Like so many people we are very excited about the release of the film Hunky Dory in cinemas on March 2nd across the UK.

From the producer of Billy Elliot and set in the heat of the summer of 1976 in Swansea, comes this funny, coming of age film featuring songs from artists such as David Bowie, The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel and the Electric Light Orchestra. Starring Minnie Driver who plays Vivienne, a feisty and keen drama teacher she works tirelessly through the sweltering heat for her pupils to perform an end of year musical version of Shakespeare's The Tempest using hits from the time to bring the production to life.

So why are Ev-entz so excited about the launch of this film?   Well, as this is a musical production and set in South Wales, the production company just had to call on us to provide all the orchestral percussion equipment that you will see. So as well as starring this young cast, we also play a starring role to make some great tracks come alive once again.  High School Musical, Welsh Style!  So grab your ticket and large pop corn and head to your local cinema.  For now check out the trailer for Hunky Dory.

We are approaching a really important time in the Brass Band calendar in the UK, as bands from all sections prepare to compete in the Regional Championships organised by Kapitol Promotions.  All bands and condutors will be working harder than ever to give the performances of their lives on difficult set test piece, in order to beat their local rivals and qualify to represent their Area in the National Finals later in the year.

Ev-entz will be travelling the length of the UK to cover 5 of the Regional competitions.  We will be attending the Scottish, Midlands and West of England Area on the 10th & 11th of March, and the Welsh and the London & Southern Counties Area on the 17th & 18th March.  We will be providing percussion and stage set-up support for bands at these venues.  The percussion that will be provided at the various venues is listed below:

Midlands Bedworth Hall

5 Timpani (32,30,28,25,22.5) & Stool

36” Bass Drum on Cradle

Xylophone – 4 octave 

Glockenspiel on ‘X’ Stand

Tubular Bells

Vibraphone

Concert Snare Drum & Stand

Clash Cymbals 20” & Stand

Tam Tam 32” & Stand

Drum Kit comprising : 1 x Bass Drum & pedal, 1 x Snare Drum & stand, 1 x Hi-Hat, 1 x Ride, 2 x Crash Cymbs, 2 x Mounted Toms, 1 x floor tom (attached to cymbal stand) 1 x drum throne.

Tom Toms  10” & 12” & stand

Please note that NO sticks / beaters are provided

Midlands College

3 Timpani (30,28,25) & Stool

36” Bass Drum on ‘X’ type stand

Xylophone – 3.5 octave

Glockenspiel on ‘X’ Stand

Concert Snare Drum & Stand

Clash Cymbals 18” & Stand

Drum Kit comprising : 1 x Bass Drum & pedal, 1 x Snare Drum & stand, 1 x Hi-Hat, 1 x Ride, 2 x Crash Cymbs, 2 x Mounted Toms, 1 x floor tom, 1 x drum throne.

Please note that NO sticks / beaters are provided

West of England Forum

5 Timpani (32,30,28,28,25) & Stool

36” Bass Drum on Cradle

Xylophone – 4 octave

Glockenspiel on ‘X’ Stand

Tubular Bells 

Vibraphone 

Concert Snare Drum & Stand

Clash Cymbals 20” & Stand

Tam Tam 32” & Stand

Drum Kit consisting of: 1 x Bass Drum & pedal, 1 x Snare Drum & stand, 1 x Hi-Hat, 1 x Ride, 2 x Crash Cymbs, **2 x Mounted Toms (10” & 12”) , 1 x floor tom (14”), 1 x drum throne.

**Tom Toms –  the drumkit toms (10” & 12”) can be mounted on a stand if required.

Please note that NO sticks / beaters are provided

West of England Arena

2  Timpani (29,26) & Stool

Bass Drum – 36” Bass Drum on ‘x’ type stand

Xylophone – 3.5 octave

Glockenspiel on ‘X’ Stand

Concert Snare Drum & Stand 

Clash Cymbals 18” & Stand

Drum Kit comprising : 1 x Bass Drum & pedal, 1 x Snare Drum & stand, 1 x Hi-Hat, 1 x Ride, 2 x Crash Cymbs, 2 x Mounted Toms, 1 x floor tom (attached to cymbal stand) 1 x drum throne.

Please note that NO sticks / beaters are provided

Scotland Area

5 Timpani (32,30,28,25,22.5) & Stool

Bass Drum on Cradle

Xylophone

Glockenspiel on ‘X’ Stand

Tubular Bells

Vibraphone

Concert Snare Drum & Stand

Clash Cymbals 20” & Stand

Tam Tam 36” & Stand

Drum Kit – comprising : 1 x Bass Drum & pedal, 1 x Snare Drum & stand, 1 x Hi-Hat, 1 x Ride, 2 x Crash Cymbs, 2 x Mounted Toms, 1 x floor tom (attached to cymbal stand) 1 x drum throne.

