News

Current News Articles

12/10/2007 -- Stocksbridge Band: Refreshed, Re-grouped and Ready for Action
06/06/2007 -- Stocksbridge at Whit Friday
22/05/2007 -- Extra Band Club Concert performed by Stocksbridge
22/05/2007 -- Stocksbridge Win Senior Trophy
09/04/2007 -- Harlequin Brass At Stocksbridge Band Club
08/04/2007 -- Band Club 2007 Update
03/04/2007 -- Stocksbridge Record with Mercury Nominee Richard Hawley
18/03/2007 -- The Friendly Band Step into the breach
05/03/2007 -- Winners of the First Section Yorkshire Area

News Archive

Refreshed, re-grouped and ready for action !

12/10/2007

Stocksbridge Band look forward to promotion into the Championship Section next year with renewed excitement.

The band are pleased to announce the following player signings:

Andrew Thompson (2nd Horn)
Andrew joins the band from Barnsley Metropolitan Band where he held the position of Solo Horn for a number of years. Winning "Best Soloist" prize from the 4th Section Yorkshire Regional Finals earlier in the year, Andrew was acclaimed by 4BR to be a "lad with a big future"!

Neil Twist (1st Trombone)
Neil has taken the chance to improve his higher register joining the band from the position of Bass Trombone at Powerfuel Hatfield Colliery Band. As a versatile player, Neil performed with Hatfield in their outstanding performance of "Isiah 40" at this year's regional finals in Bradford.

Lewis Bettles (Percussion)
As by far the youngest member of the band, Lewis is a rising star. Not only is he an up-and-coming percussionist, Lewis also holds the seat of 1st trombone at Thurlstone Band. Following our successful "Band Club" season earlier this year, Lewis scooped the prize for best soloist (trombone) following his confident rendition of "Blue John". As a pupil of Gavin Somerset (our Principle Percussionist) we look forward to Lewis's valuable contribution to the band.

Chris Harrison (3rd Cornet)

Kevin Donaldson (Soprano Cornet)

Ian Wright (Solo Euphonium)

As we welcome our new members, we would like to mention the following members who have recently left the band. We thank you for all your hard work and effort in helping out the band over the past few years.

Malcolm Taylor (Solo Cornet - 3rd Man)

Mark Hindmarsh (Percussion)

John Grayson (BBb Bass)

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Stocksbridge Band at The Whit Friday Marches

06/06/2007

Stocksbridge Band would like to extend it's thanks to the Alec Finch Group for their financial support on the Whit Friday Marches 2007. Stocksbridge do not receive any sponsorship at the moment, and could not have attended the marches without this help.

We were very proud to bear the name "Alec Finch Group Stocksbridge Band" for the evening especially at the Lydgate contest where Mr Finch attended to also give his personal support. It was particularly gratifying to take away the best 1st Section prize at this contest.

Stocksbridge would also like to thank Graham Drury for stepping in at the last minute on Soprano, and to Derek Renshaw who filled the Principal cornet position for the evening taking away the best cornet prize at the Grotton Contest (above some top class names).

The band had a very successful evening in all and consolidated it's recent contest success with a very respectable 3rd place behind Black Dyke and Brighouse, also at Grotton.

We hope to take this good form forward to the Old Silkstone and Morley March and Hymn contests in the next couple of weeks.

If you wish to find out more about how to sponsor Stocksbridge Band, please see our contacts page.
The band are currently preparing for a concert dedicated to the music of Gordon Langford to be held at Niagara on Sunday 10th June before getting to grips with the National's test piece later this year.

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Extra Band Club Concert 10/6/2007

22/05/2007

Stocksbridge band are to perform a one-off concert at Niagara in Hillsborough to round off this season's band club concerts. The South Yorkshire Police Band performed a very enjoyable concert on 13th May at the venue which was originally intended to be the final date, but Niagara kindly offered their services once more and Stocksbridge jumped at the chance, having swapped their final date to fill in for a band who pulled out earlier in the year.

Stocksbridge's MD, Dave Nesbitt, has been looking for an opportunity to perform a concert dedicated the the music of Gordon Langford and felt that this was the ideal occasion. After rehearsing hard for the Yorkshire Area and the senior trophy, the band are looking forward to getting their teeth into something other than a test piece for a few weeks before the National's piece is announced at the beginning of June.

