On the 1st October we held our anniversary reunion dinner at Middleton Arena. It was a lovely evening beginning with a performance from the youth band during the champagne reception.
It was so lovely to welcome and catch up with so many many past players, conductors and associates of the band from over the years.
After receiving our guests who included the mayor of Rochdale, there followed a live performance of a piece specially written for the band for this occasion, entitled Perseverance and composed by our own very talented Musical Director, Andrew Baker.
‘Perseverance’ was commissioned by Middleton Band to mark their 140th anniversary in 2016. The title is taken from the original name of the 1876 band, the Middleton ‘Perseverance’ Drum and Fife Band and reflects the band’s will to survive through adversity. A full synopsis of our commissioned piece can be found here:
http://www.morthanveld.com/middleton-band-140th-anniversary/
‘Perseverance’ was commissioned using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and the performance was preceded by a short film by the renowned photographer and videographer Andy Marshall, also funded by Arts Council England which explains something of the background to the piece and to the 140th anniversary celebrations. Unfortunately, the video did not play properly on the night with only the audio working. We now have it working and are proud to present it to you below!
Here is a recording of Perseverance taken from our CD which is available to buy here.
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The evening then proceeded onto a delicious 3 course meal catered by the fabulous Quirky catering company.
Next followed the band’s annual awards where we celebrate players who have made good progress and have served the band well over the past 12 months.
The youth band awards were presented by the Mayor of Rochdale to four deserving youngsters: Player of the year -Travis garner, Young player of the year -Isabel Eardley, band person of the year – Jacob West and Attendance award – Holly Rowbotham.
The Middleton band player of the year award was chosen my our musical Director Andrew Baker and was presented by the band president, Mr Peter Burton JP, to Sarah Fitton.
The president then presented four long service awards to players who have been with the band for in excess of 15 years.
The fantastic evening was rounded off with dancing to a live band “Blastoff!”
We really enjoyed the evening and especially meeting up with so many old boys!