The Band's annual Christmas Concert at The Priory Church in Christchurch is always popular and well attended.  This year was no exception and the big crowd thoroughly enjoyed the evening.  Ramsay Caffull has once again provided a report of the event for use on this website.

At the request of Bandmaster Howard Evans many hands were raised indicating this was their first visit to the annual Carol Concert at Christchurch Priory presented by Boscombe band. The opening march, Christmas Joy (Leidzen), confirmed this year’s theme of ‘The Joy and Peace of Christmas’. This was followed by the sound of Hilary Bromage’s voice singing Darren Bartlett’s A Song of Peace, which has been transcribed by Howard Evans.   We knew this was going to be a good night when solo horn Barney Lawrence made his octave jump ‘cold’ start to the music, followed by Hilary. In similar fashion Kevin Whittingham, standing in for the night as principal cornet in the absence of Craig Snell who had had hospital treatment that day, played with great clarity the opening bars of Vitae Lux (Frode Alnaes – arr. Torstein Aagaard-Bilsen) before the band added their accompaniment.

The Trombone feature Santa’s Little Helpers (Barry) was thoroughly enjoyed by the congregation as was a sparkling display by the timbrelits with Trevor Davis’s Carolcade. Two contrasting numbers concluded the first half of the evening with John Rutter’s Dormi Jesu (arr. John Meredith) and Illuminate by Andrew Wainwright in which are intertwined the songs ‘Shine on us’ and ‘Speak, O Lord’.

The timbrelists again made an impact with Leonard Ballantine’s arrangement of Joyful, Joyful followed by a Spanish carol Night of Joy (Andrew Wainwright) in which a few young people from the congregation joined the percussion section with various chimes and bells! The Male voices sang the words of Away in a Manger to the haunting sounds of an Austrian Tyrol melody arranged by Howard Evans, which paved the way to a short Bible message from the Rev. Richard Partridge who said that in this Christmas season we should continue to show compassion and kindness ‘because it matters’.

The large congregation at this 11^th Century church always enjoy singing carols, as they did this year, and O Come, all ye Faithful brought a fitting conclusion to the evening which followed Dean Goffin’s Shepherd’s Carol (arr. Kenneth Downie) and the majestic playing of the Eric Ball masterpiece, The Kingdom Triumphant.

contributed by Lieut-Colonel Ramsay Caffull