2007 Event Reviews
What people said about our 2007 festival.
Richard - (Aylwin String Quartet) “An evening of serious music”
Warren Gaskell - (Acoustic Night) “Great intimacy, good vibe, and some great music”
Tracey Browne - (Acoustic Night) “A really lovely gig to play...You find a lot of talent out of town”
Leftventricle - (Acoustic Night) “Good gig last night”
Mark & Sharon - (Irish Night) “ These are really good what they doing next week?” (St Patrick’s night!)
Debra - (Acoustic Night) “Great night at the Prince of Wales on Sunday”
Si and Mick - (Indie Night) “To see two six string bass guitars in one night is very unusual”
Reverend Margaret Tait – (St James) “Music is a gift from God”
Jean (Irish Night) – Thanks for arranging such a great night – Music and singing were great – Could do with more nights like that.
Len Mather - "On the 10th March 2008 you will hear a world premier in Gatley, put this unique event on your calendar now"
The third Gatley Music Festival was held between 2nd and 9th March 2007 and comprised nine concerts, with something, we believe, to suit all tastes.
On Sunday an Ecumenical Eucharist at Elm Road United Reformed Church opened the Festival with prayers, readings and sermon on the general theme of music. The Reverend Margaret Tait told us that Music is a gift from God, an expression of a profound truth borne out throughout the week.
Also on Sunday a concert featuring some of the finest local acoustic artists took place in The Prince of Wales. Featuring Stokesy who played his first show in a year. The wonderfully soft voiced Tracey Browne playing songs old and new. Garron Frith treated us to some tracks from his forthcoming album. The alt country duo Picnic Area gave us a lesson in harmonies and the wonderful Warren Gaskell with his full band completed a very enjoyable evening.
The contemporary side of our festival had actually started 24 hours earlier at The Gateway Pub and featured an evening of indie music. The melodic sounds of Tramps and Horses got the evening off to a fine start with instruments including Bongo’s, Saxophone and Recorder. They were followed by Colours Run who played an acoustic set and performed some truly wonderful songs, if you get the opportunity to see Colours Run, Take it. Next up were Youth Honey who raised the volume and the tempo with a great performance. And finally we were treated to the talents of Voodoo Doll, a band of two sisters and two brothers whose marvellous mix of pop and rock was unfortunately cut short by the trauma of an exploding amp.
Monday evening saw the first performance in Gatley by the Lymm Concert Band under the baton of their director of music Darren Wood, in the Elm Road church. The choice of music ranged from classical to brass band and to popular but popular in the sense of swing rather than “pop”. The enthusiasm of the players inspired a very appreciative response from the audience.
On Tuesday a wind trio, “The Trio con brio”, clarinet, oboe and bassoon performed at Gatley Yeshurun Synagogue to an audience that was quite hypnotised by the fascinating diversity of tempos, melodies and moods conjured by just three instruments. Music by Beethoven, Dorati, Ibert, and Devienne was rapturously received.
On Wednesday the choirs and instrumentalists from Kingsway School, Gatley Primary School and Cheadle Primary School presented by far the most popular concert of the week. They achieved a splendid variety of music featuring amongst others “What a wonderful world,” Food glorious food”, a clarinet solo “Riding on a donkey” The Kingsway Senior Girls Choir: “Les Miserables”, and the massed choirs “What the world needs now is love”
Thursday evening saw a return to Elm Road Church for a concert by The Poynton Male Voice Choir who did us proud with a large diversity of types of music and formats, particularly several solos including the accompanist.
On Friday a concert as part of Music at Saint James welcomed back yet again The Aylwin String Quartet, Richard Aylwin, violin, Ruth Hudson, violin Amanda Denley, viola & Graham Bradshaw, cello, three leading members and one ex member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, musicians of the very highest class. They played Mozart Quartet K590, Shostakovich, Quartet No8 and Beethoven Quartet in F Minor “Serioso”.
Strangely enough this same quartet played the Shostakovich at the very first Music at Saint James concert. Next year these concerts will celebrate their twentieth birthday and Richard is composing a special piece of music for the occasion. Gatley music lovers should make a note of the date 10th March 2008 as it's not often you get to hear a world premier on your doorstep.
Meanwhile down at The Horse and Farrier a great evening of Irish and traditional music had packed the house and a splendid time was had by all.
Finally I am delighted to report that we will be able to hand over a cheque for £1000 to Francis House, Didsbury. We wish to thank all of you who supported and helped us at the concerts and who bought raffle tickets. A special thank you to our sponsors: Gatley Glass, Structured Learning, Spar Stores, A & I Stores and Gatley school of Motoring.
CD’s of many of our events are available via this website
Festival sponsors
