Our 2024 Victoria Hall Christmas concert on Saturday December 14th attracted a huge audience of over a thousand people, our biggest since before the lockdowns and perhaps in many, many years (please see the Gallery photos). Attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of Bolton, Deputy Lord-Lieutenant of Greater Manchester Judith Bromley, Bolton comedian and television presenter Stu Francis and many more well known local figures, our 2024 Christmas concert was a superb night for all of us taking part and everyone present in the audience, many of whom we were delighted to see were young families.

Mayor Andy Morgan posted on social media straight after the concert, “Tonight’s concert was brilliant because it perfectly captured the Christmas spirit with a mix of heart warming and lively pieces. The band’s incredible musicianship created a magical atmosphere that brought the audience together ready for Christmas. Eagley Band is known for its musical excellence and under the baton of Chris Wormald tonight was brilliant.” 

Deputy Lord-Lieutenant Judith Bromley emailed “The concert was wonderful, the whole evening was a joy. We all thoroughly enjoyed everything.”

When the Victoria Hall box office informed us the day before the concert that they had immediately stopped all online ticket selling for fear the capacity would be exceeded on Saturday night, when the usual number of patrons arrive wishing to pay on the door, we knew we were in for a huge audience. The numbers created an electric atmosphere from the moment the doors opened and people filled the foyer to bursting. All of our sixteen page, glossy A3 programmes sold out, the raffle generated record income and the standard of performance on stage was as faultless as possible.

Our MD Chris said “It might seem strange to describe a Christmas concert as exceptional, but that’s exactly what it was, and how it turned out. The playing and singing in the first half alone was nothing short of phenomenal. The tuning and intonation were exceptional from the first note, the playing was full of confidence, dynamics, balance, happiness, fun and the full range of emotions were on display from the most stunning, quiet playing by all of the section principals to the full force, aggression and power of the band in Polar Express, which demonstrated that the band has come a very long way in the last 9 years. I had the absolute best time on stage right from the start and the audience could tell exactly how special everything was.” 

The concert opened with the obligatory Sleigh Ride and quickly moved through arrangements of Do You Hear What I Hear? and big band charts of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and What A Day, which the audience loved, and hearing how the arrangement came into being through Sir Terry Wogan recommending it to Chris some years ago. The choir sang superbly in Cliff Richard’s Little Town and Christmas pieces by John Rutter, David Willcocks, Bob Chilcott and John Williams, and following The Carpenters hit Merry Christmas Darling, the spectacular music from Polar Express concluded the first half after the annual awards had been presented. This year’s trophy winners, as voted for by the players, were Sarah Ferguson (Band Person of The Year), Lynsey Hayes (Players’ Player of The Year), Hollie Lancaster (Most Improved Player) and the Musical Director’s Award was shared by Jo Fellowes and Janet Walsh.

After the interval, when our Community Band joined forces with the main band and our choir, there was lots of fun audience participation in It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Winter Wonderland, It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year and White Christmas, for which Chris invited Bass Trombonist Dec Cullen to conduct whilst he disappeared up into the balcony to sing with the audience. For our performance of The Christmas Song, Chris sent out a quartet of Flugel Horns to the front, all of whom had won awards in the first half; Lynsey, Hollie, Sarah and Janet. The band played a superb Troika and the evening concluded at exactly 9.45pm with Jingle Bells featuring audience members invited on stage to join our percussion section for the short finale.

The next time we take to the Victoria Hall stage will be on Saturday October 4th next year, when our special guest is Trumpet virtuoso Mike Lovatt, Lead Trumpet of The John Wilson Orchestra and BBC Big Band in London, as well as featured on Harry Potter and James Bond soundtracks to highlight just a few. This will be our official Eagley Band 175th Anniversary Concert and will feature a reunion band of alumni drawn from across the whole of the UK and further afield.