24th May 2009 - International Masters
Adjudicators: Steve Sykes, Ronald Holz, Derek Broadbent
Test Piece: Masters of Space and Time, Bruce Broughton
Venue: Corn Exchange, Cambridge
The band had been rehearsing the Masters test piece alongside their preparations for the Grand Shield, mainly by running through half of the piece at the end of a rehearsal. This wasn’t ideal, but did give us a flavour of the piece before we settled down to rehearse properly in the two week gap between the Grand Shield and this contest.
Unfortunately, preparations were blighted by several incidents along the motorway network, leading to many band members being late for rehearsals or in some cases not being able to fight their way through the traffic to attend.
The piece was very percussion-heavy, requiring some crotales, something we’d never needed before. We ended up hiring some, as at one stage they weren’t even being provided on stage at the contest – we thought we’d need to take them on with us. The piece wasn’t a usual test piece, with no solos around the band, and an ending only marked at forte. It took a while for it to grow on some members of the band!
On the day before the contest the band travelled down to Cambridge and checked into a brand new Premier Inn that had only been open three weeks. They didn’t stay long however, soon departing for a final rehearsal at our usual school venue. We were happy with our preparation for the contest and were performing the piece well, although it would have been useful to have had a few more well attended rehearsals just to polish the piece.
On returning to the hotel we had (apparently) booked the restaurant between 9pm and 10pm for the band, but things didn’t work out very well with some band members not getting their food until 10:30pm.
We were up bright and early for breakfast at 7am the next morning ready to leave for rehearsal at 7:40. As always with this contest we had drawn in the first third of the contest and so would be assured for a draw before 9th. We rehearsed in the scout hut as normal, with very little percussion, and then waited for the draw. When it came we were drawn fifth, just after Fodens, the favourite for the contest.
We set of for the hall, got changed, and then took the stage for our performance. We were happy with our performance, but there were a few uncharacteristic slips around the band. We did however feel that the band sound shone through and that some of the other bands played the ending much louder than it was written.
The full results of the contest were:
1. Fodens Richardson, Garry Cutt, 4
2. Desford Colliery, Jason Katsikaris, 18
3. Wingates, John Hinckley, 16
4. Bedwas Trethomas and Machen (BTM), Tom Davoren, 11
5. Brass Band Willebroek, Frans Violet, 1
6. Virtuosi GUS, John Berryman, 7
7. Carlton Main Frickley Colliery, Russell Gray, 14
8. Reg Vardy, Nicholas Childs, 12
9. Aveley and Newham, Nigel Taken, 8
10. Rothwell Temperance, David Roberts, 5
11. Metropole Brass Band, Guy Audenaert, 9
12. Brass Band Buizingen, Luc Vertommen, 6
13. Sovereign Brass, Jason Glyn, 17
14. Pemberton Old Wigan JJB, Mark Bentham, 10
15. Redbridge, Jeremy Wise, 3
16. 1st Old Boys Association Silver, Stephen Cairns, 15
17. Zone One, Richard Ward, 2
18. Jaguar (Coventry), David Lea, 13
The band would like to thank the players who helped them out at this contest:
- Anthony Thompson for covering the repiano seat for this contest.
- Tim Hammond for playing on the front row.
- Andy White for covering second trombone again.
- Dai Hale who travelled up from Wales once more.
- Tim Whaley for helping out on percussion.
- Shaun Crowther for helping out on Eb Bass.
The band have pulled out of the English Nationals, which allows us some much needed time on concert pieces and the ability to do a recording for BBC Radio 2’s Listen To The Band programme. Our next contest will be the British Open in September with the new piece Titan’s Progress by Hermann Pallhuber.
Tim Sawyer
Percussion
9th June 2009