Tenor Drum & Stand

Tambourine on stand

Tambourine hand held

Bongos & Stand

Wood Block & Stand

Triangle & Stand

2 x Tom Toms & stand

Please note that NO sticks / beaters are provided

London Area

Sat 17^th &  Sun 18^th Theatre

5 Timpani (32,30,28,25,22.5) & Stool

36” Bass Drum on Cradle

Xylophone 

Glockenspiel on ‘X’ Stand

Tubular Bells

Vibraphone

Concert Snare Drum & Stand

Clash Cymbals 20” & Stand

Tam Tam 36” & Stand

Drum Kit consisting of: 1 x Bass Drum & pedal, 1 x Snare Drum & stand, 1 x Hi-Hat, 1 x Ride, 2 x Crash Cymbs, 2 x Mounted Toms (10” & 12”) , 1 x floor tom (14”), 1 x drum throne.

2 x Tom Toms & stand

Please note that NO sticks / beaters are provided

Sun 18^th Sport Hall

3 Timpani (30,28,25) & Stool

36” Bass Drum on ‘X’ type stand

Xylophone 

Glockenspiel on ‘X’ Stand

Tubular Bells 

Concert Snare Drum & Stand

Clash Cymbals 18” & Stand

Drum Kit comprising : 1 x Bass Drum & pedal, 1 x Snare Drum & stand, 1 x Hi-Hat, 1 x Ride, 2 x Crash Cymbs, 2 x Mounted Toms, 1 x floor tom, 1 x drum throne.

Please note that NO sticks / beaters are provided

Wales Area

5 Timpani (32,30,28,28,25) & Stool

36”  Bass Drum on Cradle

Xylophone – 3.5 Octave

Glockenspiel on ‘X’ Stand

Tubular Bells 

Vibraphone 

Concert Snare Drum & Stand

Clash Cymbals 20” & Stand

Tam Tam 32” & Stand

Drum Kit comprising : 1 x Bass Drum & pedal, 1 x Snare Drum & stand, 1 x Hi-Hat, 1 x Ride, 2 x Crash Cymbs, 2 x Mounted Toms, 1 x floor tom (attached to cymbal stand) 1 x drum throne.

Tenor Drum & Stand

Tambourine on stand

Tambourine hand held

Bongos & Stand

Wood Block & Stand

Floor Tom

Triangle & Stand

2 x Tom Toms & stand

Please note that NO sticks / beaters are provided

If you have any specific queries with regards to any of the equipment provided, please feel free to give us a call on 01633 250062 or send us a message via our Facebook Page

Good luck to all bands and conductors for all the hard work that is to come over the next few weeks.

Ev-entz are getting ready for another road trip and we will once again be taking our percussion trade stand to Butlins Mineworkers Brass Band Festival this weekend, 21st and 22nd January.  As always, we will try and bring as much top quality drums, percussion and accessories with us from top brands such a Majestic, Premier, Pearl, Sabian and Yamaha to name just a few.

Our team will be there to answer your questions, and we will have everything on hand for bands as they prepare for the up and coming Regional competition test pieces. We will have exclusive trade stand deals available on the weekend, so make sure you come and chat with Adrian and Geraint, as well as Austin who will be working with Hercules Music Stands for the weekend.

If you need us to bring anything in particular this weekend, feel free to give us a call on 01633 250062 or email office@ev-entz.co.uk and we will do our very best to bring it with us.

Even if the results don't go your way on the weekend, you can rely on Ev-entz not to let you down and to give you something to smile about.

We look forward to speaking to old and new friends and wish all the competing bands the best of luck for a great performance.

As we are preparing and looking forward to another busy year at Ev-entz, we enjoyed reviewing the Top 10 Welsh Festivals in 2012 on the Visit Wales Blog.  Many of these we have been involved with for many years and a few have become really popular in recent years.  Hopefully not many of you are suffering from the January blues but if you are, this will help you plan and get excited for what 2012 has to offer.  

Check out Visit Wales website for Top 10 Festivals not to miss in 2012

Our friends Gareth Ritter and Dean Evans are looking for new members for the Ebbw Valley Brass Band, please support them.

Find out more from their feature in the South Wales Argus

Our ongoing relationship with both Cardiff Univeristy and The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama has seen us recently supply both these prestige education facilities with a range of percussion that will ensure that their music students will sound great in their many performances this year.

Cardiff Univeristy chose the excellent Majestic range available from Ev-entz when they decided to upgrade their existing percussion equipment.  We were delighted to provide them with Majestic Timpani and a Majestic Xylophone as well as stands and additional equipment.

