Music for a Summer Evening at Bellshill

On the beautiful, sunny and warm evening of 3 June 2009, the Bellshill Band of the Salvation Army (Bandmaster Ian Dickie) held their third “Music for a Summer Evening” concert. This event has become a regular fixture on the first Wednesday of June each year. As always, the concert was held at the Bellshill Salvation Army hall, which was filled to overflowing, with some having to sit in the foyer for the first few items until seats could be found for them in the hall.

The band began the program with the march Southdown followed by the devotional song By His Hand. Major Andrea Still then welcomed everyone to the concert and introduced Bandmaster Dickie, who lead the program.

Once again the band gave a varied program using a mixture of Salvation Army music and other items, the intention being that there will be something in the program that everyone will recognize and enjoy, as well as challenging the listeners by its message. For this occasion, the band included some new music which they had not included in previous programs, including the song Somethin’ Stupid (recently made popular again by Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman) and a transcription of The Lost Chord.

As usual, the program featured several soloists. These included Yvonne Ferguson (cornet), who played Share My Yoke. Lynn Shanks (flügelhorn) played Through It All. Vocal soloist Jim Pentney offered It’s a Wonderful Day and Chris Shanks (euphonium) played Annie Laurie (“Dearest Name”). In addition to these soloists, a vocal trio made up of Olwyn Mathie, Caroline McMillan and Daniel McMillan sang Shall We Gather.