Tue 12 Oct 2010
VBS Charity Christmas Concert

The Vernon Building Society will be hosting a Charity Christmas Concert in aid of The Wellspring (centre for the disadvantaged and homeless) and Stockport CP (who support children and adults with physical and learning disabilities).

The concert, featuring none other than the Vernon Building Society (Poynton) Brass Band, is to be held at St Georges Church, Poynton on Friday 26th November at 7.30pm and tickets will cost £6.

 

Mon 11 Oct 2010
Photos from Bolsover

If you would like to view the official photos from Bolsover Festival of Brass 2010, then please follow the links below.

VBS Poynton Band at Bolsover Festival of Brass Official Photos - 1st Section

VBS Poynton Band at Bolsover Festival of Brass Official Photos - Championship Section

 

Mon 04 Oct 2010
3rd Prize and Best Soloist at Bolsover

After a very early start for all our players (with a rehearsal in Bolsover at 7.30am!), VBS Poynton took part in two sections at yesterday's Bolsover Festival of Brass.

Our programme was:

Paint It Black - Jagger/Richards arr. Adrian Horn
Myfanwy - Parry arr. Adrian Horn
Brillante - Peter Graham
'Dundonell' from Hymn of the Highlands - Philip Sparke

In the 1st Section we played off the No.2 draw. The band played superbly and were hot favourites with listeners in the hall but were disappointed to only gain 3rd Prize from the adjudicator Allan Ramsey. However our baritone soloist, Andy Lawton, walked away with the Best Soloist prize for his performance of Peter Graham's Brillante.

In the Championship section we played from the dreaded No.1 draw. Again the band played really well, but unfortunately only came away with 6th Place.

Well done to everyone for playing so well, and especially to Andy Lawton for his soloist prize.

Full Results from the 1st and Championship sections are available here.

 

 

Sun 19 Sep 2010
2nd Prize & BBW Cup at Wychavon

VBS Poynton Band came away with a very creditable 2nd Prize and the Brass Band World Cup at the Wychavon Festival of Brass yesterday, especially after playing off the No.1 draw.

The band's programme, including three pieces specially arranged for the band by our Soprano Cornet player Adrian Horn, was as follows:

Paint It Black - M. Jagger & K. Richards arr. A. Horn
Myfanwy - J. Parry arr. A. Horn
Brillante - P. Graham
(Baritone Soloist Andy Lawton)
Triumph (from Day of the Dragon) - P. Graham
Show Me The Way To Go Home - I. King arr. A. Horn

Our Solo Baritone, Andy Lawton, deserves a special mention for his stunning virtuoso performance of Brillante, and thanks should also go to our MD Kevin Gibbs for getting the band ready for the contest in little over a week.

Special congratulations must also go to our Contest Secretary Alan Nutton who received a Special Recognition award from the organisers of the contest as he was the Contest Secretary of VBS 21 years ago at the very first Wychavon Festival of Brass and has been in the same role all of that time.

Photos of the day are now online here.

 

Sun 29 Aug 2010
Rehearsals Resume For Contest Season

Rehearsals start up again this week after our summer holidays in time to prepare for Wychavon contest in 3 weeks time and Bolsover contest soon afterwards.

We are the current 1st Section Champions at both of these entertainment contests and will be looking to keep the title with the additional chance of also gaining the Championship section crown at Bolsover as well - we were invited by Bolsover's organisers to take part in both sections after the adjudicator last year thought we could have won the Championship section with our performance.

Our MD Kevin Gibbs is finalising the programme for these contests and you can expect new arrangements written especially for the band.

We hope you can come and support us at these contests, but if not you may also be able to hear some of the programme at our concert in Heald Green Village Hall on the 12th September.

 

Thu 12 Aug 2010
Cornet Duet

VBS Poynton Band would like to officially welcome two new players to the cornet ranks. Rachel Hall joins on 2nd Cornet and Natalie Dodman joins on the front row.

