- submitted by Stan Ewing

I had the opportunity again this year to be in London England for the Brass Arts Festival, which leads up to the international band contest at the Royal Albert Hall. This year we had a few days to spare before the festival, and took the opportunity of arranging a cheap flight via EasyJet to Barcelona. A most interesting city to visit, and I can heartily recommend it if anytime, you get the chance to go there.

We returned to London in time for the first event of the weekend, traditionally held at the Regent Hall, or the Rink as it’s affectionately known. This was the venue for the first concert of the Festival, featuring the resident music groups, with special guests. ‘Expressions’ was the title given to the program, and the featured soloist this year was Brad Turnbull on trombone.

The Rink Band started off the proceedings with the old classic march, ‘Montreal Citadel’. This was apropos in some ways, as the band is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. One wonders how many times over the years the band has marched out on to Oxford Street playing this fine march?

The Rink Songsters, under the leadership of Marjory Watson, presented a varied selection of songs, expertly accompanied by Stuart Watson on piano, and effectively augmented by bass guitar and drums as required. Most of the songs were sung from memory. Several items stood out for me, particularly ‘Gems Review’, a collection of old Salvation Army Songster classics which included ‘Travel along in the sunshine’, ‘Into Thy hands Lord’, ‘In the secret of Thy presence’, and ‘Step out on the promise’. Other songs presented were ‘We’ve come this far by faith’, ‘For Your glory’, a schmaltzy arrangement of ‘Revival in the land’, and a lovely setting titled ’Wonderful Grace’, which featured John Hooper on violin, and Emma Scott with a creative movement or dance routine. Very effective.

Brad Turbull is a graduate scholar of the music program at the Wellingborough School. After obtaining his music degree he entered the teaching profession and is currently employed as a teacher and examiner by the Northamptonshire Music & Performing Arts Service. He is a former member of the Household Troops Band and is currently in the trombone section of The Salvation Army International Staff Band. So with that pedigree we were expecting good things from Brad, and we weren’t disappointed. His solos included a nice little introductory number titled ‘This I know’, based on the song ‘There are hundreds and thousands’ from the Gowans and Larsson musical ‘Take-Over Bid’; ‘Song of Exuberance’ (Condon) which will test the best of players, here given a confident reading by Brad; ‘Londonderry Air’, which sounded vaguely familiar to me (anyone hear of Al Kay?) and the Goedicke ‘Trumpet Etude’.

Keeping in the spirit of reflection, Retired Bandmaster Eric Rapp stepped out to present the cornet solo ‘Share my Yoke’. This was a poignant moment, as I can recall many years ago hearing him play at an Irish Congress when he was in his prime. Now, I’m sure, he is approaching the 80 years old milestone, he is still able to play, and did a fine job on this lovely Joy Webb song.

As is the case each year, the area down below in front of the platform is cleared, and the band utilized this space for a couple of marching routines. One that stood out was the playing of the old march, ‘The Salvation Army Patrol’. Members of the band came out dressed up in 1880’s vintage uniforms, and marched up and down. Also included was a bass drum stick twirling display by retired bandsman Major David Drake. Great fun! The band also presented a new swing number, ‘The Name’ from the pen of Martin Cordner. This was presented to a routine a la ‘Blast’. Very well done.

The Rink Young Peoples Band were also featured in a fun number titled ‘Mission Himpossible’ --- a play on words that featured the famous melody from the hit TV series.

True to their calling, the evening featured challenging interludes from Corps Leaders, Majors John and Anne Read, after one of which the band played the Leslie Condon arrangement ‘Gift For His Altar’ which features the song of challenge ‘And is it so a gift from me, dear Lord Thou dost require?’ During the middle section of the piece, Emma Scott entered to perform a dance routine which, in my opinion, was quite effective, and which added to the moment.

For the final item for the evening, Bandmaster Steve Hanover turned to Peter Graham’s popular work, ‘Shine as the Light’, to conclude the evening. One never tires of hearing this piece, which always brings a tingle to the spine when the final triumphant setting of the song ‘The Light Has Come’ appears.

Following sustained applause from the appreciative audience, The Rink Band sent us out into the Oxford Street hustle and bustle with the strains of Bill Gordon’s march ‘Salvation’s Song’ ringing in our ears. Kudos to all the performers and the people who worked behind the scenes to make this event a most inspirational and uplifting evening.