LOCAL musicians and singers who took party in this charity concert, sponsored by NatWest in aid of the NSPCC, showed what a wealth of young talent there is in Bolton.
Christopher Wormald had a busy night, being MC as well as musical director of both the Eagley Band and the Smithills School and North Bolton Sixth Form College Senior Big Band.
Each of the bands has a broad repertoire, and the Big Band has an unusual instrumentation - 10 saxophones, a clarinet, five trumpets, seven trombones and a flugel horn, and a rhythm section that includes a tuba!
Eagley entertained with a varied programme. In their first set I particularly enjoyed two home-produced arrangements - Christopher Wormald's of MacArthur Park, and horn player Peter Lyons's of the music from Shaft.
Canon Slade Singers, under music director Rob Wilding and accompanied at the piano by Jacqueline Davies, were a hit from their opening number, the North-East Folk song Dance to your Daddy.
There were some subtle harmonies in a new version of In the Bleak Midwinter, and I liked too their relaxed arrangements of a couple of pops from the past - Three Times a Lady and Laughter in the Rain.
The Girls' Barbershop Group from within the choir, though comparatively new, had a tuneful singing style and confident stage presence.
The Big Band's saxophones were heard to good effect in the opening number after the interval, Moonlight Serenade.,
Outstanding among their arrangements of standard pop tunes was the one of the Lennon and McCartney song The Fool on the Hill. When the Eagley Band returned, its version of Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo a la Turk found this brass band not lacking in a feel for big-band swing.
Eagley closed an entertaining concert with its conductor's arrangement of the music from Riverdance.
In this, the band sang with considerable ability and seven cornet players took front stage for the finale. They did not dance, but the audience could not have shown their playing greater appreciation. DOREEN CROWTHER
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