the performance of its life last Sunday at an entertainments contest organised by the Oxfordshire Brass Band Association. After its 20 minute programme the audience were calling for more and more.

In a varied programme beginning with a piece depicting Circus life - "The Big Top" - a lot of fun with claxonhorns, whistles, and all percussion toys being demonstrated to the full. The audience simply loved it except one of the adjudicators felt the airhorn was too loud!! Following this was an arrangement of "The Old Grumpie Cat from Andrew Lloyd Webbers "Cats", and then one of the band's star trombonists played his own arrangement of Johnny Mandel's Shadow of Your Smile.

The penultimate piece was "Teddy Bears Picnic" and the audience joined in singing the words.
Our finale was introduced as a bonanza for trombones, and what a finale it was. Mike Innes was joined by his partner in crime Robert Hunt and between them they gave a fabulous performance of Basin Street Blues which was followed by rapturous applause and cries for more from the audience.

There were 2 adjudicators, one judging the entertainment value, deportment and programme content of all the bands performances and the other simply judging the standard of playing of the bands.

In his summation the entertainment judge said there was one band who had the wow factor and he did not want the performance to end. The other adjudicator said he was looking for tunefullness of playing and musicality and performance of the music.

The results were then read out to the eager audience and Watford Band were announced as BEST ENTERTAINERS and BEST BAND.

This is the bands first contest were they have come out on top and follows success last November at Leicester and promotion from the Fourth to the Third tier of UK banding. Thanks go to the Musical Director, Richard Graves, who has only been with the band for 2 years, and also to the playing members who have generally worked hard during Richard's tenure as MD.

Next Contest is Leicester followed by a busy Christmas programme to raise funds for operating costs and local charities, and then Butlins Contest in January (Skegness) and the area contest in March at Stevenage.

On Saturday 3rd October the Band, under the direction of Richard Graves, gave another concert in Christ Church. This time they were joined by the Watford Girls' Grammar School Junior Choir, conductor Alison Carr.

Entitled 'Movie Night at the Proms' it gave the Band the chance to shine as they played theme tunes from films featured on the big screen as well as TV.

The girls were in fine form, singing selections from popular musicals ('My Fair Lady' and 'Les Miserables') and light entertainment (including Eric Clapton's 'Tears in Heaven').

The evening drew towards its end with the now traditional 'Last Night at the Proms' menu - Henry Wood's 'Fantasia on British Sea Songs', Parry's 'Jerusalem', Elgar's 'Pomp and Circumstance March Number One, with the audience joining in with great enthusiasm.

Finally, the Girls' Choir joined the Band and soloist Amy Cross in performing 'Time to Say Goodbye'.

Marko Podgorski who joined the band some 3 years ago has just heard he has passed Grade 5 on Tenor Horn.

Marko is a self taught trumpet player who was persuaded to move to the Tenor Horn two years ago so has done well in passing at this level.

The band now have 5 players with grade 5, one grade 6 and two members with grade 8.