Luke Bradbery chose Streets and Destinations as the main theme for his last Concert as Musical Director of Cardiff Brass. Penny Lane, a Beatles hit released in 1967, opened the program, with other numbers listed in order of performance. The lyrics of Penny Lane refer to life in a street in Liverpool, a city in which Paul McCartney was raised. Basin Street Blues was recorded in 1928 by Louis Armstrong and his Jazz Band. Basin Street was in New Orleans, the home of Jazz. 12th Street existed in Kansas City and Euday Bowman wrote 12th Street Rag in1927 for a friend who owned a Pawnshop in the street. This arrangement featured the cornet trio of Vic Mills, Bruce Fletcher and Greg Smith.
On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss provided a change in mood from “very lively” to “sombre”. This arrangement is based upon the Hymn It is Well With My Soul, which was written by Bliss in the latter part of the nineteenth century.
Streets of London, recorded in 1969, is a sad ballad about the homeless and less fortunate trying to survive from day to day on the streets. This arrangement featured Julie Loveridge on soprano cornet.
Slaughter On 10th Avenue was the highlight of the first half, with its variations in musical style. It is a ballet with music by Richard Rodgers and was included in the 1936 Broadway musical comedy On Your Toes. The music certainly had its crescendos and diminuendos. Myfanwy (My Dearest) could be described as gentle and refrained. It is a popular Welsh song, composed by Sir Joseph Parry in 1875.
John Denver’s ever popular Country Roads, released in 1971, concluded the first half of the program.
The second half opened with the country and western easy listening song “(Is This the Way to) Amarillo”, written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield. It is about a man travelling to Amarillo, Texas, to find his girlfriend Marie. The song was recorded by Tony Christie and released in the UK in November 1971.
The Skye Boat Song, a ballad made popular by the TV’s Outlander Series, is a late nineteenth century Scottish song with lyrics telling of the escape of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (“Bonnie Prince Charlie”) from Scotland to the Isle of Skye in a small boat, evading capture by English soldiers after his Jacobite Army was defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The first verse:
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing
Onward, the sailors cry!
Carry the lad that’s born to be King
Over the sea to Skye.
The “toe tapping” March. Montreal Citadel, composed in 1934 by Norman J Audoire, Bandmaster of the Montreal Citadel Salvation Army Band, picked up the tempo.
The well-known New York, New York wasthe theme song from the Martin Scorsese 1977 musical film New York, New York. Frank Sinatra made it his feature song in 1977.
Scarborough Fair is a traditional English ballad.The song’s lyrics list a number of impossible tasks given to a former lover who lives in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Another traditional March by Australian Composer Barrie Gott, Gold Coast Temple, followed.
The jazz/pop number Birdland was written as a tribute to the Birdland nightclub, the home of jazz in New York City, which opened on 5th December 1949. Birdland provided a contrasting style to the March.
Tuxedo Junction, a popular big band number recorded by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra and a No.1 hit in 1940, ended the Program.
The audience were generous in their applause throughout the Concert and were rewarded with the encore Hit the Road Jack.
Cardiff Brass acknowledges and thanks Lake Macquarie City Council for providing financial sponsorship for the Concert. Brass band music is “alive and well” in this City.
Allan Shaw
Life Member
Cardiff Brass
Cardiff Brass 
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