Ellington Colliery Band Christmas Concert

Almost 200 people filled Morpeth Methodist Church for the annual Morpeth Rotary Ellington Colliery Christmas Brass Band concert. It was a welcome back to enthusiastic and inspiring conductor Clare Winter. The band has grown in numbers and it took careful planning to get everyone onto the stage. They went straight into a Christmas Festival by Leroy Anderson with wonderful harmony and musicianship from the start.

Clare is such an enthusiastic conductor that she only just had enough breath to introduce the next song, Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, from the 'The Music Man' by Meredith Willson. John Colvine was soloist in Jingle Bells along with Rachael and Harriet from the training band in her first solo. It was followed by Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and Gaudete. The main band was replaced by the Brass Roots training band with each of their pieces introduced by a young member. It was very fine and entertaining playing. After the interval three trombones led with five carols before the band played White Christmas by Irving Berlin. The audience weas not allowed to escape their part in singing carols. There was an interesting story about Gene Autry singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and commissioning Frosty the Snowman, which then featured four tubas. The story of how Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire was written during a US summer heatwave could not be missed. Carols, another Christmas medley and Auld Lang Syne completed a wonderful and memorable evening.