Flowers Spring Round Up

Flowers Spring Round Up

While it may be a quiet time of year for competitions as we enter the summer months, the band has not slowed down at all! We’ve been hard at work in the rehearsal room, on the concert stage, and in the recording studio.

Stroud Subscription Rooms

In mid April we returned to Stroud Sub Rooms, a venue just down the road from our home in Gloucester. We performed a wide selection of music, including compositions from film, classical and baroque genres, and also reprised some of our favourite pieces from previous Brass in Concert entertainment contests. Our soloists Emily Evans, Lauren Chinn and Paul Richards were in fine form, as ever.

We’ll be back in Stroud again on 18th February 2024 - mark your diaries!

Stroud Subscription Rooms - 23rd April, 2023

Coming soon - New Album

We were delighted to team up with World of Brass to record a new album of music that will be released later this year on their Wobplay platform. Over two days we recorded eleven tracks, all compositions written by friends of the band, including Paul McGhee Christian Overhead, Richard Taylor and a major work by Ludovic Neurohr to name but a few.

Our featured soloists include Paul Richards (soprano cornet), Lauren Chinn (flugel), guest principal cornet Iain Culross, and we are so excited for you to hear a brand new tenor horn concerto written by Mike Sheppard for Emily Evans.

Thank you to World of Brass for a super weekend in the recording studio, and particular thanks to our producer Mel. We can’t wait to hear the results and share them with you all. We shall let you know once we have a confirmed release date (expected to be autumn 2023).

World of Brass CD - 29th/30th April, 2023

Badminton Horse Trials

On the Coronation bank holiday the band braved the wet weather to perform in the main arena at Badminton Horse Trials. We played at key moments during the competition, including the winner’s anthem, prize giving and the lap of honour. It was a great privilege to be invited to perform at this world-renowned event in the equestrian calendar, and you can hear a few minutes of our performance right at the end of the BBC’s coverage (starts at 1hr 55 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001ltlt).

Thank you to the audience who were so appreciative of our performance. We’ve been sent a few recordings that you took from the stands, which we loved! If you have any other photos or videos of the event we’d be delighted if you would share them with us.

Badminton Horse Trials - 8th May, 2023

Flowers on the International Stage

We were extremely proud to see three of our members involved in the King’s Coronation, marching in the Coronation Parade with their regiments. Congratulations LCpl Jamie Nuss (percussion), LCpl Kelvin Retallack (cornet) and Cpl Ieuan Walton (bass) for your involvement in this historic event.

Coronation of King Charles III - 6th May, 2023

Congratulations to our principal cornet player, Luke Baker, who celebrated victory at the European Championships, playing with the Swiss champions, Brass Band Treize Etoiles. As many of you will know, Luke has been undertaking a year of study in the city of Fribourg in Switzerland, and upon moving there, he joined the front row of Treize Etoiles, and since then has become both a Swiss Champion and European Champion. Luke is returning to the UK soon and performing a solo at our concert in Nailsworth on 11th June - you won’t want to miss it!

Congratulations also go to our MD Paul Holland who led Whitburn Band to a respectable 10th place in an extremely competitive field.

European Championships - 6th May, 2023

Upcoming Vacancies

Due to player relocations we will have two vacancies in the band, for a 2nd Baritone and Eb bass. For more information or to make an application please email manager@flowers.band. Applications will close on Friday 19th of May at 6pm.

Upcoming Vacancies

Upcoming Events

Our next concert is at 3pm on 11th of June in St George’s Church, Nailsworth. We will present a varied programme of music from film music, to Vaughan Williams, a brass band march, some music to mark the coronation, and more. Solo performances will be given by Luke Barker, Lauren Chinn and Matt Rowe. To get tickets, go to our engagements page.

You can now purchase tickets for our two concerts in the 2023 Three Choirs Festival. We are one of the featured ensembles for this year’s event, alongside The Philharmonia Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The BBC National Orchestra of Wales, British Youth Opera and the Ora Singers.

https://3choirs.org/events/magic-and-mischief

https://3choirs.org/events/flowers-band-fanfares-and-love-songs

The Royal Albert Hall have released tickets for the Championship Section National Finals on 21st October.

https://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/events/2023/national-brass-band-championships/

West of England Regional Championships 2023

On Sunday 12th of March, Flowers travelled to Torquay to compete at the 2023 West of England Regional Championships. Following cancellations and venue changes due to Covid=19, we were pleased to be back in this seaside town where the band has enjoyed considerable success.

