Christmas Concert - December 2005

On the 3rd of December the band held our annual Christmas Concert at Hove Park School. This year's concert was as action packed as usual, with plenty of opportunities for band members to make fools of themselves (see bottom left!). However the highlight of the evening was undoubtably the Geoffry Farrar production -'The Twelve Days of Christmas' (bottom right) featuring the entire Youth Band with some increasingly bizarre props, such as a bicycle, pogo stick and Olympic Torch to name but a few!

You can see some video clips of the concert here, and listening to some audio recordings here.

Folkestone Autumn Contest - October 2005

On Saturday 1st October Hangleton played in the SCABA Autumn contest at the Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone, Kent. We played the ‘St Austell Suite’ by Kenneth Downie and ‘Rachie’ as our hymn tune in the second section of the competition.

We were awarded fifth place for both the test piece and the hymn tune, and received several positive comments about our performance from the adjudicator. Following the results many members of the band stayed on in Folkestone for the night, and returned to Hove looking decidedly bleary eyed the next day.

Another Successful Summer - September 2005

And so another summer season draws to a close. This year saw the band playing at several locations throughout Sussex and Surrey, including Borde Hill, Horsham and Guildford. Now that the weather is starting to get a bit cooler and the nights are drawing in, the thoughts of the band begin to turn to the annual Folkestone SCABA Contest! This year Hangleton is playing the 'St Austell Suite' by Kenneth Downie. Over the next month the band will be working hard to get to grips with the piece under the baton of our conductor John. Check back in early October for the results!

Hangleton Band 40th Anniversary Concert - July 2005

On Saturday 9th July the Hangleton Band's 40th Anniversary Concert took place at the Clarendon Centre in Brighton. The evening was thankfully a great success, and we have received many positive comments from everyone who attended.

Pictured left are band members with the Mayor of Brighton and Hove, Councillor Bob Carden and the Member of Parliament for Hove, Celia Barlow.

A full account of the evening, with photos and videos can be found here. Or you can look on the 2005 photos and video pages.

Youth Band Concert - May 2005

The Youth Band held their annual concert on Saturday 28th May at Hangleton Junior School.  It was again extrememly well attended by family and friends proving another success.  The evening saw accompanied and unaccompanied solos, duets, trios and even our very own rock band, Tapanga and the Firebunnies; the children all played extremely well.  Conductor Rachel Taylor also distributed the Youth Band Awards to players including "most progress", "most improved", "commitment" as well as Player of the Year which went to Eb Bass player Gary Fido.  All-in-all it was another very successful evening.

Crawley Contest Result - May 2005

Bright and early (a little too early for some of us) on Sunday 15th May Hangleton played at the Crawley SCABA Entertainments contest. At an Entertainments Contest bands compete to put on an 24 minute performance, and unlike at other events the adjudicator sits in the audience to observe, meaning that deportment and visual entertainment can be just as vital as the playing .

Hangleton's programme on the day was:

- Drums of Thunder, from the Windows of the World Suite.

- The Ugly Duckling, featuring a star turn from Cees Van Berkel as the aforementioned duckling

- Autumn Leaves, a flugel horn solo featuring Claire Chapman

- Eleanor Rigby

- Marching Onwards

We were delighted to be awarded 2nd place out of 10 bands. You can read a copy of the adjudicators remarks here.

Stevenage Contest Result - March 2005

On Saturday 19th March Hangleton took part in the Stevenage Band Contest, playing 'Tam O'Shanter's Ride', a piece inspired by the Robert Burns poem. The band were placed a very a respectable seventh place out of eighteen bands.

A clip of our performance

Adjudicators remarks

Band Member Conquers Mount Kilimanjaro – February 2005

Front row cornet Clair O'Shea was recently successful in her bid to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in aid of Cancer Research UK. Clair travelled to Tanzania on the 13th of February, and reached the mountain's summit on the 18th of February after a five day trek (battling with freezing conditions, harsh terrain and altitude sickness in the process!)

Clair has been in training for the trek for the last year and has held many fund raising events over this period, several of which, such as carolling over Christmas, have involved the band. Over the course of the last year she has raised over four thousands pounds for Cancer Research UK.

I'm sure everyone in the band and our supporters would like to congratulate Clair on her fantastic achievement, both for conquering the mountain and for raising money for such a worthwhile cause.

 

 

Quartet Contest Result - February 2005

This year Hangleton entered one quartet group in the Ringmer SCABA Quartet Contest, comprising Christine Nonoo and Claire Chapman on Cornet, Rachel Taylor on Euphonium and Kevin O'Shea on Tenor Horn. The piece was 'Elegy and Rhondo' by Gilbert Vinter.

We were placed 6th out of 14, which we were very pleased with, especially considering the amount of illnesses we had amassed between us on the day!

New Conductor – January 2005

January saw us welcoming a new Musical Director, John Williams and his wife Mary into the band. His first challenge is considerable – our National Qualifying Contest piece ‘Tam O'Shanters Ride', (based on the Robert Burns Poem) which we will be playing at Stevenage in March. This difficult piece of music was originally used in the National Open Championship in the late 1950's, so John has very much been thrown in at the deep end for his first contest with us!

40th Anniversary year! - January 2005

During 2005 we will be celebrating 40 years of the Hangleton Band. The focus of the year's celebrations will be a special event to be held on 9 July. For the latest news about the 40th Anniversary click here