Navan band's lockdown performance is a YouTube hit

The sweet tones of “Beyond the Sea”, that tune most memorably sung by Bobby Darin wafted over the internet last Sunday courtesy of Navan Silver Band whose members organised a special musical treat for those of us who are at home, which is almost everyone at the moment.

Francis Duffy, Honorary Secretary of the Meath capital’s brass band (79 years in existence this year) generously agreed to an interview for “How are you coping?” and gave some insight into how the idea germinated and ended up with last Sunday’s recital. Of course, the lyrics include “those golden sands”, reminding us all of those faraway places we are all missing this year – or perhaps the musicians were thinking of beautiful Bettystown!

Navan Silver Band playing Beyond the Sea.

The idea was mentioned by band conductor Stephen Murray about four weeks ago and all the band members (about 20 people in the senior section) unanimously agreed to it. They relied on the technical know how of Holly Roynane and John O’Byrne and the input of Stephen to put the online recital together. In my ignorance of how these things are done I had thought the musicians might wait for a given signal and then all start playing together, That might have been a recipe for chaos. Instead, a “click track” was created, the musicians all listened to that in order to keep the time and then all recorded individually. The individual pieces were then all put together by the technical team.

The event was such a success that they’re planning another recital, this time “Everybody loves Somebody” which would seem a very apt piece for the strange times we are living in at the moment. It’s a strange time indeed for volunteer band musicians at the moment. They had been used to meeting regularly at their headquarters near the old Spicers bakery in Navan where they have a fine bandroom and the best of facilities. All that had come to a halt in the lockdown but Francis says they’re hoping to get back together again sometime next month, starting with quartettes and quintettes.

Bands need musicians but they also need administrators and the committee is led by Chairperson Denis O’Halloran, Treasurer Pat Masterson and Francis Duffy. The main source of income comes from major concerts ion Spring, Autumn and December. This year, it will be fingers crossed that the Autumn concert can go ahead but plans are being laid for it, and the Christmas concert. A church gate collection also helps the coffers and perhaps the committee might be able to nudge local councillors to allocate some cash to the band from the “discretionary fund” in which councillors are allocated e15,000 each to distribute among community groups. Hint, hint! Every September, the band aims to bring in recruits so the committee is appealing to those who would like to play an instrument and at the same time get an excellent musical education to contact them. Francis will take calls on 0879222303.