News

35 Articles

Christmas CD Recorded With World of Sound

by Deb Lyons

 

Over the scorching hot weekend of Saturday June 30th and Sunday July 1st the band recorded its first ever Christmas CD! Richard Scott from World of Sound was again the producer, the man behind our 2017 CD of just eight months earlier, From Sinatra To Wicked.

The Christmas CD recording weekend was a fantastic two days of our very best playing, great bonding time for all of the players, eating far too much (there are some brilliant cooks and bakers within the band, not to mention deliveries of Carr’s Pasties on Saturday lunchtime and Papa John’s Pizzas on Sunday…) and working really, really hard throughout both days of recording. The end product will be a brilliant Eagley CD of Christmas music and carols when everything is mixed, mastered, edited down, duplicated and wrapped, ready for going on sale by the Autumn.

The seasonal tracks we recorded over the unusually boiling hot weekend included many brand new arrangements made for the band by our MD Chris Wormald and Bass Trombonist Declan Cullen, ranging from A Polar Express Suite, It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, Last Christmas, Midwinter and Sleigh Ride to Away In A Manger, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Silent Night, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas and Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody. There was also a brand new duet arrangement of Silver Bells made especially for Flugel Horn player Janet Walsh and Solo Tenor Horn Deb Lyons! The opening track on the CD is to be the iconic A Christmas Fantasy by Gordon Langford.

Everyone connected with Eagley Band would like to thank Richard Scott once again for another brilliant, relaxed, but thoroughly professional weekend of recording and his superb Assistant Engineer Phil Hardman, who looked after the technical aspects of the weekend’s recording sessions.  

Christmas CD Recording With World of Brass This Month!

by Deb Lyons

It may only be June but later this month we are to very proud to announce that we are recording our first ever Christmas CD!

We have once again booked World of Brass and its most senior producer/engineer Mr Richard Scott to mastermind our latest CD recording project.

Mr Scott is not only the man behind almost every Black Dyke CD recording made for Obrasso and most other record labels over the past thirty years but he is also responsible for the annual best-selling brass band CD of “Areas” test pieces and took charge of our CD recording “From Sinatra To Wicked” so successfully Autumn, 2017.

Our first ever Christmas CD recording will feature a host of brand new arrangements made especially by our MD Chris Wormald and Bass Trombonist Declan Cullen, a former Smithills School and Huddersfield University student, together with published arrangements including the iconic “A Christmas Fantasy” by Gordon Langford.

The recordings will take place over the weekend of Saturday June 30th and Sunday July 1st.

Movies, Musicals & Miscellany!

by Deb Lyons

On Saturday 7th July at 7.30pm the award-winning Eagley Brass Band and its Musical Director Chris Wormald will once again be taking to our Victoria Hall stage together with Smithills Community Choir, Smithills Community Wind Band and pianist Robert Aston to present another of their highly popular and always well attended concerts. The title of their latest evening is Movies, Musicals & Miscellany!

The concert will feature iconic music from multiple James Bond, Jaws, Batman, Mission Impossible and Indiana Jones films together with “This Is Me” from “The Greatest Showman” and an extended audience participation highlight of “Les Miserables” featuring every song from the hit musical which is now fast approaching its 35th year! It is hoped that everyone in the audience will join in if they wish (all lyrics will be provided free of charge on entry to the hall) and for those who are particularly keen to join in, there will also be a pre-concert rehearsal with the full band, choir and piano on stage at 6pm!

Tickets for this exciting concert are now on sale and available from the Victoria Hall Box Office (Tel. 522569), Our Contact Us page, Booth’s Music Shop (Tel. 522908), Jeff James Hairdressing (Tel. 595157), Smithills School Main Reception (Tel. 842382), www.egertontickets.com or on the door.

Happy Birthday Mr President!

by Deb Lyons

 

Today, Friday May 18th, everyone at Eagley Band sends their very best wishes to our Band President, Gerry Russell, on the occasion of his 74th birthday! 

We all wish Gerry a very, very happy birthday and a lovely day.

Buckingham Palace Honour For Our MD

by Deb Lyons

Exactly 30 years after our MD Chris Wormald shook hands with Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh on their Royal Visit to Bolton in 1988, Chris has attended the latest Buckingham Palace Royal Garden Party in London at the invitation of Her Majesty on Tuesday May 15th.
In baking sunshine and temperatures soaring to 27C, the latest Royal Garden Party saw Her Majesty The Queen invite 3,000 honoured nominees to the Palace just four days before the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle.

It was announced at the Garden Party that Her Majesty would only be attending two such Buckingham Palace Royal Garden Parties this year and every year from now on, of which this was the first of 2018.
Other members of the Royal family in attendance at the Garden Party on Tuesday afternoon were Prince Andrew, The Duke of York, Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, The Earl and Countess of Wessex.
Back in 1988, when Chris was Head of Brass Instrumental Teaching for Bolton Education Authority and the year before he was first appointed to Eagley in 1989, he conducted the brass band which greeted Her Majesty The Queen and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, as they arrived by the Royal Train at Bolton Station.

 

 

 

Band Awards 2017

by Deb Lyons

Band Awards for 2017

This year saw the reintroduction of our band awards –  these were awarded at one of our ever growing social events:

Player’s player (voted for by the band) – Geoff Gliddon

Bandsman (voted for by the committee)– Martyn Walsh

MD’s Award – Lilly Taylor.

Most Improved Player (which is the Gwen Thomas shield) – Caitlin Stranks

Our 2018 awards will be announced at our Christmas Victoria Hall concert – 22nd December

Christie’s Hospital Concert Success

by Deb Lyons
On Saturday 21st April, Her Majesty The Queen’s 92nd birthday, we gave a fantastic Eagley Band and Smithills Community Band and Choir St George’s concert in aid of the Christie Hospital at the Victoria Hall, Bolton.
What another fantastic night it was too!
We performed a number of brand new arrangements in the first half, from Thunderbirds, Back To The Future and How Far I’ll Go (from Disney’s Moana) to Live And Let Die and with our first half programme closing with Benedictus (played superbly by Solo Euphonium Caitlin Stranks, who turned 18 last week) and Mahler’s Resurrection, it was another amazing and really enjoyable time on stage for Eagley. 
The second half opened with Macarthur Park, Mars (from The Planets), Hushabye Mountain and a twelve minute John Williams tribute, so our stamina was certainly put to the test in front of another massive audience but most importantly, many thousands of pounds were being raised for the North West’s leading cancer hospital.
 

The fantastic evening was added to by Bolton pianist/organist Robert Aston, special guest singer John Kearns, announcer Jeff Hartley of Bolton Lions, their current President, and the whole evening conducted and compered by our own MD, Chris Wormald.
Whilst it will take some time for the respective treasurers to establish the huge cheque which will be sent to Christie’s Hospital, never before have organisers collected so much money on the night of a Victoria Hall concert. When all of the ticket monies and advertising have been totalled up, thousands of pounds will be presented to The Christie.