Big brass band from Belgium set to rock The Stade on Saturday.

Big, brassy, Belgian and set for Saturday Stade

The Stade Saturday season continues this weekend with a not-to-be-missed appearance by De Verenigde Vrienden Melden Orchestra, a brass band from Hastings’s twin town of Oudenaarde in Belgium. Toby Sargent has been having a listen to their work, and is very much looking forward to their appearance.

We may be on our way out of the European Union, but no referendum vote or political opportunist will ever dim the welcome that live music lovers here offer to continental performers as good as De Verenigde Vrienden Melden Orchestra. They are playing here on The Stade this Saturday (13 August) at 19.30, and promise to delight the summer evening promenaders with a great mix of standards from the classics and foot-tapping arrangements of pop songs old and new.

Splendid summer Stade Saturdays

It’s all part of the splendid weekly summer Stade Saturdays programme of events, which this week will celebrate cross-European goodwill and comradeship. De Verenigde Vrienden Melden Orchestra is a 36-strong brass band orchestra, conducted by Davy Bonnarens, which was formed more than 70 years ago and is made up of community members from the Hastings twin town of Oudenaarde in Belgium.

Their name, by the way, means something about ‘friends united in harmony’ and there’s no denying they seem an amiable bunch. Cllr Dawn Poole, Hastings Borough Council’s lead member for culture, is a fan. So much so that she offers a quote in the council’s press notice:

“Marking a special free event between our twin towns Oudenaarde and Hastings, this promises to be a fantastic evening. The orchestra presents a mix of popular classical numbers and up-tempo pop classics in the style of the legendary James Last and his orchestra.”

An insightful remark from the councillor and purely coincidental, of course, that the ‘1066 Country’ preview describes the band’s style on their ‘official’ tourism website thus:

“The orchestra will present a mix of popular classical numbers and up-tempo pop classics in the style of the legendry James Last and his Orchestra.’

Worth hearing and looking great

Well, at least the council’s PR monkeys corrected the spelling of legendary. And anyone can carp and nitpick, of course, but this shouldn’t detract from the fact that this band is really excellent and very much worth going to hear. They look great too and have a feelgood factor that a balmy summer’s evening on the front can only complement.

There’s a handful of performances to enjoy online and I particularly recommend you check out the studied cool of their percussion section and most of all the band’s handling of Boney M’s Daddy Cool, at the end of which two lively women in disco-wigs and flared catsuits (I’m guessing it’s a Belgian thing) sashay out of the audience and dance alongside the band as they bash out the last few bars. Back of the net!

To see the full Stade Saturdays programme of events, you can go online or pick up a programme from the Tourist Information Centre.

Also in: Music & Sound