Posted on Thursday May 21st, 2020
World-renowned trumpeter, one of the most influential figures in the history of jazz and rich gravelly-voiced vocalist - if we're honest, WCB principal trumpet Gregor can't claim to be any of these things. Louis Armstrong, however - now that's a different matter! Here's Gregor, performing one of Louis' most famous hits for our contribution to this week's #clapforourcarers!πΊπΆπ
Thank you, as ever, from all of us at WCB to all those NHS and key workers looking after the country and keeping us going at the moment.β€οΈ
Take care everyone!
Posted on Tuesday May 19th, 2020
One of the many ways that we've been trying to keep in touch as a band during lockdown is with virtual WCB quiz evenings! β¨ββ¨ We've had three events so far, all organised by different band members (thanks Jon & Hilary, Cath & Gregor and Gemma) and last week's quiz had an impressive 36 participants from 21 households! (Won by Jon & Hilary - well done themπ...it wasn't the one that they set in case you were wondering!). Here's a shot of last week's participants in varying stages of confusion!
I was going to question the 21st household on a 5x4 grid, but then I remembered Sean video calling within a video call at Helens house!
Very relaxed phil
I think the confusion was us thinking ‘is every answer to this round really Liverpool?’
I seem to have one very large hand.
Imogen looking relaxed π
I'm trying to see past my fringe π
Posted on Sunday May 17th, 2020
With rehearsals postponed indefinitely, we've been working on ways to continue making music throughout the lockdown. Here's the first of our lockdown recording sessions, featuring a trio of WCB flautists - keep your eyes peeled for more isolation music-making soon! ππ΅
Thanks folks, the result is satisfying, worth the strange experience of playing to the click track. Dynamics seem to disappear - I know there were some!
Very nicely played. Well done ladies πΆπΆ x
Great stuff!
Lovely jubbly all xx
Bravo ladies. ππ»ππ»π
Thank you folks, it was fun! π
Very nice.
Posted on Saturday May 16th, 2020
With today originally scheduled to be our annual Summer Charity Concert (our fourth in support of the amazing Age Concern Twyford), we thought we'd share a few pics from our first concert supporting this great charity, back in 2016!
It was a swelteringly hot July day, but a large and enthusiastic audience enjoyed an extremely summery programme featuring the Beach Boys, a typewriter solo, Hoagy Carmichael in Concert, a trumpet feature (possibly Summertime?) and a flag-waving Proms-style finale too! ππΊπ΅ We had a great time and have been supporting this great cause ever since - we look forward to making music for them again post-lockdown!
PS...our favourite thing about these photos was spotting the new hair styles in the band since four years ago - can you find them?!
Posted on Thursday May 14th, 2020
WCB members are continuing to add a little musical magic to Thursday evenings supporting #clapforourcarers - here's principal alto saxophonist Helen adding a dose of sunshine!π Huge thanks to all those working for the NHS looking after the nation, and other key workers keeping everything ticking along - we're immensely grateful! ππ
Posted on Friday May 8th, 2020
This afternoon, cornet and trumpet players were encouraged to play the Last Post as part of the nationwide events to mark the 75th anniversary of VE day. A number of WCB's trumpet section participated - here's a little montage of some of them.
#VEDay75 #wewillrememberthem #lastpost
Posted on Thursday May 7th, 2020
This evening's offering from our regular concert series by principal trumpet Gregor is the ever-popular and very topical "We'll Meet Again". Although tomorrow's main VE Day 75 events have, of course, been cancelled, there are still a number of ways to mark this very important occasion, including a nationwide singalong of "We'll Meet Again" following a BBC Special at 8pm. Keep your eyes posted in this programme, too, for someone very familiar to regular WCB followers...! π΅
Thank you again from all of us at WCB to all those NHS and key workers looking after the country at the moment.π #ClapForOurCarers #ClapForTheNHS
Posted on Sunday May 3rd, 2020
With no rehearsals filling our Wednesday evenings, we've been keeping busy and keeping in touch in other ways, including the inaugural WCB sunflower growing competition! π» Here's how a few of the entries are progressing so far!
I am slightly concerned about progress in our house (but we did start a bit later so fingers crossed they will come good!!)
