Both the Flowers senior and Flowers youth bands took part in the return of the Pershore Midsummer Brass festival which took place in the beautiful town of Pershore, Worcestershire on Saturday 10th July which was bathed in warm summer sunshine throughout the entire day.

The Flowers Youth Band performed in Chapman Court which was one of the four concert venues used for the festival in the town. Under musical director Tom Davoren they played to an appreciative crown and included foot tappers such as ‘The Floral Dance’ and ’Lord Of The Dance’, both arranged by former Flowers professional conductor Derek Broadbent. Principal cornet Will Norman delighted the assembled crowd with his jazzy interpretation of ‘Buster Strikes Back’ before they rounded off their slot with the finale from Paul Lovatt-Cooper’s ‘Horizons’.

The main band kicked off their programme in the early evening with a performance at the Angel Inn. This is a venue where the bubblegum and popcorn type music is performed in a casual environment, but still appreciated by the large audience which had amassed there throughout the day. The band kicked off with the quick march ‘Midwest’ and proceeded to entertain the audience with foot tappers such as ‘Manhattan Skyline’, ‘Sabre Dance’ (with a twist) ‘Lightwalk’ and ‘The Best Of Bond’. Andy Hicks and Paul Eddy were Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballe for the afternoon as they performed the classic ‘Barcelona’. Flowers rounded off their stint at the Angel with Jimmy Webb’s magnum opus ‘MacArthur Park’ arr. Alan Catherall.

The band then moved onto the more salubrious surroundings of Pershore Abbey to perform works of a more serious nature. Opening with ‘Festive Overture’ by Shostakovich, the band’s quality of sound quickly became apparent within the confines of the abbey. They followed this with music from Massenet’s opera ‘Le Cid’ arranged by Howard Snell. Andy Smith was the featured soloist in ‘Share My Yoke’, whilst in contrast this was followed by the Rolling Stones classic ‘Ruby Tuesday’. The music of John Barry was next in the theme to ‘Out Of Africa’ and for the bands finale, they chose to play five movements from Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’.

It was certainly great to see this event back on the brass band calendar after six years away and we thank the committee of Pershore Midsummer Brass for inviting us to take part in the festival along with twenty other brass bands from the Midlands and Gloucestershire.