Shipston Proms 2015 Finish with a Bang

Creedence Clearwater Revived

The 17^th Shipston Proms had its finale on Saturday 4^th July with a Independence Day Party free concert, in the square in the South Warwickshire town of Shipston-on-Stour. The acts on stage were the two Fame Contest winners from 20^th June (Toby Coffey – Solo/duet section and from the band section Brixton Alley), The Peas, Duke and finishing off with Creedence Clearwater Revived.

The Proms this year featured a wide range of musicians and bands ranging from classical concerts, including an excellent Young Musicians concert in Barcheston, through World Music with the Brazilian influenced sounds of Incandescendo, Stratford Folk comes to Shipston (with Tori Rushton and her band Daisy Chain Quartet leading the event), Blues from Sons of the Delta, Soul from Shipston High School band Battered Soul through to excellent Open Mic events at the Black Horse in Shipston and Gate Inn in Upper Brailes.

Toby Coffey

The schools also got involved with a well received Primary School concert in Shipston (Shipston, Acorns & Brailes CE Primary Schools) and an excellent Shipston High School Summer Concert, showing the high standards that Head of Music David Hunt had coached and guided out of the High School children.

This just scratches at the surface of the over 30 events on this years calendar.

The setup for the Last Night of the Proms began at 6pm on the previous day with the arrival of the 40ft artic trailor (Thanks to Fosseway Hire) which was parked outside Lloyds Bank and R. Clarke Electrical services, and setup to give a large level stage.

On the Saturday morning the Shipston Proms team arrived at 7:30am to help erect the marquee that was going to become the Proms bar, and once up the bar inself was built. The team had to work around the Saturday morning shoppers as the road itself was fully closed until 3:30pm. The sounds and lights team then started the long process and wiring up the stage from lunchtime and final preparations were finished around 6:30pm when the bands on the bill did their soundchecks.

Jonny Magroo - Brixton Alley

For the pre-show in El Café we had local Shipston band 16 Strings and a Dead Goat (Eleanor Stanley – violin/guitar/vocals, James Thomas – guitar/vocals, Mike Beeston - percussion, Matt Watkins - bass) entertaining the El Café customers with their mix of folk, rock and blues. The band name came from having a fiddle, 12 string and a bodhran - hence 16 strings and a dead goat, but now with added bass from.

First up on the stage at 7pm was Shipston Proms Fame contest winner of the solo/duet category Toby Coffey. Toby is a 12 year old attending Shipston High School and having impressed Shipston High’s Head of Music David Hunt in his demonstration of his singing, was then allowed to apply for a place in the concert.

Toby sang three songs including When I was your Man (Bruno Mars) and the finale of Gravity to an appreciative audience.

Next up we had the Fame Contest band winners Brixton Alley (Jonny Magro – guitar, Ben Wells – Bass and Alex Wells – drums) with their three piece alternative/indie band and strong lyrics, including their own songs. They enjoyed their set on the large set to a growing crowd.

The Peas

Next up were exciting duo The Peas (Kelvin Leitch - guitar/ vocals Kelly Rashleigh - double bass – vocals) with their eclectic sound. They are described as a duo of many parts with songs from the 80s onwards, now laced with kazoos, mouth trumpets, beat box, vocal harmonies, double bass,

acoustic guitar, bass drum and tambourine! They definitely fitted this description and the crowd really enjoyed their songs.

Next up on stage were a band from a different genre when Duke

DUKE

(Markos Pandazis – (Vocals/Vocal Basslines/Beatbox), Edward Travers - (Beatbox, FX, Vocals) and Flynn Stronach - (Guitar, Vocals) took to the stage with their Beatbox sound.

Duke, from Cheltenham, are three voices, one guitar, no backing tracks, looping or sampling to produce their amazing covers sound. They had the crowd jumping up and down to the pulsating sound, including a Bon Jovi singalong, which bounced around the High Street buildings until 10:30. Duke were kindly sponsored by The George Hotel, Shipston.

