Taylor celebrates 50 years at Fairey
Last night (Saturday 19th October) cornet legend Brian Taylor celebrated 50 years at Faireys with an anniversary concert at the Royal Norhtern College of Music. Led by musical director Phil Chalk and special guest conductor James Gourlay, the band delivered an emotional tribute to Brian, including the nostalgic Carnaval Romain, moving solos and special renditions of Quicksilver and Hora Staccato, featuring Brian and some ‘old friends’ of the band.
Brian has 50 British Open appearances to his name and 40 National Championships, with 8 wins across both contests. He has seen many changes over the years at Fairey’s, including the recent name change to KNDS which marks the significance of the band continuing to work with its founding company, one of the last bands in the country to do this, and a company where Brian worked for almost 20 years after joining the band as a teenager.
Speaking of the current band, Brian said: “What’s great to see from my perspective is how the band has continued to evolve over the years. Historically, we are one of the most successful contesting bands, but we also really enjoy the innovative side of the band and what we do off the contest stage. Acid Brass is over 25 years old now, but we're continuing to move this forward with new music and events and we're particularly proud of our music to film projects which are now being shared with other bands across the country to help develop banding. Everyone in the band embraces this approach and it makes it easy to keep playing after 50 years"
A spokesperson from the band paid tribute, “What a wonderful evening we had last night, celebrating Brian Taylor’s 50th anniversary with the Fairey Band at the RNCM. It was lovely to see so many Fairey alumni there to celebrate with us, our vice-presidents Tony and Margaret, and the Lancashire Youth Brass Band with the pre-concert entertainment who were just fabulous. Thanks so much to everyone who made the evening so memorable. The concert had everything - good music, great company and most of all emotion. It was the perfect tribute to a special man.”
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