We've loved being involved in the set-up and provision of going operational support for the Dora Stoutzker Hall over the past few months.  As part of their ongoing upgrade programme we have also had the pleasure to provide orchestral percussion equipment and stands.

Thanks to both of these educational organisations, your business in much appreciated and Ev-entz are so pleased to be supporting music education at all levels, and ensuring that students in Wales receive the best.  We look forward to witnessing your musical journey and look forward to working with you some day as professional musicians.

We've had a great first day at the Music for Youth Schools Prom at the Royal Albert Hall.  So much action and so many great performances, the standard just seems to get better and better even when we didn't think it was possible.

Check out this video highlight developed by the brilliant Laura Kidd on behalf of Music for Youth.  Check out more updates on their YouTube Channel

What's cooler than a Ukulele?  6 Ukulele's!!  Enjoy this while we get some rest for another busy day tomorrow.

Next week the majority of our crew will travel to London to take part in one of the many highlights of our year which sees 3000 young musicians perform in the most iconic concert hall in the country, The Royal Albert Hall for the Music for Youth Schools Prom.  Ev-entz will be working with our friends at MFY to produce, stage manage and crew this massive 3 day event.

We brought you many photos and videos after last year's event and hopefully we'll be able to do the same this year. We are looking forward to watching some amazing performances again this year and good luck to our friends at Gwent Music Support Service who will also be performing.

For more details of this year's event, photos and videos from last year and ticket information for the 3 day event which is held on Monday 7th November - Wednesday 9th November please visit www.mfy.org.uk/coreseason/schoolsprom  

For now enjoy watching one of the many videos taking last from last year's event by Music for Youth. 

We have recently had the pleasure of working with and supporting Sinfonia Cymru on their Autumn tour around Wales.

This is a new appointment for Ev-entz which saw us provide staging and stage management for the orchestra during their rehearsal period in Cardiff and for the 4 concert dates at the Pavillion, Llandrindod Well, Pontyberem Mermorial Hall, Newport Riverfront Theatre and the final concert at the new Dora Stoutzker Hall, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, Cardiff.

This is a fantastic orchestra which was established in 1996. The orchestra now works in partnership with the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama to support young musicians who are at the outset of their professional musical career.  Sinfonia Cymru provides the players with the necessary skills and experience which is essential for professional musicians today.  There was so much talent on display during this concert tour, all the musicians were very welcoming and friendly, and the tour had a wonderful reception from audiences at all venues.  Concert tour details:

Conductor Gareth Jones

Soloist Llyr Williams

Programme:

Haydn Symphony No.83 in Gminor

Mozart Piano concerto no.27 in Bb major

Dag Wiren Serenade for strings

Haydn symphony 85 in Bb major

We are pleased that we could provide our services to such a great orchestra and hopefully we will work together on other projects in the not too distant future.  For more details about the orchestra and when you can see them next please visit www.sinfoniacymru.co.uk

After an exceptionally busy few months which has seen Ev-entz travel the length of the UK, we have some great news that we are delighted to finally tell you about.

With the continued growth of our retail business and with the great reception that our new online retail site has had, we are delighted that we have been granted main dealer status by Besson and Yamaha Brass & Woodwind.  This great news means that from November we will now hold an increased stock of Besson instruments, we will have Cornets and Horns in stock within a matter of days, why not arrange a time to pop in and give them a try in our sound proof practice facility?  Give us a call today on 01633 250062 to arrange a time.   For our Woodwind musicians we are expecting immediate delivery of a range of Buffet Clarinets and Flutes, as well as speedy delivery on any other instrument in the range.  

Managing Director, Adrian Evans said "I am delighted that Besson has recognised the capabilities of Ev-entz and the loyal customer base that we are constantly developing.  I am very grateful for the ongoing support of our valued customers and delighted to be currently the only main dealer for Besson in South Wales."

For several years we have been main dealers of Yamaha Percussion and we are now delighted to have the same status for their Brass and Woodwind divisions also. Immediate delivery is expected for a range of student and professional range Brass and Woodwind instruments, which are again available for you to try out and purchase directly from us.   For more information on the great deals that we will be able to offer, give us a call on 01633 250062 or email office@ev-entz.co.uk

We thought we'd share with you a recent video that was taken by Besson when our friends from Cory Band visited their factory in France earlier in the year to pick out their new Besson Prestige Cornets and Courtois Flugel Horn.

Please keep in touch, with the countdown to Christmas now under way, please visit our website and Facebook page regularly for some great gift ideas.  What better gift can you give than the gift of music?  Speak to us today and we'll make sure you how everything you need.

Besson Instruments

Yamaha Brass and Woodwind