Historic double for Tullis Russell bands
Tullis Russell recorded a historic double on Saturday at the Scottish Brass Band championships which were held in the concert hall in Perth, early in the day the Tullis Russell Mills Band conducted by Paul Drury took the tile of second section Scottish Champions with a blistering performance of Michael Balls "Chaucer's Tunes" with the adjudicators on the day Alan Morrison and David Read both agreeing that the mill bands performance was way the best on the day which gave them a 2 point winning margin over the rest of the field. The win has earned the band an invitation to represent Scotland at the national finals in Cheltenham in September, and the band were also invited to represent Scotland at the European Brass Band B Championships which are coming to Scotland in May and will feature the best brass bands from all over Europe in what will be one of the biggest brass band events ever in Scotland. This unique double has never been achieved before in the history of Scottish brass bands with two senior bands gaining major honours at the same
Tullis Russell Intermediate Band
The second part of the double came later on Saturday night when the Tullis Russell Intermediate Band conducted by Steven Craig won the title of third section Scottish Champions playing the very difficult piece "Partita, postcards from home" by Philip Wilby. The all English adjudicating team of Stan Lippeatt and Alan Morrison were both unanimous in their decision the Tullis Russell Intermediate Band had produced by far the best performance of the day to win the Champions title. As well as winning the contest the solo horn player from the Intermediate Band Joanne Koizel also won the prize for being the best instrumentalist in the contest. The Tullis Russell Intermediate Band will also be invited to represent Scotland in the third section at the UK finals the Centaur Centre at Cheltenham race course in September.
"big bus needed"
The band management team were over the moon on Saturday night with the celebrations going well into the night but now comes the planning on how to get both bands to the finals. The Tullis Russell band manager said "this will be massive logistical project and one that will require a great deal of planning and fund raising, but it's a problem that the band management team are very happy to have". With over 60 players in total, instruments and percussion we are going to need "a big bus to get down to Cheltenham".
Promotion
The win for both bands comes after many weeks of hard preparations by both conductors with all the players giving up countless hours to attend rehearsals as well as individual home practise. Both bands will enjoy the year as Scottish Champions knowing full well that even more work will be required in the future as both bands will now be promoted up a league with the Mills Band going into the first section of Scottish banding and the Intermediate Band who are not yet 3 years old going into the second section.
