The congregation at Gillingham Methodist Church enjoyed a concert given by the Band, under the leadership of Bandmaster Carl Woodman, last Saturday.

Whilst seeking to be interesting and entertaining the Band places the message of the Christian Gospel at the forefront of its activities and this concert was no exception.

Beginning the evening with ‘In Good Company’ and ‘The Christ of Calvary’ the Band proceeded to its major work, the overture ‘Excelsior’, written by Dudley Bright for The Salvation Army’s International Congress Youth Spectacular in 1990. Adrian Horwood featured the Euphonium Solo ‘When I remember’ and the Trombone section eased its way through Tchaikovsky’s ‘None but the lonely heart.

Adrian

The Trombones

Ruth Hardy, herself a member of the trombone section, brought a thought provoking Bible reading and comment. Ruth will be assuming leadership of our Youth Group in September.

Ruth

The first half of the concert was completed in ‘marching’ style with the ‘March from Nutracker’ and Amsterdam Congress’.

During a short interval members of the Band were able to ‘meet and greet’ members of the congregation over refreshments.

Carl Woodman cahts with David Marshall

It has become the practice for Chatham Band concerts in recent years to explore the medium of ‘Gospel Swing’ in the second half of the programme. ‘On Parade’ and ‘All to Jesus’ were presented and a Flugel Horn interlude including ‘The Old Rugged Cross’ and ‘Beyond the blue’ featured Rosemary Steadman-Allen.

Rosemary

The congregation were invited to join with te hymn ‘The Lord is King, I own his power’ using the stirring tune of ‘Jerusalem’. Concluding with the lines:

Thy loyal service makes me free;
My daily task thou shalt assign,
For heart and will and life are thine.

These words conjure the concept of ‘greater things’ being possible with God and the Band concluded with an energetic swing presentation of that title, ‘Greater things’.

Chatham Citadel Band