Several months of practise was all worth while last night, when the “Village” team entered the Mrs Sunderland music competition 2019 last night and were placed second in their class!
The team played two tunes “Winter” by Vivaldi and “Teddy Bears Picnic” by John Walter Bratton.
The team received some very positive comments from the Adjudicator “This was a lovely performance in which you demonstrated some excellent ensemble playing throughout” “You were fully aware of each others part and performed musically. A polished performance”
The third session will have a theme of “Music from the Movies or Show” but this is not compulsory
There is the usual standard format for the rally of three ringing sessions and some massed ringing
Tables are available on the day from Church
Admission: £4 per person
Refreshments will be available all day, however no food will be provided as Brighouse has plenty of places to get food, from Fish & Chips, to Gregs, Subway and McDonald’s is a short car journey away.
For More Info or to book your team:- (Don’t forget your table dimensions!)
After a few concerts to finish the 2015 season, the Clifton Village Team will be back and performing throughout the 2016 year.
The concerts/events page has been updated with all the latest dates, so why not come along and catchup with the team during 2016.
A chance mention on Facebook about Brighouse Arts Festival and the fact that Clifton Handbell Ringers would be performing in a concert led to us travelling over the M62 on a rainy Wednesday evening in late September.
The journey was well worth it as the concert, which also featured a local choir, the Fixby Songbirds, was excellent.
Clifton rang a very good selection of tunes to a very high standard and David Sunderland’s introduction and commentary about the bells and the history of the team was very informative for the nonringers in the audience, some of whom had never heard handbell ringing before.
The eight ringers rang a long-set of 140 bells in the traditional Yorkshire off-table style with the expertise and confidence that comes from having rung together as an established team for many years – four of the team have been ringing together since the mid-1970s. Conducting was done by David from the basstable, which meant that there was no conductor blocking the audience’s view of the team. In addition, music was on low-rise stands, almost flat on the table, so there was not the barrier of risers and stands between the ringers and the audience.
The opening piece was an Irish jig which increased in speed with each repetition and was a good demonstration of handling tempo changes. This was followed by a lovely gentle Italian piece called ‘I Giorni’ and the traditional ‘English Country Gardens’. The Andrew Lloyd-Webber piece ‘Close Every Door’ was next and the first half concluded with a complete contrast in ‘Pineapple Rag’.
The second half began with another Irish tune, ‘Planxty Power’, followed by ‘Duelling Banjos’ which was a delight to watch as well as listen to and involved some tricky footwork as well as skilful bell-handling skills as some of the ringers change places during the piece. Two gentler pieces followed, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Sleeping Beauty Waltz’ and ‘Memory’. The concert finished with a lovely rendition of ‘Teddy Bears’ Picnic’.
All in all, an excellent evening’s entertainment – a good varied programme of tunes with audience appeal, well rung and well presented. Thank you Clifton!
The Clifton Handbell Ringers are in concert with the Fixby Songbirds as part of the Brighouse Arts Festival.
The Concert is on Wednesday 23rd September 2015 at St John’s Church Rastrick (HD6 1HN) Map Link) from 7:30pm Tickets £6.50 concessions £5.00 Two award winning local musical ensembles will perform a range of songs and instrumental music.
Sunday 14th September
Clifton Village from 13:00 – 14:00
The team are providing a workshop as part of the Clifton Village Scarecrow Festival, come along and see what ringing is all about!
More details here:- http://www.cliftonvillagecommunity.org.uk/scarecrow..html
Saturday 5th April, saw the Village team in concert again, this time we were back with our friends at Horbury Methodist Church. We performed a full repertoire of 14 songs including 2 new songs which had their first public performance.
The team were well received as usual, and we thank everyone who made it possible.
Saturday 1st Feb, was an awful evening weather wise, but the Village team were out in Concert with a local singing group called 5 in Harmony.
The concert was at Salendine Nook Baptist Church Huddersfield and was well received by the audience.
Thursday 9th January was just a normal day for the team members of Clifton (Village) Hand-Bell Ringers, until mid-morning, when the members of the team received a text message from Peter Fawcett, asking if would be possible for members to attend this evening’s practise in uniform, as he had a local reporter attending to take some photos.
Lunchtime came and another text again from Peter saying the reporter was coming from Look North and actually they were going to do some filming, not take some still photos and the reporter would hopefully be TV presenter Harry Gration from BBC’s Look North.
We all arrived in uniform at the Bell Room, and proceeded to set the Bells up in the Church its’ self rather than down in choir vestry as it would look much better if we were going to be on TV! The bells were set-up and talk came of if it would really be Harry of just a junior reporter. Peter assured us that he was told it would be Harry and so we warmed the Bells up and started a bit of a practise to try and work out which bots were going to play. One of the members originally wasn’t coming to the practise as they had a family party but they turned up.
Whilst we were working out what we were going to play, the camera man turned up and started un-packing his gear ready, and another comment came out across the table “If Harry Gration turns up I will eat that piano” we all chuckled and the comment helped everyone get focussed for the task ahead, whilst having a final run through you would never believe it, but Harry Gration walked in, and we all have a little chuckle based on the previous comment.
He introduced his self and the team were ready for the filming to take place. We quickly went through the pieces we had prepared and we made our choice. Harry wanted to be part of the ringing, so we filmed the last part of Teddy Bear’s picnic with Harry joining I on the last note! It went down very well, and then Harry proceeded to perform a couple of interviews with team members and then he left, as he had to be back in Leeds to present again later that evening.
The cameraman took some arty shots, of close-ups of the bells, and team members whilst we played through the last few bars of Pirates of the Caribbean, after about 30 mins and about 10 times he had all the footage he needed, and he explained that the piece should be run on tomorrow (Friday’s) evening edition of Look North.
Friday came, and the piece was actually ready and it ran on the Lunch Time edition first which aired on the BBC at approx. 13:00, followed by a second airing on the evening edition at 19:30.
I must say a big thanks to everyone involved, from Peter for getting the BBC involved, to the Church for use of the Church at such short notice and to the team for coming along and giving the BBC what they needed.
For those who haven’t seen the final video a copy is available on the CHBR web site http://www.chbr.co.uk
The Clifton Handbell Ringers along with Ringing for Gold’s author Peter Fawcett, should hopefully be featured on the West Yorkshire Local News programme Look North tomorrow evening (Friday 10/01/2014).
The news article arranged by Peter is to try and publicise Handbell Ringing, across and the county and features interviews with presenter Harry Gration and some ringing from the team. Make sure you catch Look North tomorrow from 18:30.
The Team Pictured with BBC Look North Presenter Harry Gration
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