Excellent Performances by local school children at Shipston Proms

Shipston Junior Band

The 17^th Shipston Proms is including a wide range of musical styles, from performers of all ages. This week it was the turn of the school children of Shipston on Stour Primary School, Brailes CofE Primary School and Acorns Primary School along with a performance by the young members in the Shipston Town Band.

First on stage, in the Shipston on Stour Methodist Church, was the Shipston Junior Band, conducted by Tim Wilson and Charles Matthews. There were also a few adults on the bigger instruments to assist.

This concert is the only public performance by the members of the Shipston Junior band and is eagerly anticipated by parents and friends.

The first half (conducted by Tim Wilson) included a selection from “Playing in the Band”, with Rock Steady, Samba Party and The Hip Hop Train played by the band.

Next up was a selection from “The Little Shiny Brass World” with a Caribbean number Yellow Bird and Spanish number La Cucaracha.

Then a very old number “Pastime with Good Company” by King Henry VIII, followed by a tradition Greek song Misirlou.

All above songs were arranged by Matt Kingston.

The first half also included two cornet solo’s by junior band members to much appreciation from the watching audience.

After refreshments in the interval the second half was conducted by Charles Matthews and included some more modern tunes including The Big Issue (Ian McKenzie), Southdown (R.V. Steadman-Allen), Juniors on Parade (Colin Moore) and Mack the Knife (Kurt Weill).

The second half included a further two cornet solos from two more junior band members.

The following day saw the Primary Schools’ Concert take place in Shipston on Stour Primary School,

Shipston Primary School

with pupils from Shipston Primary, Acorns Primary School (Long Compton) and Brailes CofE Primary.

The Shipston Primary School pupils were up first with a keyboard piece for two pupils “Tango Jumbo”. Then we had a piano solo with “Pussycat” and “Old MacDonald” and a flutes duet piece “EBGBs”.

Then it was the turn of the massed recorders, conducted by teacher Emma-Jane Roberts, with a rendition of “Land of the Silver Birch”.

Then the last three piece from Shipston Primary included a keyboard piece “Land of the Silver Birch”, two flutes with “Movie Buster”, a piano solo with “Prelude” and finishing up with a multi player keyboard piece “Ode to Joy”.

Now it was the turn of the Acorns Primary children with a violin solo with “Drunken Sailor”, a keyboard piece “Woodpecker”, followed by another violin solo with the well known “Theme from William Tell”.

Followed by this was a keyboard solo with “Merrily we Roll along”, 3 recorder players with “Stop and Hop”, “Chummy Charleston” and “Proud Moment”, a piano solo with “Rocking Horse” and finishing up with a keyboard piece “Instrument Round”

Then to conclude the concert we had the children from Brailes CofE Primary school who started off with recorder pieces “Catch Me if you Can” and ‘Skye Boat Song” followed by a recorder piece “Allegretto”.

Then it was the turn of two clarinets with “All Made Up”, multiple flutes with “Spring” and finishing up with a flute and clarinet piece “Something to Say”

At the finish there was prolonger applause from the large audience and then Shipston Proms organiser Tim Porter thanked the performers for their playing and encouraged the audience to attend a range of further musical events up to Saturday 4^th July.

Great Open Mic & Folk Sessions at Black Horse as part of Shipston Proms

Barney Porter, Valerie Vet & Mark Jervis

As part of the 17^th Shipston Proms the historic Black Horse pub hosted sessions in its garden, including an Open Mic session and Stratford Folk Club comes to Shipston.

The pub is a stone-built village pub, the only thatched building and the oldest pub in the town of Shipston-on-Stour. The pub licence dates back to 1540, and the lounge is cosy and welcoming with a large inglenook real fireplace.

The Open Mic session was run by Barney Porter and a range of local talent turned up to play from the small garden stage to large appreciative audiences, who were enjoying the real of real ales, wines and other drinks from enigmatic proprietor Baggy Saunders.

This included a trio of Barney Porter (guitar), Valerie Vett (vocals) and Mark Jervis (beat box) sang several songs including the Stevie Wonder classic Superstition, with strong female vocals from Valerie.