This year’s chosen test piece was ‘Red Priest’ by Philip Wilby, a technical and musical challenge which was commissioned for the European Championships and has since been used for the British Open and Grand Shield. The band enjoyed preparing this piece, under the careful supervision of our Musical Director Paul Holland, and we were particularly pleased to see so many friends and supporters join our open rehearsal to hear a preview of our performance.

We were delighted to welcome Tom Nielsen as guest principal cornet. He was the latest in a line-up of top class cornet players occupying the end seat while Luke Barker continues his year of study in Switzerland. Tom has been a good friend of the band for several years, having met several members during his time as principal cornet player of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. He has appeared with us previously in concerts, and was thrilled to be asked to perform with us at the contest. We were very grateful that Tom was able to play for the band, managing to fit us in around his busy schedule as one of the leading freelance orchestral trumpet players in the UK, and all at the age of 21!

We were given a fairly early draw, 4/11, and played in the mid afternoon. We then enjoyed several drinks in the bar whilst we waited for the contest to conclude. After much deliberation by adjudicators Chris Jeans and Morten Hansen, in what was described as a battle between ‘two very close bands’, the band were awarded second place. The adjudicators described our performance as ‘musically astute’ and ‘a performance that radiated quality’, but with some small errors that were the differentiator between the top two placings.

With our qualification for the National Finals already secured due our top four placing last year, there were two further spots available for West of England bands. We very much look forward to seeing our friends from first-placed Camborne Band and third-placed Aldbourne Band at the Royal Albert Hall in October - congratulations to you all!

The band would like to thank the WEBBA organising team who work tirelessly to make this contest run smoothly and professionally every year.

The next opportunity to hear the band will be at Stroud Sub Rooms on Sunday 23rd April. Follow the link to get your tickets! Flowers Band | What's On | The Sub Rooms

Flowers Festive Round Up

We’ve been put through our paces since the conclusion of the contest season, touring around Gloucestershire and beyond with a series of concerts. After two years of disrupted schedules we’ve thoroughly enjoyed playing for live audiences again, especially around Christmas as this is a typically busy season.

Our first concert, at St Mary’s Church in Bridgwater, followed shortly on from our performance at Brass in Concert. We reprised our entertainment set ‘Legend of Troy’, and also played this year’s First Section test piece ‘Trittico’, as well as a number of favourites from the film ‘Brassed Off’. It was the first time the band has ever played in Bridgwater and we were met with an exceptionally warm reception on what was a rather stormy and cold evening. It was a particularly special occasion for Lia Teague, who took on the Principal Cornet seat on her concert debut with Flowers - bravo Lia! Lia joined the band in October after moving to Cardiff to study at university and has slotted in fantastically.

Bridgwater Concert Set Up, November 2022

As we turned our calendars over to December it was time to get into the Christmas spirit. We were delighted to be invited once again to the Maggie’s Cheltenham Cancer Care annual fundraising concert.

We performed half a dozen items, including the solo, ‘Away in a Manger,’ which was beautifully performed by our flugel horn soloist Lauren Chinn, and a feature for our trombone section. Thanks to our hosts for their hospitality (the mulled cider was delicious!) and we hope you raised lots of money for an excellent cause.

Maggie’s Concert, December 2022

Next we travelled to Number 8 Arts Centre in Pershore, under the baton of our guest conductor Steve Legge. We have played in Pershore many times in the past, but this concert broke a 4 year hiatus. The recent snowfall was an idyllic background to our programme, which was a mix of traditional Christmas songs and film music, including ‘Somewhere in My Memory’ from Home Alone, a medley of tunes from ‘The Polar Express’ and ‘Fanfare and Flying Theme’ from E.T. (Our MD, Paul Holland, insists this is a Christmas film!). It was amazing to play in such a beautiful venue, a real hidden gem, and a huge thank you to the audience for such an enthusiastic welcome. We promise it won’t be another 4 years before we’re back!

Pershore Concert, December 2022

We held our final concert of the year at the Bacon Theatre in Cheltenham, joined by the wonderful Beauregard Academy Choirs.

