The fabulous Suffolk Phoenix Brass kicked off the Friends of Christchurch Park’s summer series of Brass on the Grass concerts in fine style – despite the weather doing its best to dampen spirits.
Ten minutes before the scheduled start it loooked as though all the efforts of the Park staff (thank you Trevor and his team) to put out the chairs were in vain. But as David Routh took to the microphone to announce the band, the skies lightened and what followed was an hour and a half of pure pleasure.
The band – led by maestro Keith Nice – began and ended appropriately with “Singing in the Rain”, but the crowd (that swelled in number to about a 100) enjoyed a variety of band numbers to please all ears.
After the interval, the rain returned with a vengeance and so the decision was made to shorten the afternoon just a little. But it was a wonderfully enjoyable event and the Band in particular are to be thanked for their enthusiasm and skills despite raindrops occasionally falling on their heads. Do come along next Sunday (the 24th July) at 2.30pm when the Ipswich and Norwich Co-op Band, generously sponsored by the Ipswich Society, will be entertaining us in (no doubt) glorious summer sunshine. Our other concerts are Stacks of Sax on 31 July and the Ipswich Hospital Band on 7 August.