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Christmas Wishes from TSB

Towcester Studio Band sends Xmas Greetings and best wishes to all of its Patrons, friends and supporters. We wish you and your families a very Merry Xmas & Happy New Year. Your continued support is invaluable and very much appreciated.

The Band has enjoyed a wonderful year under the direction of its Musical Director Neil Brownless, and looks forward to an enjoyable and successful 2016 on both contest and concert platforms!

On last Wednesday night St Lawrence Church was just about full for our end of year concert and from the many kind messages of support and appreciation it was a fitting climax to what has been an excellent year for the Band.

The concert programme was varied and fun for players and audience alike. Even the Musical Director featured in a Trombone Solo! Neil Brownless rose to the challenge when Chairman Chris Stevens ‘downed tools’ mid concert and challenged the MD to play ‘Frosty the Snowman’ which Chris claims to have performed for the past twenty plus years! The performance was beautifully staged, conducted by Bandmaster Dan Smith and enjoyed by all that were there.

Samantha Buckland (tenor horn) also has the voice of an angel and accompanied by the Band she sang ‘O Holy Night’, which brought a tear to the eye of some members of the audience. Sam is a terrific Solo Horn player and to be able to add variety to any programme with such a wonderful vocal talent makes us all very proud of her.

The Band’s principle cornet player is Dave Nicholson and Dave has had a very difficult year recovering from poor health. He made a very welcome return to the Bandroom a couple of months back and his rendition of ‘Ballade’ was very well received by the audience.

John Mudway (Flugel Horn) is always a very popular soloist and chose to play ‘Don’t it make your Brown eyes Blue’. John often makes his Band pals nervous as we are never confident that he’s wearing the right ‘specs’ which makes reading his music especially in a dimly lit church, somewhat challenging! Taking no chances Bandmaster Dan Smith provided some additional local illumination to John’s music stand and all went very well.

The majority of the programme had a link to the Xmas period and as always audience participation is assured through the singing of four Carols. From a player’s perspective it is always good to hear the congregation in good voice and they were certainly that on Wednesday.

The Band were delighted to move outside on Thursday night to support the ‘All Churches’ Carol Service held on the Market Square. This is a fantastic community event and one that the Band really enjoys supporting. The weather behaved and the very large crowd were again in full voice. The story of Xmas was narrated by several contributors including the heads of Towcester churches and chapel’s. The reading were interspersed with Carol’s and everyone retired to the Town Hall for mulled wine and minced pies after the service.

So to reiterate the message at the beginning of this piece …. Thanks again for helping TSB spread musical goodwill throughout our community.

Merry Xmas & Peaceful 2016

Towcester Studio Band

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