A ‘zombie’ brass band has wowed judges with its Halloween themed performance.
Macclesfield Youth Brass Band thrilled audiences at the ‘Brass Factor’, competition with their rousing performance.
Not only did the 32 strong band win overall first prize, but they were also named the winners of the Audience Vote and Best Soloist, thanks to a brilliant performance by 14-year-old Alex Walton on xylophone.
Louise Renshaw, musical director, said: “This was a great night for the youth band, competing against some notable adult bands, this was our best competition result to date.
“We had worked really hard to include a lot of drama and fun in our set and the audience reaction was amazing.
“The players were fantastic, totally getting into the spirit of it.”
She added: “It was a bit like X Factor, we performed for 20 minutes and then had to listen to the judges critique.”
One judge said: “I can see why 120 young people turn up to play in this band every Friday night, it’s so much fun.
“All power to Macclesfield Youth Band, every town should have this.”
Commenting on Alex’s performance, another judge said: “Wow, he is such a talented young player with a great future, what a star.”
The band’s next performance is a Remembrance concert at St Michaels Church, Macclesfield on at 7.30pm Saturday, November 11, organised by Macclesfield Castle Rotary Club.
Louise added that she hopes the performance will be just as memorable.
She said: “You have to move the times and not only appreciate what music the kids want to play, but also what the audience wants, so we always make our performances as entertaining as possible.
“The performance for Remembrance at St Michael’s will obviously be at a different end of the scale, but we will still do our best to make it memorable. We will use the drum corps and the balcony and make sure it’s visually interesting too.”
Macclesfield Youth Brass Band has three bands and a drum corps catering for local young musicians aged seven to 18 years.
They rehearse every Friday evening at the Fallibroome Academy, which will host the Christmas concert on December 16. For more information visit www.mybb.org.uk .
