Central
Band of the Royal British Legion
On Saturday 29th March 2008, my Dad and I went to the annual music
spectacular of The Central Band of The Royal British Legion at the
Fairfield Halls, Croydon, under the directorship of Captain David Cole.
I was especially keen to go this year as I knew Hayley Westenra was to
be the guest artiste. In 2004 the Central Band of the Royal British
Legion celebrated its Diamond Jubilee, sixty years of music dating back
to the horrid times of the Second World War. It started out as the Band
of the 56th Surrey Battalion of the Home Guard based in Epsom, Dad’s
Army Band as it was affectionately known.
The Central Band is the Legion’s premiere and “Flagship” Band and as
such, represents the Legion on all its high profile occasions as well as
fulfilling a large number of varied engagements around the country. It
participates in the famous annual Royal British Legion Festival of
Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, London, and is on BBC TV’s Songs
of Praise. The annual Gala Concert at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon is
one of their highlights of the year.
The band is lead by the very animated and larger than life Captain David
Cole who started his music career in the Salvation Army, and played in
the London Schools Symphony Orchestra on tuba, he managed during the
evening to play a rather lovely old brass Sousaphone, (which is a kind
of wearable Tuba which coils around the body when he wasn’t conducting,)
which was interesting.
David Cole has had a successful career in the Royal Marines finishing in
1992, when he was appointed Director of Music to the Band of HM Royal
Marines Portsmouth and aboard Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia; he stayed
with them until the Royal Yacht was decommissioned in 1997. He then
became the Director of Music to the Royal British Legion in 2006, and
also the assistant producer of the Festival of Remembrance, which is
broadcast on both BBC television and radio, a very moving event indeed
to watch. The Band performed some great pieces during the evening,
including the march from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and hits from the
movies, and some popular West End music by Andrew Lloyd-Webber. and of
course 76 Trombones, and the famous Sousa march (inventor of the
Sousaphone) Hands across the Sea, written in 1899.
Hayley performed six vocal pieces in the second half of the evening,
which was a real treat,
Hine E Hine
Abide with Me
Both Sides Now
Lascia Ch’io Pianga
In Trutina
Pokarekare Anna
she sang “Abide with Me” unaccompanied which was impressive to say the
very least, and she didn’t drop a single note. She posses Perfect Pitch
recognition, many musicians literally have no Pitch Recognition
whatsoever, even though they are listening and playing music constantly.
My Dad taught me a simple test to see how good you are, listen to a
musical tone at random, (we have a set of tuning forks), with your eyes
closed and then try to identify what you are hearing. Play your
favourite music CD, preferably one of Hayley’s, and listen carefully to
any selection. Then try to identify, what key the music is in? E Major?
. . . A Major? . . . F# Minor? . It can be great fun for a winters
evening, instead of watching the television. Try it sometime. Hayley’s
perfect pitch was noticed by her primary school teacher when she was
only 6 years old
