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7th March 2004 - Yorkshire Area (Championship)Adjudicators: Roy Roe & David Read This year’s piece for the Area was much more challenging for percussion than last year’s, so much so that we opted to play four percussionists rather than our normal three. The music was also easier on the ear, more tuneful than last year’s Prague. The band as a whole enjoyed rehearsing for this contest much more than last year. The band has had many player changes since the previous contest season, but we were very confident that the players we now had would perform well on stage. The band went into the contest with a fifth standing according to the results from the two previous years. (2003 + 2004 = total) Brighouse & Rastrick 3 + 1 = 4 We were therefore surprised when the 4 Bars Rest predictions didn’t have us anywhere. They had predicted Hepworth for sixth, Sellers fifth, then the big four top. This was the second time that they failed to feature us in their predictions when recent results showed that we should have been up there. Rehearsals started, as always, early in the year, with a full day rehearsal at a school in Ilkley early in February. The band then had a short run in to the contest, with extra rehearsals in the two weeks before. Our fourth percussionist, Rachel Maguire, is an old friend of the band who studied Percussion at Leeds University before departing for a Master’s Degree in Texas. Due to the fact that Rachel was currently living in London, the band did not get to hear her contribution until a couple of days before the contest. We met on Contest day at 1pm, had a short blow and then waited for the draw. When the draw finally came through, we had drawn twelfth, which was excellent. The band then went their separate ways and met back at 5pm. Many of the band members went to watch Leeds and Castleford playing each other at Rugby, while others drifted off to the pub for some food. The band then met back in time for another short warm up before getting changed and leaving on the bus for Bradford. We set up the percussion equipment we required, and then waited until it was time to register and play. Two members of the band were ushered upstairs carrying percussion equipment, and completely forgot to sign on. Luckily this was discovered and they were escorted back downstairs to do so. We had been informed at the draw that the four minute rule (where percussion only have four minutes to set their equipment up) did not apply, yet the officials behind the stage had not been informed of this, and disputed what we said. They told us that Black Dyke could do it in four minutes, and so we should be able to too. This was quite annoying, and did not exactly help us attain the right frame of mind to perform to our best. We were helped with our set-up time by the fact that we had to wait for the Lord Mayor to cross the stage, and so Ray Payne and his team were able to move the large percussion before we entered the stage. We were almost ready and Dave Roberts was looking to the percussionists for them to indicate they were ready. Three of us were, but Rich on timps was still tuning up. He then almost signalled to start when he realised he didn’t have his music. Once that was sorted we settled down to play. The performance was excellent, with only a couple of minor blips. The soloists performed well, especially Paul on soprano cornet, and the band had an excellent sound. After playing we returned the equipment to the coach and then went our separate ways. Some of the band settled down to listen to the two remaining performances, from YBS and Skelmanthorpe, whilst others retired to the bar. YBS put in an excellent band performance, though I was disappointed with the percussion, where it seemed to me that the player on Tom-Toms was simplifying his part, and the snare drum player put a cymbal in the wrong place. First up to speak after the contest was the Lord Mayor. He was a golf fan who didn’t really understand brass bands. He seemed impressed with the standard, but wondered if other bands around the country were at this level or better. Martin Ellerby dared to correct him and pointed out that the playing was of the very highest standard. The adjudicators were up next, and spoke about how they were unhappy with the quality of some of the solo playing during the contest, and rewarded bands whos soloists had played cleanly. The final results were as follows: 1. Yorkshire Building Society (14,197 points) 7. Pennine Brass (10, 185 points) This was a good result for us, cementing our position near the top of the pile, but still below the big four bands. It is interesting to note that the top six bands coming into the contest (as per the rankings above) were placed in the top six places in the contest. The band would like to thank Dave Giblin, Anthony Thompson and Rachel Maguire for helping us out, and enduring lots of travelling in the process. The new placings for next year are as follows: (2002 + 2003 + 2004 = New Total) Brighouse & Rastrick 3 + 1 + 3 = 7 These results seem to imply that Imps, plus Chapeltown Silver and Knottingley Silver will be relegated, though the latter two have just come up from the first section anyway. These totals now seem to indicate two tiers of bands, with Brighouse, Grimethorpe, YBS, Dyke, Sellers and Rothwell Temperance at the top, with up to 17 points, followed by a big gap to Hepworth and the rest with 25+ points. This sets things up for a very competitive Grand Shield in May, with three places at the British Open on offer. With Travelsphere winning the Midlands area, and Sellers also involved, it should prove to be a very interesting contest day. Tim Sawyer |