Blue sky greets Helston Town Band proms
10:13am Monday 3rd September 2012 in News
Blue sky greets Helston Town Band proms
Torrential rain gave way to blue skies and sunshine for Helston Town Band’s annual Proms at Lismore last weekend.
With no alternative venue, organisers were anxiously watching the sky to see if it would dry up for the outdoor event, which is always held in the gardens of Lismore by permission of owner Michael Jay.
After a wet rehearsal earlier in the day, thankfully the sky cleared at around 5pm – just in time for spectators to turn up with chairs, waterproof picnic blankets and plenty of Union Flags for the start of the 7pm concert.
Louise Williams, from the band, said: “It turned out beautifully. It was a clear evening, the wind dropped and it wasn’t cold. It was quite magical when you look at the weather we had.
“It went really well. We had the biggest crowd we have ever had. We’re absolutely delighted with the evening – it really was fantastic.”
This year the band was lucky enough to welcome John Treleaven as guest soloist. Born and brought up in Porthleven, where his family go back for generations, Mr Treleaven is now an internationally famous opera singer living in Germany who was friends with the late Pavarotti.
One of best received pieces was Mr Treleaven’s rendition of Nessun Dorma, made famous by Pavarotti himself.
“He just has an absolutely amazing voice – he just filled the whole of Lismore Gardens. It was just amazing to watch him and listen to him. I think the audience were enthralled – he had such a good rapport with them,” said Mrs Williams.
Mr Treleaven, accompanied by Alistair Taylor, sang three operatic arias in the first half of the programme and also joined in with the traditional proms tunes, for which he changed into a black suit and hat topped with the St Piran flag, and waved a Union Flag.
He was given a standing ovation by the audience and urged to perform an encore. All the tunes performed by band members had either a Golden Jubilee or Olympic theme, including Olympic Spirit written for the 1988 Seoul Games. Chariots of Fire was also performed, complete with a video montage via projector of highlights from this year’s Olympics, interspersed with ‘Olympians’ from Helston Town Band.
The piece also involved ‘Rowan Atkinson’ – aka Paul Jenkins – reprising his role in the London Games’ opening ceremony. Particularly humorous pieces included the Pink Panther, with Keith Busby dressed up as the panther, and Two Imps – a xylophone duet performed by Simon Taylor and 12-year-old Justin Strike.
The evening ended with a fireworks display that could be seen throughout the town. “It was just a really good evening. Lots of the band and committee worked really hard to make it a really successful evening,” said Mrs Williams, who went on to thank Lismore owner Michael Jay for allowing the event to take place in his gardens once again.”
