19th September 2004 - British Open
Adjudicators: David Read, Michael Ball, Philip Sparke
Test Piece: Contest Music, Wilfred Heaton
Venue: Symphony Hall, Birmingham
This is the first time the band had been invited to this contest, and we came to be here due to our second placing at this year’s Grand Shield (contest report). This topped an excellent run for the band, reaching the top British contest only 20 years after starting out as a junior band.
The previous Rothwell Temperance Band (see history pages) first played in the Open in 1928, and were placed 6th on Lorenzo. Martin Roberts, a couple of generations back from our existing conductor David Roberts, played with the band on this occasion. The band also played there in 1947, by special invitation due to their successful reputation at Belle Vue. The test piece was Henry V, and David’s father, Gordon Roberts, played solo Euph on that occasion.
This year’s contest had a choice of three test pieces. We could choose from St. Magnus, by Kenneth Downie, Montage by Peter Graham or Contest Music by Wilfred Heaton. St. Magnus was the current set test at the recent European Championships, and so had already been played by the biggest bands such as YBS and BAYV Cory, and was a very difficult piece. We opted for Contest Music, as did the majority of other bands in the contest.
In the lead-up to the contest, I caught a stomach bug and initially refused to travel to Birmingham, before being guilted into it by the band. Unfortunately on the way down (thankfully not on the coach) my other half, Sharon, went down with the same bug, so the weekend would turn into one of little sleep and even more pressure than usual, the last thing needed on a contest weekend!
The band travelled down on the Friday evening, and had a rehearsal in The Conservatoire near the hotel. They then went their separate ways before turning in to bed. Unfortunately I spent most of that evening and the rest of the night dealing with Sharon being very ill, and I got very little sleep. I wasn’t in a fit state to play before I left Leeds and certainly was not by the time Saturday morning came around! I went down for breakfast in a daze, having had about a couple of hours sleep, and had a bowl of cereal. I then bought some water, taking it back to the ill person before organizing a late checkout from my room, so Sharon could sleep on undisturbed, and then getting on the coach to travel to the rehearsal.
When we got to the rehearsal room we found out it was occupied by Grimethorpe’s instruments, as they had rehearsed there the night before. With some good natured banter we cleared them off up the corridor to where they were supposed to be today before settling down to play the piece a little. It felt good to me to be able to play with the band again, having not been able to attend the last few rehearsals. When the draw came through we were very pleased with it, as many of the big bands were towards the start of the draw, and we were towards the end. We also had a band playing a different piece just before us, and so we thought this would also be a plus. We decided to meet back at 11:30, and the band went their separate ways again. I gave my tickets to a supporter who didn’t have one, and then took the ten minute walk back up to the hotel to see how Sharon was.
We returned at 11:30, some members in a rush as they thought they would be late, to find than most of the 'band officials’ (you know, the ones that shout at you when you’re late!) were not back yet. It took them another fifteen minutes to arrive, in time for some mild abuse. They had decided that we should meet back later and so we dispersed again, and I returned back to the hotel, making another two ten minute walks through Birmingham that I could have done without. (Someone could have rung me, whinge, moan).
We came back again at 12:40, had a short rehearsal of the start, and got on the bus for the trip up the road to the hall. We arrived at the wrong end, and were directed around the other side by a security guard, and finally found our way in. We were waiting outside the changing rooms for the previous band to take their equipment away, when Rich (one of our percussionists) realised that he had left his shirt on the bus. He had to run back out of the hall, find the bus and retrieve his shirt, but managed to get back in time. We then went down into the bowels of the hall to get changed, before registering. At registration Rich (yep, same bloke) realised that he had left the bass drum sticks in the changing room, so once again we sent him back to get them, and continued despairing about his organizational skills. From here we moved into a warm-up room where we were able to play without disturbing anyone else. The organisation at this contest is fantastic, with excellent facilities and the staff seem to be there to genuinely help out the bands, rather than just increase their stress level as happens at some other contests! Only thing missing I could see was a pre-draw, we could have had a lie in!
Once half the band (seemed like it anyway!) had visited the toilets we moved on up to watch the previous band take the applause before we moved in to set the stage up. Contest Music is a very simple piece for percussion and so this didn’t take long. We then left the stage again before being applauded on stage as a complete band. This is also helpful, as there is no intense pressure to set the percussion up and get playing, which again contributes to reducing the amount of stress involved.
We were very pleased with our performance, we pulled of much of what we had rehearsed, with only the occasional wrong note detracting from the overall picture. 4barsrest wrote:
1. A brisk opening with nice contrasts. Well done cornets in high register but the ensemble wavers in places. Now the clips emerge. Last note spoils a decent opening section.
2. Nicely balanced opening but as it unfolds the entries are untidy. Not all the solo lines are convincing and the euph sounds forced.
3. Messy opening section. There’s a nice momentum to the playing but the ensemble is not convincing. Well done basses. Strident cornet sounds now and there’s that compound feel again. Tam-tam very loud! A well measured end to a creditable debut.
I was by this point feeling even more exhausted and got changed, and returned to Sharon at the hotel. We then took a taxi to the station, waited an hour for a train back up north and finally got home to Leeds about half seven. Hopefully, none of the rest of the band have caught the bug we had, but if they do, it’s all Dave’s fault!!
The results of the contest were as follows: (piece, draw in brackets)
1. Foden’s Richardson (Contest Music, 12) 2. Buy As You View (St Magnus, 2) 3. Scottish Co-op (St Magnus, 18) 4. Kirkintilloch (Montage, 16) 5. Sellers International (Montage, 13) 6. Black Dyke (Montage, 6) 7. Desford Colliery (Contest Music, 17) 8. Reg Vardy (Ever Ready) (St Magnus, 19) 9. Grimethorpe Colliery UK Coal (Contest Music, 9) 10. Dalewool Auckland (NZ) (Montage, 4) 11. Brighouse & Rastrick (Contest Music, 5) 12. Fairey FP (Music) (Contest Music, 11) 13. Whitburn (Contest Music, 10) 14. Yorkshire Building Society (Contest Music, 8) 15. Rothwell Temperance (Contest Music, 14) 16. Cwmaman Institute Silver (Tower Colliery) (Montage, 1) 17. Yorkshire Imperial Urquhart Travel (Contest Music, 3) 18. Carlton Main Frickley Colliery (Contest Music, 7) 19. Tredegar (St Magnus, 15)The band now have a busy run in to the Swiss / European Open next weekend.
Thanks to:
- Anthony Thompson for once again helping out of the front row
- Steven “warmup” Haynes for stepping in to cover the principal trombone position now Will is in Chicago
- Glyn and Jayne Thompson (no relation to Anthony) for giving us a lift down to Birmingham and carting the percussion gear to the various rehearsal rooms (we’ll buy you some more kitchen roll).
Tim Sawyer
Percussion
Very Tired
19th September 2004
“Air is your friend”
