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17th October 2009 - National Finals (Championship Section)Adjudicators: Derek Broadbent, David King, David Read After our victory at the Yorkshire Area in March, we qualified for the National Finals at the Albert Hall in October. Black Dyke and Carlton Main had prequalified for this year’s contest after coming in the top four in 2008, whilst Hepworth made up the fourth band from Yorkshire after their runners up We had a couple of players unavailable for this contest. Following Rich Golding’s move to do a teaching course, the Flugel seat was taken by Steve Clayton. Andy Marsh, our principal Euphonium, unfortunately had to spend a month in Japan with work, and the original intention was that Morgan Griffiths would take his seat. However, Morgan moved jobs and was forced to work on the Saturday of the contest. Mark Bousie stepped in to help out. The piece, The Torchbearer, was a new commission by Peter Graham, which consisted of variations on Eric Ball themes. This resulted in an audience-friendly piece, with many tuneful sections, including quotes from High Peak. It was based around the Salvation Army march Torchbearers. At one of our last rehearsals, the day before we left for London, Andy Riley fell over a small wall at our rehersal venue and went sprawing in a heap in the floor. He was fine apart from an ache in his shoulder, but he unfortunately hit Rhianon’s ankle on the way through. Rhianon tore a ligament and ended up doing the contest on crutches! We took two buses down the M1 to London, containing over 50 supporters. Many more joined us at the hall on the day, taking the number to over 70. Mark Bousie had to travel down by train after work. He got into a taxi at a tube station to go to the hotel and, after a journey of about 50 yards, was presented with a bill for £2.50. He wasn’t impressed! On the day of the contest we were up bright and early for breakfast at 7.00am, and then we travelled a short distance on the bus to our rehearsal venue in Chelsea. We shared this will The Co-operative Funeralcare band from Scotland, and whilst they were upstairs we were downstairs. Unfortunately Jayne Thompson, one of our back row cornets, developed a problem with her cornet during the rehearsal, and this resulted in one of the valves not working. After a quick phone call to some supporters in the hall, we were able to borrow a cornet from the Band Supplies trade stand. We send our thanks to them for helping us out! After a short rehearsal the draw came through and it was excellent. We were drawn second to last, well away from the top bands in the contest, who were mostly in the first half. We were about to return back to our hotel to set up for a later rehearsal when a representative from the Co-Op band came down to ask if we could give them a lift to the hall. They had drawn number one, and as they had flown down from Scotland, they didn’t have a bus. Their intention was to get taxis to the hall, but our being there provided them with an alternative. We were happy to oblige and most of their band piled on to our coach for the short journey to the hall. We then returned to the hotel. We were to meet back at 2pm, and the players then went their separate ways – some to bed, some for a late breakfast, and others into the hall to listen. Our performance went really well. From the first note to the soloists, all went well and the performance was perhaps the best we had played the piece. Conductor David Roberts certainly enjoyed it and the noise the audience made at the end was remarkable. We were expecting our supporters to be noisy but it was clear that the majority of people in the hall had enjoyed it too. Back in the hall, I was surprised to be stopped in the corridor by a couple of people who wanted to say thanks for our performance. “Your performance was really, really good” said one, whilst another said that our performance “made it worthwhile listening to the last ten”. The band was in for the results and was very happy to be placed fourth, pre-qualifying for the contest again next year. The full results of the contest were: 1. Black Dyke, Dr. Nicholas Childs (draw 5) This is an excellent result for the band, our best ever at this contest, which further confirms the band is still improving. Thanks to:
Three concerts next, then our first appearance at Brass In Concert at The Sage, Gateshead. Tim Sawyer |