This recording and sleeve notes kindly provided by Chris Trevena at Sounds Like Cornwall.

MOUNT CHARLES YOUTH BAND
Musical Director: Jonathan Small

The roots of Mount Charles Band can be traced back to 1779 when it was known as the Charlestown Regiment of Cornish Volunteers, In 1945 it changed its name and became known as the Mount Charles Band.

Track listing:
1. Jubilee Overture
2. Goldcrest
3. Lord of the Dance
4. Share my Yoke
5. When I’m 64
6. David of the White Rock
7. Tenor Trombone Rag
8. Breezin’ Down Broadway
9. Ave Verum
10. He Ain’t Heavy
11. Scences Du Lac
12. Bolero
13. The Muppet Show Theme
14. The Waltonian
15. Vitae Lux
16. Kongolela

The seeds of Mount Charles Youth Band were sown in the early 1970’s by Morley Bennetts who started a teaching class. This soon developed into a junior band. The instruments in those days were old but great things were achieved. Success soon followed, Mount Charles Youth Band soon became a face in the contest world and in 1992 under the baton of David Pope, they gained a 6th place in the National Youth Finals, held in London. Over the past eleven years the Youth Band have been on a winning streak and have achieved many honours and national titles. They are recognised nationally as being one of the top youth bands in the country. In April 2005 under former musical director Bryan Hurdley the band took part in the ‘Besson National Youth Championship of Great Britain’, held at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. They were presented with a gold award, prize money and were crowned “National Community Champions of Great Britain’. Following this great achievement the band was presented with a “special good citizenship’ award by the Mayor of the local borough in recognition of their high standards and outstanding contribution to the prestige of the town. More success followed from a regional music festival held early in 2005, the band were invited to take part in a National Music for Youth Festival, which was held at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham. Here, under the baton of their musical director Jon Small, the band received an ‘Outstanding Music Award’ and were deemed ‘National Music for Youth Champions 2005′. Having accepted a prestigious invitation, the band were delighted to perform at the schools’ prom in November 2005, which was held at The Royal Albert Hall in London.

At the recent SWBBA Entertainment Festival, which was held at the Pavilions in Exmouth, the band performed “The Showcase’, which adjudicator Philip Harper remarked pure class from beginning to end. The band entered the stage and took the audience by storm performing their entertainment programme all from memory and oozing with showy choreography and still maintaining superb quality playing, creating something quite unique. Philip Harper also remarked, “this is the future for brass banding, you capture your audience, your show is inspirational, visionary and absolutely braising. It was utterly brilliant”. This explains the title of our CD ‘Inspirational Showcase’. The Mount Charles Youth Band have held the title of ‘South West Youth Champions’ for eleven consecutive years. This has been maintained by recruiting youngsters from our School of Brass, where they have been taught to play a brass instrument, which the organisation encourages immensely. Hard work, commitment and the enthusiasm to rise to a challenge are the key words for the success of this very ambitious youth band. In recognition of winning the SWBBA Championship Youth Section over the past years the band received an achievement award which was presented to the band by the SWBBA secretary Mr Brian Elliott.

Cover photograph: Schools’ Prom, Royal Albert Hall. London 2005
Recorded at Mount Charles School, St Austell, Cornwall
Recording Engineer: Paul Martyn
Music Producer: Derek Johnston
Produced by Paul & Barbara Martyn © Paul Martyn Sound Productions 2005
Printing by: FRANCIS ANTONY LTD – ST AUSTELL