Birmingham Citadel Band at Coton Green Church

Coton Green Church in Tamworth was the venue for a concert by the Birmingham Citadel Band (Bandmaster Graham Lamplough) on 14 October 2009.

It is always a pleasure for the band to visit a new venue, but to visit such a lovely church midweek and be warmly welcomed by a capacity crowd was a real bonus and a blessing for the band.

The varied program was of the real “crossover” variety, and, as Bandmaster Lamplough said in his introduction, it contained something for everyone. There were Salvation Army classics like Songs of the Morning, modern Salvation Army pieces including Light-Bringer and Roundup by Captain Martin Cordner, and songs from Broadway musicals – Can You Feel the Love Tonight and The Music of the Night.

Three soloists were featured: Gavin Lamplough (cornet) with a sparkling rendition of Glorious Ventures, Mark Sharman (trombone) with a fine performance of Concert Piece for Trombone, and Rob Hayward (xylophone) who produced a scintillating and fun performance of Liszteria (originally written as a xylophone duet, but superbly adapted by the soloist).

As with all of the band’s programs, the listeners were left with a very clear message, on this occasion brought by Rob O’Connor. The message compared characters from Disney’s The Jungle Book with the Biblical story of the prodigal sun, introduced by images from the movie on the multimedia screen. The message concluded with a quote from Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King, which was then played by the band.

The penultimate item was the march The Great Escape, during which the members of the band “escaped” in small groups from the concert formation, spreading themselves around the auditorium. The concluded the evening from those positions with the benediction God Be with You, beautifully set to the tune “Randolph”.