It was great to have some audience participation during the carols, and for one young fan on sleigh bells during Leroy Anderson’s ‘Sleigh Ride’! We even managed to fulfil an audience request for a fan of the band from Canada who was visiting family in the area, which explained ‘I Will Follow Him,’ being performed by our trombones, disappointingly not wearing nun’s habits… maybe next year? The band were thrilled to welcome back Luke Barker on the end seat, who was home for Christmas from his year abroad in Switzerland. Amongst the musical items we took the opportunity to present the Flowers Band Annual Awards 2022 — Flowers Band. Congratulations to all winners!

Bacon Theatre Concert, December 2022

We’re going to be expanding our concert schedule in 2023, and so keep an eye on our ‘Engagements’ page to see where we’ll be next. Some of our engagements are currently listed, with more being added to the page soon. To make sure you never miss an announcement, sign up to our mailing list which can be found on the home page of our website.

Thank you to all our supporters who have followed Flowers this year. We wish you a Happy New Year and look forward to sharing more music with you in 2023.

Flowers Band Annual Awards 2022

Flowers Band Annual Awards 2022

On Thursday evening we gave our final performance of the year at the Bacon Theatre in Cheltenham. During the second half of the concert we took the opportunity to present our annual awards.

The Players’ Player award is voted for by members of the band, and is therefore highly coveted. 9 different members of the band received nominations this year which speaks to the calibre of player we are so lucky to have. This year’s recipient is our amazing percussionist Coco Chan.

The Player of the Year award is selected by our MD, Paul Holland, and recognises individual excellence in playing. This year the winner is our Brass in Concert soloist and soprano cornet star, Paul Richards. Paul has forged an international reputation as one of the best soprano cornetists around, and time and time again gives stunning performances on both the concert and contest stage.

The Dave Lee Memorial award was presented for the first time this year in memory of Dave Lee, a former member of the band, who sadly passed away in August. It recognises the playing of someone who sits on an inner part and may not have the opportunity to shine individually, but makes an invaluable contribution to the ensemble. It seems fitting that the first recipient should be a cornet player as this was Dave’s instrument. Congratulations to our 4th Solo Cornet player, Erin Maloney. Erin joined the band in June this year and since then has made a big impression on the band.

Bandsman of the Year is awarded to someone who contributes to the ‘behind the scenes’ work that keeps the band running. From concert bookings to player management, advertising to finances, there are many voluntary roles needed to maintain a top level band. This year’s Bandsman of the Year, for a second year in a row, is our band manager Gregor Spence. Gregor has been a member of the band for 4 years, and took over the role of band manager earlier this year, being the youngest in the bands history.

Last, but by no means least, is the Section of the Year prize. On this occasion it went to the Basses (Tony Pemberton, Gregor Spence, Ieuan Walton and Tom Stone). In our Musical Directors own words, the Basses won this award because they, “caused the least headaches this year!”

Congratulations to all of the award winners, and thank you so much to everyone who has supported the band this year!

Butlins Champions!

Flowers returned to Butlins after a Covid-enforced cancellation last year to retain the title of Champion Band 2022, picking up awards for Best Overall, Best Test Piece, Best Entertainment, Most Entertaining as well as a belated Soloist prize for Jamie Smith.

As reigning Champions from January 2020, we provided the Friday night concert featuring ABBA, Manhatten Skyline, and the premier of Bright Lights, Big City!, a piece from the pen of Richard Taylor and a brilliant crowd pleaser, as well as MD pleaser!

Paganini Variations was the set work for the Saturday and posed a challenge for all sections of the band. With 16 variations to master, we had an array of chances to extract music and drama from the page. Each section had a variation in which to demonstrate technicality and emotion and everyone performed incredibly well. Matt Rowe was on imperious form on Euphonium, as well as Paul Richards once again proving why he remains one of the best Soprano players in the banding movement. Tony Pemberton even made a rare appearance as a soloist on Bbb Bass!

We had a number 5 draw for Saturday, and after we played, made our way back to North Shore Golf Club to our rehearsal venue to work on the Sunday Entertainments programme.

Monopoly was the theme and each piece represented a square on the famous board. We began, where else, but GO! (Rags to Riches) with a funky new commission from Christian Overhead to fire us into our set. After flying around the board and with a flurry of Monopoly cash thrown into the crowd, the Flowers Band were flying high at Mayfair. Jamie Nuss was the inquisitive diner in a posh restaurant as Mark Cowley served up a delicious and excellently timed staging to the backdrop of Paul Saggers’ arrangement to an Eric Coates classic. Even the Champagne cork was in time!