Next up was singer and guitarist with his powerful voice with renditions of Blue Suede Shoes (Elvis Presley), Strange Brew (Cream) and Poison (Alice Cooper).

The Shambolics

Then up on stage ambled a more mature trio called the Shambolics, featuring Alan Thompson (Guitar), Mark Dudfield (guitar) and Colin Beckett (washboard & harmonica) with renditions of Sea of Heartbreak (Johnny Cash), Gypsy Woman (Don Williams) and Teenager in Love (Dion and the Belmonts).

Next our pub proprietor Baggy Saunders told up a few humorous short poems, one of which he had submitted to Beano magazine and had won 10 shillings as a winner.

Then two of Third Dimension took to the stage, George Scholes (guitar) and Laura Furnell (vocals) with the help of Mark Jervis on beatbox. The full group (with Jez Walker) are playing again on Saturday night as part of the Proms. Their set included She’s Not There (Santana), Smooth Operator (Sade) and China Girl (David Bowie).

Charley Mack

Then we moved to a more jazz/folk style with two of 16 Strings and a Dead Goat with Eleanor Stanley (violin) and James Thomas (guitar) with there versions of That Man, Galway Girl (Steve Earle), Over The Waterfall (Henry Reed) and Sweet Child Of Mine (Guns ‘N Roses), so a bit more rock in there too!

Next we had on stage singer/guitarist Becky with her rendition of I’m not Perfect (Missy Elliott) and finished off the evening with had Barney Porter (guitar), his Dad and Shipston Proms organiser Tim Porter (harmonica) and Mark Jervis called into action again on beatbox. They gave us renditions of Take a load (The Band), the Theme from the BBC2 show Old Grey Whistletest and a version of The Eagles Desparado with Tim’s harmonica rather than vocals. This was the second time this evening that Tim had performed that as he had played this with The Vale Musicians at their Proms gig at Cherington.

The next night it was the turn of Stratford Folk Club comes to Shipston, run by Tori Rushton, as part of the Shipston Proms, again hosted at the Black Horse’s garden stage area.

This included a selection of Irish (and similar) songs played and sung by Roger Reed, Battered Soul lead singer/guitarist Ben Bryan with a rendition of Travis’s Why does it always Rain, which at 1994 was a part back as he wanted to go songwise, which got a large laugh from the slightly more mature audience than 16 year old Ben!

Roger Reed

Next up was Battered Soul’s singer Charley Mack playing her guitar with her versions of Atlas Hands (Benjamin Francis Leftwich) and Mine (Beyonce) before she introduced and debuted her own song Kisses in the Rain.

Next up was a much more mature singer Bill Pulham, with a selection of old favorites and historic songs some just with vocals and the final song with harmonica. This included Bling George, Whose Horse is That? And Earnie Ford’s 1956 song Muscle and Blood.

Back up again was Roger Reed, this time with guitar, with a version of Lindisfarne’s Fog on the Tyne.

Jon Bird & Tori Rushton

Next up we had the guitarist from Daisy Chain Quartet Jon Bird and singer Bill Pulham with a duet. Finally host Tori Rushton with her cello (and also a Daisy Chain Quartet member) and fellow band member John Bird (guitar) gave us there version of Kissing on a Knife edge.

At the end after great audience appreciation, the Shipston Proms and its future events were plugged with events up to and including the big finale on Saturday 4^th July in Shipston’s main square.

Exciting Shipston High School Musicians wow the Shipston Proms audience

Jazz Band

The 17^th Shipston Proms hosted a Shipston High School Summer Showcase concert at the school on 25^th June, in association with Shipston High School Creative Arts. The show was hosted by Shipston High School Head of Music, David Hunt.

With students leaving after year 11, this meant it was the last concert for 4 students of the very popular soul group Battered Soul, that David Hunt had formed as a school project in 2012 (in which he has played trumpet).

With some of the school’s PA system at Stratford Arts Centre for the latest Battered Soul concert, the concert kicked off in front of the stage with the Jazz Band giving us several well played jazz tunes. The line-up was Sam Rawles (saxophone), Robert Linch (Trumpet), Hector Banks (trombone), Abel Wilson (piano), Oscar Wilson (double bass/electric bass), Luke Parker (electric guitar) and Jamie Pullen (drums).

