SLFB & Medway Singers Summer concert July 2025

St. Justus Church in Rochester was the venue for a joint concert with the Medway Singers with proceeds from the tickets sales to go towards new AV equipment for the church. St Justus was the fourth Archbishop of Canterbury but first became Bishop of Rochester in 604. The church itself is a modern building built in the 1950’s and proved a fine venue for the concert.

The Band began with William Gordon’s Festival March Salvation Song – his first Army publication – which features “We’ll sing in the morning the songs of Salvation” in the middle section. The lively march was well received by the audience.

Next up was the first of the Band’s soloists. The Band’s musical director, Derick Kane had written “Joyful Song” for Andy and he displayed his usual mastery and dexterity of the cornet in this lively solo.

The bands third item in the set was Olaf Ritmans well-crafted arrangement of the Londonderry Air. The final item had first been played by SLFB at the recent Regent Hall concert and was the American Series arrangement “Hear the Call” written by Marcus Venables, first premiered by the New York Staff Band in 2022. It features the popular Christian song “O Church arise and put your armour on”. A stirring arrangement that has a bolero style opening and utilises the full range and dynamic capabilities of a brass band to convey the urgency and importance of the call to action. Well played by the band, it brought loud applause from the congregation.

The Medway Singers, conducted by Neil Jones and admirably accompanied by Martyn Clements, delivered their first set of songs. From the classical to the Spiritual to something completely different, the opener was the beautiful and well sung Lord I trust in Thee, a motet by George Frederick Handel. Next up was John Rutter’s arrangement of “Home is a special kind of feeling” written as the finale for a musical presentation based on The Wind in the Willows and recorded also by the world-famous King Singers.

The third song in the set came with a warning about the lyrics. The Goslings written Frederick Bridge depicts the story of two birds who fall in love in life but ended up together side by side on a plate at Christmas. It features snippets of the Wedding March and produced a lot of smiles from the Band and audience. The penultimate song in the set was an arrangement by David Blackwell of the much-loved spiritual “Steal Away”. It’s always interesting to hear different arrangements of well-known songs and once again it was well sung with plenty of work for each of the vocal parts.

The final song was “Orpheus in the Underground”. John Offenbach’s comic opera is the basis for this take on the can-can inspired Infernal Gallop. Best described as a musical journey of all the stops in the London Underground (but pre the recently opened Elizabeth line) the choir worked hard to get all the names in at a brisk tempo. This was a fun piece to listen to and great credit to the Medway Singers for this rendition which was given the applause it deserved.

The first half concluded with the band playing two pieces.

“Those were the Days” by Boris Formin and arranged by Derick Kane. The song immortalised by Mary Hopkins gathers pace throughout and is a great concert item. From music originally in the 1940’s, the final item of the first half was the rarely heard “Coronation March” by Meyerbeer from the opera “Le Prophete” and arranged for Brass band. A majestic and stirring March the band enjoys playing and it was once again well received.

After a 20-minute interval, where welcome refreshments were provided by members of the Church, the band returned to the stage to play the Gordon Langford arrangement of the Welsh song, Men of Harlech, that describes events during the seven year long siege of Harlech Castle between 1461 and 1468. Always a much-appreciated programme number, especially for those with Welsh roots.

The Band’s main item “The Ring of Brodgar” written by Derick Kane, was then featured. The Ring of Brodgar is a set of neolithic stones older than Stonehenge and provided the inspiration of this Scottish themed dance arrangement. In three contrasting movements this is as enjoyable to play, as it is to listen to.

The Band’s second soloist of the evening was Adrian Horwood who played the beautiful Celtic Dream from Peter Grahams “Windows of the World”, expertly played as usual.

The final items from the Medway Singers started with a nod to our childhood with “Teddy Bears picnic” arranged by Andrew Carter. In complete contrast was “O Vos Omnes”, translated as “O All Ye People” which is lifted from the Book of Lamentations. This beautiful arrangement is often used within the Catholic Church in Holy Week. The group’s next song was described by their conductor as having the “longest note in pop music”. Of course this referred to Bill Withers “Lovely Day”. He did mention that this arrangement did not feature the full length note that is normally around 18 seconds long but it did have some lengthy notes for the men. Next up was the old English melody Scarborough Fair displaying the choir’s ability to switch and sing different genres.

The Choir returned to spirituals with a rendition of Deep River and then finally the song by Richard Rogers, Blue Moon covered by many of the world’s biggest artists including Frank Sinatra, Billie Holliday and of course Elvis Presley. It was an enjoyable set but this was not the end. For the choir’s conductor, Neil Jones this was his last concert having led the group for 21 years. A presentation to him of a large gold star- he gave out stars to the members for their musical diligence –  was followed by a rendition of “We are marching in the light of God” and in Zula “Siyahamb”. This was one of the first items taught by Neil to the choir and they obviously enjoyed singing it and the audience showed their appreciation for the Choir and for its Musical Director. We wish him well and the choir in their search for a new Director.

The evening concluded with two upbeat lively items from the Band. “Breezin down Broadway” arranged by Goff Richards featuring Broadway hits such as “There’s no business like show business”, Get me to the church on time” and “Oklahoma”. Foot tapping tunes that always receive loud applause and this was no different. The final item was “Let it shine” where Derick Kane encouraged the audience to sing-a-long and clap. Once again this was well received with claps and cheers.

So ended the concert where the listener had a broad spectrum of music with something for everyone from both the Medway Singers and the South London Fellowship Band.