Brass in Concert Results
Pictures courtesy of 4barsrest.com
The Brass in Concert Championships took place on Sunday (20th November). The contest has left its traditional home of Spennymoor for the new venue of The Sage in Gateshead. This new venue is a fantastic concert hall and its facilities are second to none. The new venue has been very favourably received by bands and audiences alike. The adjudicators for what is the premier entertainment contest in the country were Nigel Boddice and Dr. Goff Richards judging the music; Stan Lippeat and Simone Rebello judging the entertainment aspect of the performance; and Nicholas Hudson judging the soloists. With Gateshead just over the border, interest in this contest from Scotland is understandably quite high. It?s not every day you get eleven top class bands playing concert programmes virtually on your doorstep. Amongst those eleven bands were Scotlands ?old firm? of Whitburn and Scottish Co-op.
In the contest itself Whitburn gave a very commanding performance with a programme from the pen of their MD Andrew Duncan. They opened with the overture ?Taras Bulba? and followed this up with a fine arrangement of ?When She Loved Me? which featured some excellent flugel playing from James Chamberlain. The programme continued with the march ?Duke of Cambridge? followed by an arrangement of the traditional Scots song ?The Water is Wide? which included some fine playing from the solo cornets. The band featured their percussion section in ?A Caledonian Fanfare? and rounded off their programme with ?Peterloo Overture?.
Scotlands second representative was the Scottish Co-op Band under the baton of Allan Ramsay. The band opened their programme with the march ?Keighley Moor? which won them the award for Best march of the day. Unfortunately for them their next number ?Fnugg Blue? suffered from some technical problems with some electronic effects which didn?t work on the day. The band continued their programme with ?Mid All The Traffic? and followed this up with an outstanding performance of ?Bolivar? from solo trombone Paul Kiernan which was unlucky not to win the soloist prize. The band then produced a good performance of ?Glorifico Aeternum? before rounding off their programme with ?Finale From Daphnes and Chloe?.
Whitburn band were awarded sixth place although many observers though that unlucky. The Scottish Co-op band were awarded seventh place which was about right on the day. The contest was won for the fifth time on the trot by the Grimethorpe Colliery (UK Coal) band under the baton of Richard Evans. They were followed by Brighouse & Rastrick (James Gourlay), making their debut here, in second place and the BAYV Band (Dr Robert Childs) in third place.
