Two major catastrophes almost stopped the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert at Sutton Town Hall going ahead last Sunday. Fortunately, the Orchestra managed to pull something out of the fire. Less fortunately, this was literally the case. Two weeks before the concert, the storeroom where the BPO keeps its sheet music was broken into and set alight. A lot of the music went up in flames, including much of that on the programme for the Sutton concert. Only two pieces from the original programme were saved. An emergency meeting was called and the Orchestra proposed a new programme, to which organisers the Town Hall Users’ Group agreed - the show must go on, as they say. Then, eight days before the concert, the BPO Concert Band’s conductor Michael Syrett was taken ill and rushed into hospital. Rather than risk cancelling the engagement the band’s principal horn player, Martyn Jones, agreed to pick up the baton and the concert could finally go ahead. Relieved organisers pronounced the concert ‘a huge success’. The programme took in a variety of pieces from films and stage musicals, a crowd-pleasing selection of Glenn Miller favourites, and finished with a barnstorming rendition of ‘633 Squadron’. Bill Stableford of the Town Hall Users’ Group said: “The band played magnificently. “Martyn is well-known in Sutton Coldfield. He immediately built up a strong rapport with the audience and conducted with skill and brilliance. “The band lived up to the orchestra’s reputation as being one of the country’s leading non-professional orchestras and deserved the rapturous applause from the full-house audience.” | 
