NORTHUMBRIAN MUSIC
NIGHTS
What we said about
TUBALATÉ
Tubalaté mellow in Allendale's Village
Hall
Brass bands, even with the evocative sounds of the real Grimethorpe Colliery and 'Brassed Off' ringing in our ears, are not everyone's cup of tea. Nice to come upon on the street corner in the run-up to Christmas, perhaps, or marching along in a parade. And of course, Allendale's Tar Barl festivities would not be quite the same without the village's own brass section.
But can an audience truly find sit-down entertainment value with a small section of a brass band, and the tuba one at that?
Well, the answer, considering the music that poured out of the lips of 4 strapping lads last Wednesday in Allendale's Village Hall, has to be a resounding, Yes! But it was never anything less than a surprise.
All dressed up in their dapper suits, Ryan Breen and Jon Anstee on tubas, with John Powell and Paul Walton on euphoniums, put on a show that surpassed all expectations.
The first surprise was the mellow sound. I sort of figured on tubas and euphoniums as big, overwhelming blasts of noise. I was not prepared for softness.
The second surprise was the gentle humour in a classical setting. Big tubas are pretty funny instruments in their own right, as the giggling children in the audience proved, but the contemporary humour of the factory piece, as 'modern' as any minimalist work could be, was a revelation of just where musical humour can take us.
The third surprise was the grace with which the modern pieces slipped in with the ancient, whether it was the 'Move' number, or the 'Rest and Recreation' one, that somehow contrasted and enhanced the classical pieces like Bach's 'Fugue in G minor', or the 'Adoramus Te Christe'.
But the best surprise was the tear-jerking 'Danny Boy', reminiscent of the massed ranks of Grimley Colliery's best, turned out for their own maestro, which nearly brought down the house.
I bought the CD, aptly titled 'Move', as did half the audience, and it's a treasure that I expect to bring out time and time again. Special thanks go to our own regional treasure, the rural arts promotions group known as 'North Pennine Highlights', for delivering the sort of quality entertainment one wouldn't necessarily associate with populist art, but without which life would be so much the poorer.