St. Paul’s from Fleet Street was our soloist piece. The new Andy Wareham composition reflected the beauty of the protected view of St. Paul’s Cathedral, although the beauty was perhaps better realised by our Principal Cornet, Jamie Smith. A truly captivating performance of utter nerve and musicianship left the audience and band spellbound. The effect was so intense it even appeared to have confused the administrators of the event, as after the contest an incorrectly awarded soloist prize was presented to a rival band’s cornet player, despite having not played a solo! After the initial recipient queried the award, the Contest controllers realised their mistake of mixing up Band drawn number 2 and Band placed number 2, and presented Jamie with the Geoff Dove Soloist Challenge Shield.

Jonathon Bates, a regular in Flowers Band’s repertoire, was once again called upon to pen an item to show off the strength in depth that we have here at Flowers. Pel Mel, a famous W.Hogarth Lear piece, was adapted to become our fourth piece; Pall Mall. A whirlwind of sectional virtuosity, (including the Trombones playing directly into a forgotten microphone!) allowed every member of the band to navigate around the stage and deliver some awesome playing whilst the capacity audience at Butlin’s Centre Stage watched on.

The Monopoly board game usually finishes with the game falling apart and everyone becoming enemies. This is where we at Flowers broke this tradition and rounded off our entertainment set where we began; with Christian Overhead. To Jail! (Riches to RAGE!) depicted the player being in jail (Jamie Nuss once again adopting the actor role and dressed in a black and white striped prison jumpsuit) to show the fall from the riches of Mayfair earlier in the programme; chains were used as percussion to show the need to roll a double in order to get ourselves back in the game. Our finale urged onwards, rising in tension and desperation until, inevitably, we had to admit it was GAME OVER! The audience cheered their approval and we could finally relax and await the results.

Flowers Band had no less than 8 active players performing in the 25 strong National Youth Reunion Band later in the evening (including Luke Barker, Josie Allen, Lauren Chinn, Emily Evans, Gregor Spence, Alex Walton and Ruth Mellor) as well as alumni (including Bethany Peck and Brett Baker), more than any other band in the country. During the interval, Flowers Band were announced as winners of the Championship Section, including Best Test Piece, Best Entertainment and (eventually!) Best Soloist. We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported us and spoke to our players over the weekend to congratulate and say how much they enjoyed our playing. We put so much time and effort in, as well as every other band this weekend, so for it to pay off shows the dedication of our MD Paul Holland and his vision for where Flowers Band can be. Each and every member of Flowers, player or otherwise, is committed to performing to the best of our ability and to compete against the very best in the world. We have achieved so much at Butlin’s over the years and we are hopeful that although the contest won’t be held next year, will make a strong return in 2024.

Thank you for the support, we are now getting ready to challenge for the West of England Championship in March!

Read the report of our win from 4barsrest

Oxford Exit for James

One of the most important members of Flowers Band is making the unenviable decision to leave the Band.

James Harris joined Flowers in October 2017 following a move from the University of Birmingham, where he studied Medical Science, to the University of Oxford to study for a DPhil in Clinical Medicine.

After taking up the Bass Trombone seat following this move, James’ appointment allowed Flowers to begin building the Trombone section. Solo Trombone Rob Wilshaw said, “We will miss having James as part of Flowers Band. His dedication and talent made him a great part of the section, but also his work behind the scenes has been tireless. He has been excellent at ensuring the committee is running smoothly and tying together the different aspects of running a Band like Flowers.”

MD Paul Holland said, “I would like to give my thanks to James for his commitment as both Bass Trombone and Band Manager at Flowers. I wish him every success developing his professional career and hope he finds time to keep up his love of music somewhere suitable.”

During his time on an incredibly tough and demanding course, James managed to become a model Band member. He adapted quickly to the playing demands of Flowers, as well as dedicating more time to joining the committee. His organisational qualities helped the committee and lead to James being appointed the youngest ever Band Manager in Flowers’ history, at the tender age of 23.

James leaves the Band in considerably better condition than when he joined, and has been integral to the resurgence of Flowers Band in recent years. All at Flowers wish him well for the future and look forward to seeing him around the banding scene.

