colin harris

I have moved home/office to:

Ferndale House
Radcliffe
Northumberland
NE65 0JB

No landline yet, so please contact me via mobile on 0792 115 1148

Work: at the moment I am constructing a large-scale e-commerce shop and Cannock Gates and an online video branding/accounts system for Tvbuz, as well as some CMS projects for private clients.

Today Backworth Colliery Band achieved a great first position at the annual DCBBA grading contest, held at Peterlee Leisure Centre.

The band, drawn 2nd, played "St. Andrews Variations", an original test piece by Alan Fernie. In remarks from adjudicator Colin Hardy, the band were rewarded for good style and dynamics, with several band members singled out for praise. Special praise was also reserved for Natalie, who due to illness was a last-minute call-up to the Principal Cornet seat and did a great job considering the short notice.

Backworth gained three awards, the award for winning the section, an award for being the best basses heard during the whole of the morning's contest, and a trophy for the winning conductor, Colin Harris. The result is also one that should see the band promoted for 2009.

In a day of many firsts, 4 members of the band made their debut (from left to right, Michael, Stuart, [Colin], Marc and Sam).

Michael has been a part-time member of the band for a while and volunteered to help out at today's contest, his first. Stuart and Marc are new recruits and two of the most talented young brass players in the North East, and we are very fortunate to have them in our ranks. Indeed Marc has only been with the band a couple of weeks but played what is a very tricky Repiano part. Sam is a student at Newcastle University and has joined the band from his root in Immingham on the East Coast.

Colin with members of the prize-winning bass section.

A big thanks goes to all those involved in helping the band prepare for this contest, including Duncan Beckley, the Reg Vardy soloists and Alan Fernie, all of whom have played a part in preparing us for the contest alongside our conductor Colin.

The band are new busy preparing for the Christmas concert season, and today's result was good preparation for the Butlins Contest at Skegness in January.

Aww it's been a while since I posted anything of Abi.

For those of you who don't know, Lisa and I have separated and Abi is now living with her mammy in Amble. But I make sure when I see Abi we always go on an adventure.

Last week we went to town on the bus ("big green bus or little green bus") to see the new Pixar film "Wall-e". I went through the films on with her and she picked the one with "The Robot".

We had a great time, she loved it (although she fell asleep within the last five minutes of the film!) and topped it off with a trip to Nandos ("Can I have chips and corn-on-the-coff?").

It's days like this that make you realise why we do it all in the first place.

PS Wall-E is a brilliant film, go and see it now! The only problem is I've now got Hello Dolly running through my head.

http://www.4barsrest.com/news/detail.asp?world=uki&id=8308

I'm very proud to say my arrangement of "Geordie" tunes, A Geordie Songbook, has won the NRBBT arrangers contest for 2008.

The £300 prize was very welcome, and I have spent the money on a shiny new laptop, as I'm doing a lot of remote working these days (more about that coming soon).

If you want to have a listen to it, it is on my listen to me page, Page 2.

It has inspired me to restart my brass band writing career, I'm currently doing two commissions (both solos) and have an eye on a march I've had in my head for a while. Watch this space.

Couple of recent go-lives:

A 6-site project that has been 18 months in the making; the final 4 site have finally gone live. The new branding for BHP Law and associated companies required 6 new sites plus a whole new CMS system to edit them all from a single source. The CMS system includes many items such as page editing, module editing, profiles, downloads and news.

www.bhplaw.co.uk
www.bhpsport.co.uk
www.bhpfinancial.co.uk
www.bhpdevelop.co.uk

I have also HTML'd and CSS'd a site for my good friend Elaine who specialises in wedding stationary.

bespoke wedding stationery