On Saturday evening December 17th we held our annual Victoria Hall Christmas Concert featuring the main Eagley Band, our Community Choir and, after the interval, Community Band too, all conducted by MD Chris Wormald, and another fantastic night was enjoyed by everyone.

As the hundreds and hundreds of people filed into the hall from 6.45pm to provide us with yet again our biggest audience of the year, even on a bitterly cold night with snow and ice outside, it was clear that there was going to be a great atmosphere in the hall, which was certainly the case. From the opening notes of Gordon Langford’s iconic A Christmas Fantasy at 7.30pm through to the closing notes of We Wish You A Merry Christmas at just after 9.45pm, the audience was treated to an eclectic evening of seasonal repertoire ranging from well known Christmas music and carols to perhaps the less well known, with items ranging from ‘Do You Hear What I Hear?’ and ‘It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year’ to ‘Gaudete’ and ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ which closed the first half of the concert. Fun audience participation was a regular feature throughout the evening as always and everything from ‘The Christmas Song’ to ‘Silent Night’ was sung and enjoyed by everyone, especially the younger members of the audience, of which there were happily very many.

As has become a feature of our Christmas Concerts since 2016, there were four annual band award/trophies presented. This year’s award winners were Dec Cullen (Bass Trombone, Band Person of The Year), Lynsey Hayes (Principal Cornet, Players’ Player of The Year), Joanne Fellowes (2nd Trombone, Most Improved Player of The Year) and the Musical Director’s Award was, for the first time ever, presented to the full band as a whole for an outstanding year of playing excellence, stunning attendance and commitment by everyone throughout, twelve months which began with performing Gilbert Vinter’s ‘Spectrum’ at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool in the First Section of the North West Area Brass Band Championships and ended with our Christmas Concert spectacular to a huge audience in our home town of Bolton, with very many musical and social highlights in between.

Our MD Chris Wormald also pointed out to the audience that in addition to the four band trophies awarded, the player receiving the most combined votes in total across all categories was Repieno Cornet and Band Secretary Becca Crompton who finished Runner-Up in each of the three categories voted for by all of the players, proving she too has had an outstanding year in every respect within the band.