Saturday evening, July 9th, perfect summer weather - warm still and sunny, the beautiful gardens of Quarndon Hall decked out with red white and blue bunting and the scene is set for a perfect summer proms concert. A crowd of over 500 began arriving, intent on having a good time, all burdened down with tables, chairs, picnics, flags, champagne etc.
derwent brass were in sparkling form for this marathon concert which started at 7:30pm and saw the band still accompanying a
After a short interval the band performed a Brass at The Movies slot, including Jurassic Park, Born Free, Dances With Wolves and Gladiator, before moving intothe Last Night of the Proms part of the concert. This saw the band decked out in Union Jack bowler hats, and the MD sporting a union jack jacket!! and the crowd were very quick to join in with waving of flags and singing all the Proms favourites. The band played the Fantasis on British Sea Songs with Paul Sheward leading Rule Britannia. After the obligatory encores, Pomp and Circumstance again with encores of Land of Hope and Glory, and finally Paul Sheward leading in a rendition of Jerusalem.
The whole evening was finished off in spectacular style with a tremendous firework display lighting up the Quarndon night sky accompanied by derwent brass performing Music for the Royal Fireworks
Among the crowd were two special guests, none other than the Mother and the Sister of the late Freddy Mercury from the group Queen. Obviously derwent could not let this slip by unoticed and so played a tribute to the music of that great band, including Another One Bites the Dust, We Are theChampions, We Will Rock You and of course Bohemian Rhapsody - much to the delight of Freddy's family - and the audience loved it !!!
The band then changed into the ever popular "Big-Band" set and entertained the audience with up tempo swing numbers, with some great jazz solo work by Martin Johnson (trombone) Pam Davis (flugel horn) and Dave Neville (cornet). The band were then joined by Paul Sheward (from the Dalesmen Choir) to perform Love Changes Everything from Aspects of Love
firework display at 10:15pm!! The evening was launched in style with the Olympic Fanfare & Theme from the 1984 Las Angeles olympics, and then the band settled into a traditional style slot with mainly light music and in particular Dave Neville thrilling the audience with his rendition of Tico Tico.
A fantastic evening which had the crowd shouting for more (even at 10:15pm) and eventually it was a very tired band that packed up and made it's way back to the bandroom nearer 11pm!!
Enormous thanks to our Patron Mrs Nancy Bird for hosting
this event in the magnificent garden of Quarndon Hall