Photos and biographies will follow soon.

The band now only requires 1 or 2 players to join Dave Johnson in the Percussion section as he is starting to get lonely at the back of the bandroom!

 

Fri 30 Jul 2010
Basses lead the way with Fundraising

Our Eb Bass players have recently kick-started the bands fundraising efforts for our Instrument Fund.

Jimmy Tew organised a 10 mile sponsored walk down the Middlewood Way at the end of May with intrepid walkers of all ages taking part, whilst our other Eb Bass player Karl Price (with the help of Sarah and Dave Johnson) organised a Quiz Night at the bandroom last weekend. After 12 rounds of questions ranging from subjects as disparate as Ships' Captains to Childrens' TV it was proved that the older you get the more knowledge you store in your minds with the winning team being 'The Titanic's Deckchair Attendants'. We get the feeling that some of the members were regular quiz-goers!

The two events have raised £750 for the band's instrument fund. An excellent start. More fundraising events will be coming soon.

 

Tue 29 Jun 2010
Bands Across The Water

The VBS Poynton Band and Musical Director Kevin Gibbs would like to offer their thanks and ‘safe travels’ to the Natural State Brass Band, from Arkansas, with their Musical Director Rusty Morris. The two bands played a joint concert on Monday night to a packed out audience at Poynton Methodist Church with both bands receiving standing ovations for their captivating performances - VBS playing an all British music programme for their first set and the NSBB responding with a very American set (with music from Copeland to Sinatra!).

We were also in awe of the NSBB’s guest soloist for the night Douglas Yeo, the Bass Trombone from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who performed ‘Stella by Starlight’ and a special arrangement for Doug and the NSBB of ‘The Arkansas Traveller’ – done in the traditional Theme & Variation style, performances like this are not something you see Bass Trombonists doing often!

Not to be outdone, though, VBS Band’s star soloist, baritone player Andy Lawton, stood up to the challenge with a superb rendition of Brillante (Theme and Variations on Rule Brittania).

To mark the occasion of the concert, the bands presented each other with commemorative banners, and we hope that the Natural State Brass Band’s remaining concerts (with Wingates and Thoresby Colliery) are every bit as successful before they fly back to the US on, fittingly, 4th July.

We must also say thanks to Keith Tysall, who has been instrumental in helping to organise the Natural State Brass Band’s tour of the UK.

 

Wed 09 Jun 2010
Looking for players...

With the recent departures of Mark Snowden and Craig Harper (and with Adrian Horn moving from front row to soprano) the band is looking for players to fill the few empty seats.

Positions available are 2nd Cornet, Front Row Cornet and Percussion. If you are interested in playing with this established, friendly and high calibre band, and think you could fill one of these positions (or if you'd just like to come down for a blow), please contact the band's Chairman Peter Cookson.

 

Tue 01 Jun 2010
Au Revoir's and Role Swaps

Mark Snowden has stepped down from the Soprano seat after nearly 4 years on front row and a successful 2 years on Soprano. Mark is having a break from playing to concentrate on his new job as head of music at a Salford school. He has been a great bandsman and will be sorely missed. Dave Johnson said on behalf of the band, "we wish him good luck and look forward to meeting up with him at the next band curry night”.

Set to replace Mark is bumper up cornet player Adrian Horn. Adrian, famous for his 'screamer' high notes played his first concert on sop with the band on Saturday night at Brass and Abba and did a first class job considering he was playing on b flat cornet only last week at Whit Friday.

Other changes see Percussionist Craig Harper take a hard earned break. Craig has a young family and is finding balancing home life, work and band a struggle, but we hope he is not away from the band for too long.

Administration changes following the band's recent AGM see Dave Johnson stepping down as band chairman being replaced by long standing committee member Peter Cookson. The band would like to thank Dave for his hard work over the past few years although Dave will not be getting off lightly as he will be continuing in his other role as Sponsorship Liaison Officer.

 

First - Previous - Next - Last
Latest Tweets