Early in July 2015 I had the pleasure of reacquainting myself with the mighty Middleton Band at the recording sessions for their latest CD. Back in 2014 the band started discussing commissioning a composition from me to mark their upcoming 140th anniversary in 2016 and after applying and winning Arts Council funding at the end of 2014 the piece was composed during the first four months of 2015.

Entitled Perseverance, the new piece take its name from the band’s original name – the Middleton Perseverance Drum and Fife Band – and reflects the up and down history of success and adversity of the band. The music starts with six players (just like the original band) and builds to three climaxes; the first two then fall back to the original six players before the final one finally triumphs. The band were kind enough to ask me to conduct the recording sessions for their new piece, and more recently I’ve been working with Keith Farington of Music House Productions on the editing. The final edit was approved a few weeks ago and now we’re all looking forward to receiving the finished CD.

As part of the Arts Council funding application we also applied for enough money to commission architectural videography and photography specialist Andy Marshall to produce a video of Middleton to accompany the music, and Andy is currently working on storyboards for this. Very much looking forward to seeing his ideas!