National Championships of Great Britain - 2008 - Qualifying Bands - Second Section

[Di]

National Brass Band Championships

Sunday 28th September 2008

International Conference Centre, Harrogate







Results courtest www.4barsrest.com

[glen miler]

When is the test piece announced??

[michellegarbutt]

beginning of June

[Di]

Going on previous years, next weeks Bandsman probably.

[Roger Thorne]

Results - courtesy of 4BR

Test Piece:
Rhapsodic Variations - My Strength, My Tower - Dean Goffin

Adjudicators:
Jim Davies and Peter Roberts

Results:

1. Point of Ayr, Michael Fowles, 16, 188
2. Wardle and Anderson District Brass, Sean Conway, 6, 187
3. Barton Town, Richard Evans, 2, 186
4. YBS Concert Brass, Ian Craddock, 4, 184
5. Tylorstown, Gary Davies, 1, 183
6. City of Coventry, Stephen Cooper, 7, 182
7. Haslingden and Helmshore, David Holland, 10, 181
8. Bristol East and Kingswood, Roy Curran, 12, 180
9. Slaithwaite, Barry Hudson, 15, 179
10. Johnstone, Ray Tennant, 9, 178
11. Alder Valley, Roger Burke, 11, 177
12. Campbletown Brass, Craig Anderson, 5, 176
13. Shrewton Silver, Michael Dunford, 14, 175
14. Harborough, Chris Groom, 3, 174
15. Murton Colliery, Dennis Noble, 8, 173
16. Epsom & Ewell, Ted Howard, 13, 172

Best instrumentalist:
Solo cornet: Wardle and Anderson District Brass

[Masterblaster jnr]

Well done to Point of Ayr and Mike Fowles, a band on the up and hopefully a nationals qualifier next year too

[cornetgirl]

Wooooot! Back after a long day and pleased with our result! Well done Barton and everyone who took part!!
Rach x

[the shed builder]

Well done to Point of Ayr and Mike Fowles, a band on the up and hopefully a nationals qualifier next year too

thanks masterblaster jnr. can i second that? super human effort by mike fowles and the band this last week...... the hard work paid off. i have to say that this is a brilliantly run contest with some fabulous backstage staff! as a perc player i have to say thanks to ray payne who makes life so easy for us all by supplying top notch equipment making this an even more enjoyable event. top marks to everyone involved!

[DMBabe]

Well done yourselves! Tojo kept me informed throughout the day! Amazed you all hadn't slipped into a coma with that draw so doubly well done!!!!!!

[Ali Woodman]

Firstly well done to the prizewinners, sounds like the adjudicators picked out the best performances which is how it should be. Didn't hear any bands due to a late draw but most people had Point of Ayr first, congrats to them.

Secondly, this is the second year in a row I have played at Harrogate (last year with a 3rd section band), and I cannot think of another contest I have ever played at that has a worse atmosphere or general feel of 'nothing going on' than the this one.

The acoustic is absolutely dire, the audience non-exisitant, and the whole place is a just a sterile conference venue just not suited to any form of music.

The band I was helping out (Bristol East and Kingswood) travelled over 200 miles, spent thousands, for a weekend to play at approx 6.45 on a sunday night to one man and his dog. On top of that, we then have to sit through 20 minutes of repetitive euphonium tricks (great playing but not my cup of tea), then the contest promotors, sponsors etc thanking everyone over and over again, and finally some over camp guy making jokes about his black trainers.....somebody shoot me!!!!!

Obviously some bands had already gone home, and I don't blame you. They really need to source another venue where they can have two sections playing at the same time so they can finish at a reasonable time.

Also, why was it free to go in and listed to David Childs, but not to any of the competing bands. Perhaps they realised he would of also being playing to nobody.

By the way, these are my personal views and not related to the band I played for.

One big pat on the back to Ray Payne who supplied the Percussion...fantastic, great kit and couldn't do enough for us.

Am I being over critical? What do you think?

[Chris Hicks]

I personally think the confrence centre is far to big for the nationals. I've played there 3 times now this year in the 1st section, last year in the 2nd section and 3 years ago in the 3rd section!

Not once has the hall even been half full!

Yesterday for the first section i think there was at least 1/4 of empty seats for the results!

It just to big a hall! Time for a change i think!

chris

[cornetgirl]

We had similar issues off number 2 - lots of empty seats and no atmosphere. I've played in the place a lot thanks to years with Harrogate and also in previous incarnations in other musical ensembles and know it's a weird acoustic but it's so much nicer with a half-full house, believe me!

[critic]

Firstly well done to the prizewinners, sounds like the adjudicators picked out the best performances which is how it should be. Didn't hear any bands due to a late draw but most people had Point of Ayr first, congrats to them.

Secondly, this is the second year in a row I have played at Harrogate (last year with a 3rd section band), and I cannot think of another contest I have ever played at that has a worse atmosphere or general feel of 'nothing going on' than the this one.

The acoustic is absolutely dire, the audience non-exisitant, and the whole place is a just a sterile conference venue just not suited to any form of music.

The band I was helping out (Bristol East and Kingswood) travelled over 200 miles, spent thousands, for a weekend to play at approx 6.45 on a sunday night to one man and his dog. On top of that, we then have to sit through 20 minutes of repetitive euphonium tricks (great playing but not my cup of tea), then the contest promotors, sponsors etc thanking everyone over and over again, and finally some over camp guy making jokes about his black trainers.....somebody shoot me!!!!!

Obviously some bands had already gone home, and I don't blame you. They really need to source another venue where they can have two sections playing at the same time so they can finish at a reasonable time.

Also, why was it free to go in and listed to David Childs, but not to any of the competing bands. Perhaps they realised he would of also being playing to nobody.

By the way, these are my personal views and not related to the band I played for.

One big pat on the back to Ray Payne who supplied the Percussion...fantastic, great kit and couldn't do enough for us.

Am I being over critical? What do you think?

No ithink you make some good points. at times the announcer is a embarrasment. and yes the acoustic is not the best

[themusicalrentboy]

Harrogate is an awful venue.

it's at least twice as big as it should be, when you're playing on stage you can only hear the two or three people around you, the sponsors and corporate people take far too much time over their 'speech' before the results - not realising that some bands have been there for the weekend and have been waiting most of the day to play and the rest have been drinking and so couldn't give two hoots about some man in an expensive suit who wants to very publicly thank everyone but at the same time stress it was Kapitol who put in all the hard work.

It is poorly thought out - everything is expensive in Harrogate, and to make you pay the prices for everything and THEN charge you some monstrous fee to listen to your own section is not only daylight robbery but complete and utter stupidity. If bandsman's tickets were issued then there would be more people in the hall to listen to everyone else - if I remember rightly in 2006 there were about 10 people in the hall all the way through the day for the first section which is frankly pathetic.

it is possibly the most sterile, almost certainly the most expensive and definitely the most inappropriate venue for the lower section finals.

[Space Cowboy]

I have to agree with Ali Woodman.

It was my first time at Harrogate yesterdy and I thought the hall was just too big and the day too long.

Of the venues I know I would use the Concert Hall and Theatre at the Royal Northern College of Music which seat appx 400 and 600 respectively compared to 1900 in Harrogate. Perhaps more importantly both have good accoustics. It would also mean 2 sections could run at the same time thus shortening the day. I would also be surprised if it's dearer to hire than the Harrogate Hall.