This means we are now gauging interest in the Bass Trombone vacancy. Rehearsals will begin once we are out of the National Lockdown, with auditionees meeting for a one-to-one try-out with MD Paul Holland at the bandroom at Gloucester Academy of Music before going on to audition in a full band setting.

Anyone interested should message Flowers Band through any of the Social Media accounts, or can fill out the contact form below.

All applications will be treated in strict confidence.

Covid Coping without Flowers

Unprecedented, bizarre, extraordinary. It seems the media is running out of ways to describe the impact that Covid-19 has had on our day to day lives.

Brass Bands have had to adapt and overcome, just as nearly every other aspect of life has.

We’ve seen plenty of submissions by bands all over the country, utilising online video calls in order to bring everyone together. Cory Band have compiled an array of videos to keep up interest, Foden’s Band hosted their own online Whit Friday Contest drawing in nearly 100 bands and entrants from as far as Japan. Brighouse and Rastrick Band created a virtual “play with B&R” performance where they showcased videos sent in from players from all bands.

Here at Flowers Band, we have been keeping ourselves busy by starting Flowers Masterclass Series, featuring Paul Richards, Coco Chan Matt Rowe, and Rob Wilshaw. Our players have been able to talk about their own techniques and how they approach learning new pieces. We’ve had a great response with players from all over the banding world sending in their videos which we have featured on our Facebook page.

Internally, we have kept ourselves entertained by doing a Flowers Quiz every Friday night. When band is in full flow, the rehearsals and demanding schedule can often leave us yearning for a break, however now a huge break has been forced upon us, maintaining relationships and friendships within the band has become incredibly important. The Friday evening quiz has allowed us to have a focus point and to have a sense of normality. We each take turns hosting the quiz, meaning we have had a great variety of topics covered. It has been a lot of fun!

Everyone at Flowers Band would like to encourage everyone to stay safe and make sure you keep in touch with friends and family!

See you all soon,

Flowers Band

In the Ascendancy

Butlins.

Of course, everyone has a different experience of the Butlins weekend, but for most that attend it often involves catching up with people you haven’t seen for a decade (sometimes significantly more), dashing around to rehearsals, putting in the best performance you can, a pint in the Jellyfish Bar and fun and frolics in the novelty of chalet living for three days. For sections one to four a more relaxing day on the Sunday lets you to take in the Championship section performances and some quality entertainment in the evening. For us, a combination of the two extremes of intense, focused rehearsal and some serious letting our hair down proved to be a winning combination and one that the current incarnation of The Flowers Band has been building to since Paul Holland’s return to the helm at the end of 2018.

The band’s steady rise over the past twelve months has not only been a musical phenomenon but one that, we feel, comes from us gelling as a group of people. It’s no secret that the high turnover of players in recent times has taken a while to settle, but there’s a satisfying buzz around the stands that is confidently reassuring, inherently respectful (but with copious banter) and hugely exciting as we continue to discover what this combination of musicians are actually capable of.

Band Manager, James Harris describes it as ‘community banding mixed up with top, top section playing’. We all know that it takes more than the dots on the page to make a performance; it even takes more than the right man in the middle to find the layers of musicality in a score. Might we have found a unique amalgamation of musicians to seriously challenge our contemporaries in 2020? Time will tell, but for a brief moment we’re relishing our recent clean sweep at the Butlins Mineworkers Championship.

We were placed first in both the Test Piece and Entertainment sections and there was a soloist prize for Emily Evans, our Principal Horn, for her sublime playing in Jonathan Bates’ “ Songs of Ascent”.  Huge congratulations to her. For our Entertainment programme, we used our highly successful Brass in Concert Captain Nemo’s Forgotten Journey to great effect, securing Most Entertaining Band and Overall Champions.

We send our heartfelt thanks and good wishes to Harmen Vanhoorne for his awesome (in the true sense of the word) musicianship as our Principal Cornet for weekend. This was his final contest in the northern hemisphere before his imminent emigration to New Zealand and we wish him the very best.

We should also congratulate our quartet members, Luke Barker, Lauren Chinn, Emily Evans and Matt Rowe for their engaging performance of “Capriccio” by Roger Payne, which saw them awarded with the British Open Champion Quartet Trophy. Bravo!

What a great weekend and such a promising start to the year. Congratulations to all the prizewinners from the championship. It’s back to some hard graft for us to be the best we can be in 2020! 

See what the internet thought of our performances by clicking this link!