Then we had the headline act Creedence Clearwater Revived, featuring Johnny Guitar Williamson, with their repertoire of classic CCR songs from 60s onwards, which got the crowd dancing until they finished just before midnight.

Then it was time for the Proms team to start the clear-up and put the High Street back to its normal trading form with parking available. Then after the Press Releases, Blogs and images are finalised it is a recovering break before the team continues its thoughts about the 2016 event and line-up.

The full Last Night of the Proms Flickr imageset can be viewed at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/widerviewphoto/sets/72157655507910462   

With 16 Strings and Dead Goat Pre-show Flickr set: https://www.flickr.com/photos/widerviewphoto/sets/72157655524153501

Young Musicians impress in Barcheston for Shipston Proms

Young Musicians in Barcheston

The young musicians of the Shipston and wider area, put on an excellent classical music concert at St.Martin’s Church, Barcheston. This was part of the Shipston Proms 2015 series on events, and the Young Musicians event has been a part of the Proms since they started in 1998.

The event was introduced by Phyllida Gardner and then each performer was introduced by Vaughan Reed.

The concert started with a cornet quartet from Shipston Junior Brass band, conducted by their musical director David Birch. The quartet (Luke, Barker, Bethan Brown, Sasha Turner and John Boseley) played La Rejouissance by Teleman.

The we moved onto soloists with Eleonor Tomalin playing Tarantella by Pauline Hall on Piano. Eleonor attend Hook Norton School and also plays the guitar, flute and recorder.

Then next to perform was Luke Barker on cornet (accompanied on piano by Paul Webber) with an uplifting piece You Raise Me Up by Rolf Lovlund. Luke attends Warwick school and also plays violin and oboe. Interests outside of music include skiing, swimming and farming.

Moving on the violin Gemma Keffery gave us a splendid performance of Reverie by Michael Rose, with accompanied by Frances Morrissey on Piano. Gemma attends Great Rollright Primary school and also plays Baritone.

Then Will Smith played a piano piece Indian Pony Race by D.C. Glover. This year the organisers didn’t need to watch him on a YouTube clip first as his musical skills were evident. He also plays the clarinet, and will played it in the second half of this program.

Now we moved onto the Cornet larger brother, the trumpet with Cerys Wallis playing Album Leaf by Grieg from Lyric Pieces Bk 1, accompanied on piano by Helen Porter. Cerys attends Chipping Campden School in year 10 and here other hobbies include horse riding, swimming and cross country.

Then we had Olivia Rawle’s beautifully played flute pieces Tre Giorni san che Nina by Pergolesi and Whistling by Dave Stapleton. Olivia attends Kings High School in Warwick and also sings and plays the piano.

Then to complete the first half we had Lilly Locke passionately singing Irish Folk song My Lagan Love by Herbert Hughes. This piece was collected by Hughes in the early 1900s from irish folk songs sung in the Donegal area of Ireland.

Then after a welcome refreshment break, on what was the hottest July day on record (though the church was beautifully cool) we moved back the second half of the program.

This started with Will Smith, this time on Clarinet, with a well know swing piece Sing, Sing, Sing by Louis Prima, accompanied on the piano by Helen Porter. Will’s other interests include sports, football and Tennis and he attends Chipping Campden School.

Then we had another cornet solo, this time Sasha Turner of the Shipston Concert Brass group, with Share my Yoke by Job Webb, accompanied by Paul Webber on piano.

Then we had another Flute piece, this time by Lotte Davis with the first movement from Pan et les Bergers from La flute de Pan by Jules Mouquet. She was accompanied by Paul Webber on piano. Lotte’s aim are musical and hopes to go onto music college, and then to make her career in music.

Next up was another Soprano singer Octavia Lewis, with a very powerful voice for her age, who sang two pieces, O-Del Mio Dolce Ardor by Gluck (from a little known Opera Paris and Helen) and then in a very different style for And Greenfinch and Linnet Bird by Stephen Songheim, from the musical Sweeny Todd. She was accompanied by Helen Porter on piano.

