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Our Engagements in 2006
In 2006, we did many of our usual engagements and were pretty well treated by the weather at the open-air jobs. Every band member has their favourite gigs and the variety of engagements means that we all get our share of the fun! Our engagements in 2006 were: The Summer Season Sunday 21st May 1.00-3.00 Oakleigh School, Oakleigh Road North, N20. There's little doubt that this is one of our friendliest fetes and always opens our outdoor season. The school is tiny but does great work for children with severe learning difficulties and it's terrific to be part of their efforts to raise both funds and awareness of the school's work. Having talked about the weather, this turned out to be a damp gig and we played in the hall - to a very appreciative audience. Sunday 11th June 3.00-5.00 This job, for the Corporation of London, really makes you feel like a band in the park and part of the real tradition of English Summer Sundays. The band plays on the bandstand which sits up on the hill overlooking the lawns - and the weather was good! So with a delightful park, the deer, ducks and beautiful surroundings, the band was the icing on the cake! Sunday 25th June 2.30-4.30 Bayford Village opens its gardens to the public every other year and Barnet Band graced the village in 2006 with its sonorous sounds. Batford, which is just beyond the green belt, into Hertfordshire is a small village with elegant houses, most of which have huge gardens. these they open to the public - for a fee - and give the proceeds to charity. It's a delightful day and a chance to play in some wonderful settings. The village has a number of bands playing and, if your timing's right, you can get in a couple of concerts in the afternoon. Sunday 2nd July 2.15-4.15 Oak Hill Park, East Barnet. This typical English festival has a wide variety of entertainment for the day and the band plays its part. The park was full of people enjoying the food, the stalls, the funfair - and the music and dancing. It's a reall collection of talent from north London set in a park which sweeps down into the river valley. Wednesday 5th July 8.00-9.30 Right next to Oak Hill Park, the band joined with Elstree Singers to give a concert at St Mary’s Church. This delightful little church has a spooky old churchyard through which you amble aimably to the concert but scurry back after dark! It's great (says a trumpet player) to play in such a resonant acoustic where the sound echoes around and makes the band sound really great. Sunday 9th July and 3rd September 2.00-4.00 Finchley Nurseries, Burtonhole Lane, Mill Hill. Every time we go here I think what a funny name as Finchley Nurseries is nowhere near Finchley. It is, however, high on the hill in Mill Hill and as you drive back down the hill on your way back towards London, you get a magnificent view of the City and all its new buidings. On the other hand, as you drive down into the valley where the nurery is located, you pass deep into London's green belt and are surrounded by the flowers of the nursery and the green hills around. This is an annual double visit by the band as we play at the height of the summer, surrounded by every kind of summer bloom and again when the dahlias bloom to herald the season of mellow fruitfulness in our last outdoor engagement of the season. As we play, our audience enjoys their cream teas surrounded by scent and sound. Our Secretary Sue and her partner Ian had recently visted a small village school in India and it was decided that we would try to help by raising funds. This school provided the only education which local children would receive and was supported only by charitable donations. We set out to give the second concert a bit of an Indian flavour by paying some Bollywood and, along with the band's fee, which we donated to the cause, raised some £400 for school. You may CLICK HERE to see further details of the concert. The Repertoire Throughout the summer we played a wide variety of music and pretty-well every gig was different but had a repertoire which included: Amparito Roca by: James Texidor Star Dust by: Hoagy Carmichael, arr: Paul Yoder and played by rob on the Alto sax Barnard Castle by: Goff Richards Florentiner March by: Julius Fucik, arr: Frederick Fennell Broadway Show-Stoppers Overture arr: Warren Barker Themes Like Old Times II arr. by: Warren Barker Hootenanny by: Harold L Walters Folk Song Suite by: R Vaughan Williams Strike Up the Band by: George & Ira Gershwin, arr:Warren Barker An Irish Rhapsody by: Clare Grundman Disco Lives by: Johnnie Vinson. The band generally was pretty sceptical about this number but it proved very popular with our audiences and stayed in the repertiore for the whole summer. The Autumn/Winter Season Saturday 25th November A section of the band played carols outside St Paul’s Church, Mill Hill where a Christmas Fair was being held. We were able to provid some festive music and attract a few more people to the fair. Saturday 25th November The full band turned out here to provide entertainment at this church's Christmas Fair. This was the first time we had played here, in a medium-sized modern church with a beautiful acoustic. ...and we played to a very appreciative audience who certainly enjoyed the performance. There was also plenty of mince pies in the interval to fortify the band for the remainder of the programme. Sunday 3rd December For quite a few years now, a small group from the band has played carols in The Spires, a Small shopping Centre in Barnet. This year, it was coooold! Nevertheless, we played our programme to a very animated audience who joined in and , on accasions danced to the more-rousing Christmas ditties. It is always a good opportunity to publicise our concert on the following week and to collect for our chosen charity. Both these activities went well and we seem to have gained a reasonable number of new concert-goers from this effort - but it was still coooold! Sunday 9th December
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