In the last song trombonist Hector Banks, and Battered Soul member, went walkabout around the hall still playing his trombone!

Then we moved onto the soloists/duets with Lauren Powdrell (flute), Luke Parker (guitar), Abel Wilson (piano), then Abel Wilson with his brother Oscar on Double Bass in a family duet. Abel, who also plays cornet in Battered Soul had also appeared on drums supporting the Shipston Junior Band and on piano here, as as David Hunt mentioned a very versatile musician.

Then next up was solo from Olivia Godfrey (Flute) who was then joined by Lauren Powdrell (also on Flute) for a flute duet.

Up next at the stage front was another year 11 student (and Battered Soul’s bass player) explained

Harry Coupe

first and then demonstrated his amazing guitar skills, which after the tremendous reception from the audience, David Hunt said that he thought you would struggle to see a better guitar player in any age of performer.

Then we moved onto the Brass Band which had been practicing with David Hunt in his room at lunchtimes to refine their skills. They played a couple of numbers including the James Bond theme tune.

Then up on the main stage we had the Year 10 GCSE Music Group with their four female vocalists and large supporting musicians. The sound was very strong female multi-part with great musical backing by the other students. This was the first time that the group had appeared in front of an audience, which was not just school assembly.

The line-up was Amber Hourigan, Isabel Scholes, Savannah Eden Kesber & Kerry Adams (vocals), Sam Rawles (saxophone), Abel Wilson and Harry Self (Piano), Harry Mack (bass guitar), Arthur Willis and Bertie Wells (guitar) and Lauren Powdrell and Olivia Godfrey (flute).

Year 10 GCSE Music Group

Then up on the main stage we had another one of the year 11 Battered Soul members, Will Packer (keyboards), showing us his wide reparatory of keyboard skills with a couple of songs.

Then we had a section of solo, duets & trios with Maddy Thomas (vocals to backing track), then Bertie Wells (guitar), Battered Soul member Sam Rawles (saxophone) and Amber Hourigan (vocals) as a trio.

Then a performance of Little Bird from Bertie Wells (guitar) and Amber Hourigan and Isobel Scholes on vocals. Then the vocals of Savannah and Amber to a backing track and then Savannah and Bertie with one of the songs they played at the Shipston Proms Fame Contest.

Ben Bryan

Also part of this section was year 11 student, and Battered Soul singer, Charley Mack with three songs on guitar with her accomplished impassioned singing voice. Her songs included a Beyonce song Mine along with one of her own compositions Kissin in the Rain. This new song had been debuted at the Stratford Folk Club comes to Shipston session at the Black Horse as part of the Shipston Proms. She is also appearing at the Stratford Folk Club’s FabFest (July 19^th) as part of group Blue Cushions.

Then the very distinctive lead singer/guitarist Ben Bryan of soul group Battered Soul came on stage for his final school music concert, as he is a year 11 student and so moving on to another school/college.

He gave us two numbers on electric guitar, with his powerful vocals, of Why does it always rain on me (Travis) and Slow Dancin’ in a Burning room (John Mayall). After which he gave a heartfelt speech thanking David Hunt (Head of Music) for his help, guidance and encouragement of his musical talents, and said he wouldn’t be where he was with David’s help.

Toby Coffey

Then the headline act was Shipston Proms Fame Contest winner Toby Coffey. Toby is a 12 year old student in year 7, and after impressing David Hunt with a demonstration after Easter with his strong singing ability, was allowed to enter the Fame Contest.

At the Fame Contest on 20^th June, in The Townsend Hall, he was up against 4/5 other contestants in the solo/duet section and his impassioned expressive singing style won over judging panel by a small margin. His prize was to appear on the main stage at the final Shipston Proms Independence Day Party on 4^th July in the main square in the centre of Shipston-on-Stour.

David Hunt thanked the audience for their patients during set changes and thanked them for coming. Then Shipston Proms organiser Tim Porter thanked the musicians and audience for coming and encouraged them to attend other proms events, along with the final evening on 4^th July, featuring the Fame Contest winners, The Peas, Duke and headline act Creedence Clearwater Revived.

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