The concert will be on Sunday 10th June, 8pm at Niagara. Entrance is free but we hope

that the audience will continue to offer their support by purchasing raffle tickets on the night.

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Stocksbridge Win Senior Trophy

22/05/2007

Stocksbridge Band romped home once more this weekend, winning the senior trophy in Blackpool at the winter gardens. After their win at the area, the band were geared up to do well at this year's spring festival but knew they were in for some tough competition in their section.

Once again the band owe many thanks to MD Dave Nesbitt as it was his interpretation of the piece that delighted adjudicators Ian Brownbill and James Scott and labeled Stocksbridge as clear winners.

The win has hopefully reinforced Stocksbridge's return to former glory after their success at the Yorkshire area earlier this year.

The band are currently preparing for the Whit Friday March Contests on Friday 1st June and a concert dedicated to the music of Gordon Langford to be held at Niagara on Sunday 10th June before getting to grips with the National's test piece later this year.

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Harlequin Brass at Stocksbridge Band Club

14/04/2007

Harlequin Brass have very kindly agreed to perform at The Band Club on 22/04/07. Harlequin Brass are a ten-piece brass group based in Yorkshire and their entertaining, varied concerts have been enjoyed by Band Club audiences in the past. Please come along to support your local band club and enjoy what is sure to be a fantastic evening.

Stocksbridge band would like to thank Emley brass band and their musical director Gary Hallas who also volunteered their services for the evening - we look forward to hearing Emley perform during the 2008 season.

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8/04/2007

This season’s band club has been well received so far and our new venue has met with approval from most. We have had quite a variety of programmes to date including a dance band.

It has not all been easy going however, with 3 bands pulling out at the last minute leading to an enormous amount of work behind the scenes in order to ensure the band club goes ahead.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the bands that have stepped in, often without even a weeks notice, and put on entertaining programmes. The bands that have helped us so far have managed to beg, borrow and steal players in order to provide a full programme for our audiences, a philosophy shared by Stocksbridge band in fulfilling many of their commitments!

It is worth mentioning that many bands express an interest in playing at one of the band clubs throughout the season but only a select number can be accommodated. Due to the nature of banding, it is not possible to hold a “reserve” list as such meaning that whenever a band pull out, it is always difficult to find a replacement willing to put on a show at a moments notice.

The band club is free for audiences to enjoy and we rely on their continued support through the purchase of raffle tickets week in week out. We would like to say a big thank you to all who attend and have had the patience to stick with us throughout all the recent changes not only to the venue, but also advertised bands.

We all look forward to seeing you at the remaining band club concerts.

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Stocksbridge record with Mercury nominee Richard Hawley

03/04/2007

Players from Stocksbridge Band were recently invited to record a track for Sheffield-born singer-songwriter Richard Hawley's new album, due for release later this year. Hawley is a critically acclaimed guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer who has played with bands including The Longpigs and Pulp and his album "Coles Corner" was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize in 2006. Players spent the day at Axis Recording Studios on Brown Street in Sheffield on 24th March and look forward to hearing the finished version soon.

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The Friendly Band step into the breach

26/03/2007

Many thanks to The Friendly band along with their musical director Carol Caton for stepping in at such short notice for this weekend's (25/03/2007) band club concert. With only a weeks notice they managed to put together a very entertaining programme. Several audience members commented on how good the band were and how much they had enjoyed the concert. I hope it wasn't too far for them to travel as I am sure we will be asking them back again next year!

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Winners!

05/03/2007

Stocksbridge Band will be representing Yorkshire in the First Section National Finals in Harrogate later this year after a fantastic performance of Eric Ball's Sinfionetta The Wayfarer.

After a few tough years, several changes of conductor and eviction from 2 rehearsal rooms, the win sees the band rightfully promoted back into the Championship section as of 1st January 2008.

Dave Nesbitt deserves a special thank you for all his hard work and commitment, not to mention his interpretation of the test piece which impressed Brian Buckley and Richard Evans enough to award Stocksbridge 1st place.

The band would also like to thank all the players who were not regulars before the contest (hopefully they've all now decided to make things more permanent!)

For more on Stocksbridge's performance, along with the rest of the contest go to the 4 bars rest First Section retrospective.

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