Well done everyone, you know I love a competition! π
Posted on Thursday April 30th, 2020
A little ray of sunshine whilst it was still actually sunny at last week's #clapforourcarers! π If you're lucky enough to be in principal trumpet Gregor's road, he's apparently now taking requests for his weekly performance...π
Brilliant! I might do that next week. I did we'll meet again for colonel Tom tonight ππ
Loved the little M&W dance in the background too!
Posted on Tuesday April 28th, 2020
What a soggy day! β We thought we'd cheer things up with this summery shot taken all the way back in February (as you can probably tell, since there are several people in the same room!) when our music group met to discuss pieces for our summer programme.
By now, we should have been well into rehearsing music for our Summer Charity Concert in three week's time with our music group's favourites including the likes of the Beach Boys' Greatest Hits, a nice little arrangement of Daydream Believer and, appropriately, Don't Rain On My Parade! Hopefully, we'll get to play some of those whenever we get back to rehearsing, but in the meantime, we'd love to hear your favourite summery pieces - let us know! π
The parrot is still in the hall, waiting to go out again.
"Walking on Sunshine" - so joyful and "Summertime" of course.
Posted on Thursday April 23rd, 2020
We hope that everyone's taking care out there and finding some avenue to enjoy music, even if it can't be through a live band like WCB at the moment! π΅ We thought that you might not previously have seen a solo tuba doorstep rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow so wanted to share this little gem from our tuba player, Len, from last week's Clap for Our Carers. Enjoy! π
Thank you, of course, from all of us to all those working in the NHS and other key workers who are helping everyone get through this.
#OverTheRainbowNHS #ClapForTheNHS #ClapForKeyWorkers
Posted on Wednesday April 15th, 2020
Here's a few more pictures of some of the WCB members who joined in with playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow as part of last week's #clapforourcarers. We had some really lovely feedback from our local communities who were delighted by those who played, especially those people with family members working in the NHS and other essential roles. Huge thanks from all of us as a band to those who are working to look after everyone and keep essential services running. β€οΈππ
Posted on Thursday April 9th, 2020
You may have heard that in addition to this evening's #clapforourcarers at 8:00pm, musicians were tonight encouraged to play Somewhere Over The Rainbow to show their support for the fantastic NHS staff. A number of WCB's members joined in - here's principal trumpet Gregor with his rendition. After all this is over, we'll see if we can club together to buy him a music stand...π
Has he not got a band issue music stand like the rest of us π€
Well played Gregor, love your sound.
Anyone got a pdf they can send me, not much time to practice it though.
Lovely
I played out my window on euph π
Posted on Tuesday April 7th, 2020
Today marks exactly a month since our fabulous film-themed Spring Concert - Lights, Camera, Action! If we're honest, it feels a bit surreal that just a week later, our rehearsals stopped for an unspecified period and we'll not be making music together for the foreseeable future but we thought we'd just share a couple of our favourite memories from our concert - Claire's beautiful rendition of the theme from John Williams' Schindler's List score, our WCB jazz band playing Pure Imagination (featuring alto sax soloist Sarah) and a shot of the whole band taking a bow at the end of the night, proud of a job well done!
We had a great time at the concert and are relieved (and fortunate) to have managed to get our concert in before the very necessary restrictions came into force - our sympathies are with those groups who had worked equally hard and will now need to reschedule their events for when normality returns. Thanks to all those who came along - let us know what your favourite moment from the concert was and why in the comments!
Posted on Saturday April 4th, 2020
It scarcely seems credible but just 28 days ago, we were expecting at this moment to be stepping onto the impressive stage at the Royal Northern College of Music to take part in the National Finals of the NCBF Festival UK for the first time. We were looking forward to spending 4 weeks (and a whole-day workshop) getting to grips with some fantastic music to make sure we put on a dazzling performance to wow the audience and adjudicators today and couldn't wait to enjoy the whole experience. Things have obviously changed quite a bit since then but we're sure that we'll be back to have another go sometime soon!
In the meantime, here's one of our favourite pictures from 2019 - all of us celebrating our πPLATINUM AWARDπ at our first ever NCBF Regional Festival in London in November - we had a great time and are looking forward to making music together again as soon as we are able.
Take care π