Then we had a violin and viola duet from Kate Matthews and Chloe Halliwell with the first movement from Allegro Mozart Ist Duo for Violin/Viola KV423. Both performers are from the music department from King Edward VI School in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The Mozart Duet is unusual in that the Viola has almost as many fast semiquaver passages and as much double stopping as the violin. The piece is very much an equal duet with the viola as prominent as the violin. 

Chloe’s interests also include fencing, and she will be representing Great Britain at the Cadet Commonwealth Games later in July.

Kate enjoys helping within the community and this year she has been volunteering at The Limes, a care home in Stratford.

Next to perform was George Wilkes (who we had seen in an earlier Shipston Proms event at St. Edmunds Church in Shipston) on cello with two pieces by Ernest Bloch entitled Jewish Life and Jewish Prayer. George is a music scholar at Warwick School, and also plays piano. He was accompanied by Julian Harris on piano.

Then for the finale we had the entire ensemble perform Eye Level by Jack Trombey which went down very well to the packed audience in St. Martin’s.

To conclude David Cleave, representing the parish to thank all the performers and accompanists and thank the audience for coming along to support both the musicians and Shipston Proms.

Enthusiastic Local musicians night at Gate Inn (Upper Brailes) for Shipston Proms

Linda Rasa, Rod Case & Dwyer Scullion

As part of the 17^th Shipston Proms The Gate Inn in Upper Brailes hosted a local musician’s night on an open mic basis, and the local groups didn’t dissapoint with group kit lining up in the corridor while they waited to play.

The Gate Inn is a tradition Cotswold pub in an old historic setting on the top of an Oxfordshire hill, with large garden to sit and enjoy the view or occasionally watch a band play. The local Shipston High School souls band Battered Soul, had played in the pub garden earlier in the Shipston Proms program.

First on stage we had Dwyer Scullion - guitar, John Hill - guitar and Rasa Case - vocals which a mixture of guitars and Rasa powerful singing style.

As we have found during this Proms musicians pop in up in several bands, and so Dwyer Scullion

Loft

was next joined by James Walton and Ian Cameron as the band Loft. They had a strong guitar sound with mixture of electric and acoustic guitars and strong singing voices and their numbers included “Waiting there for you”.

Then the stage (well the end of the bar!) was taken over by 4 piece band the Shambolics (Alan Thomson - guitar, Peter Bland - bass, Mark Dudfield - guitar, Colin Beckett – washboard and harmonica) with rowdy renditions of “Put it on the Side”, “Midnight Special” and Gypsy Woman” amongst others. Alan is part of the Shipston Proms team so was doing double duty in his Proms green t-shirt.

Then we had another combo this time featuring Dwyer Scullion – guitar, Rod Case – guitar and Linda Rasa – guitar and vocals, with a selection of covers including Patsy Cline’s “Midnight” and then a selection of songs written by Linda Rasa – “Easy Lover”, Train to Rome” and “One more for the Ride”.

George Scholes

Next up come local band 3^rd Dimension for only their 3^rd gig together with George Scholes – guitar, Laura Furnell – vocals and Jez Walker – percussion. They also had a guest sax player Matt Erlanger, on some songs, who had been having a quick practice with the band in the pub’s garden beforehand.

Laura’s strong and passionate vocals led the sings backed up by George’s laidback guitar sound and Jez’s enthusiastic percussion. Matt joined on Sade’s “Smooth Operator” and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” along with other band songs including David Bowie’s “China Girl” and a George Scholes written song “Who is your God”.

The evening was completed by Proms organisers Tim (harmonica) and Helen Porter (piano) with a few songs including The Eagles “Desparado”, not for the first time this Shipston Proms, and “Honk Tonk Blues” with Matt Erlanger joining them on saxaphone.

The evening was very appreciated by the large pub crowd, and it is good to see so many good local musicians and people happy to turn out to watch them play.

Tim Porter thanked Anne and Ian from the Gate Inn pub for hosting the event.

For the full set of images view the Flickr feed