Another FIRE alarm during perfomance

[alks]

I've just been on the phone to some quite upset Bendix Kingswod players who seem to have suffered badly at the west of england areas.
Apparently, the fire alarm went of half way through their performance and the building had to be evacuated.
When they came back they had to re-do the last movement they had nearly completed. Obviously they were in no condition to perform with all the mayhem. No mention at the end of the contest either --they ended up last but 1.
Should bands be expected to go straight back on stage after such an interuption? maybe they should get to play at the end to re-compose themselves? It hardly seams fair to me.

Alks

 

[P. Sanderson]

This apparently also happened at the Northern area contest.

We also had this happen at our Annual contest one year at scarboro and we gave the band the choice of where they restarted their programme for this purpose. In the event they made the choice of starting the movement that was interupted.

 

[Tromgod]

We were waiting to go on stage after them when the alarm went off. I can appreciate that it must have been very difficult for them to continue after the disruption. We were sent out of the building then told to come straight back in, the go out again, then in etc. There was a lot of confusion.

 

[Cornishwomble]

We were waiting to go on stage after them when the alarm went off. I can appreciate that it must have been very difficult for them to continue after the disruption. We were sent out of the building then told to come straight back in, the go out again, then in etc. There was a lot of confusion.

Didn't do you any harm though! :lol:

 

[Tromgod]

True, true - can't complain!

 

[Nik_The_Insane]

Didn't do you any harm though! :lol:

Slightly different though, waiting to go on stage, rather than being sat on stage.

In my opinion I think Bendix should have been allowed to either restart the piece from the start, or been pulled off completely and been alowed to restart from a different draw number.

 

[alks]

Worse still, a member of the band tells me that it is likely that they will be relegated becuase of this. Double the punishment.
Seams to me that no thought has been put into resolving problems like this. Organisers need to get their act together.

And who added the word 'another' to the title of this thread?

Alks

 

[Straightmute]

Seams to me...

Are you saying they were stitched up?

Correct procedures are in place. The band is given the choice of starting again or continuing from where they left off.

D

 

[geordiecolin]

Perhaps there's a gang of contest saboteurs going around??!! Al Qaeda related perhaps?? :lol: :lol: (sorry couldn't resist!)

 

[Nik_The_Insane]

Are you saying they were stitched up?

Correct procedures are in place. The band is given the choice of starting again or continuing from where they left off.

D

I'm not going to say they were stiched up cause it could have happened at any time, but i will say the choice to re-start the piece was not given. They were told they had to start from where they left off. They would have prefered to have been able to start again even though they didn't start off too badly.

The only choice given was to play with the lights as they were or to wait for them to be re-set, so that'd be play in relitively poor light, or sit on stage for 1/2 hour getting all wound up! Some choice I must say!

 

[Banana]

Every sympathy to the bands affected, although there is also a safety issue here. The second section bands had already played by this point and were therefore in the bar - no fire alarm went off where we were and nobody tried to evacuate us either - we heard about the problem in the auditorium as it was happening, but it takes a lot to drag a bandsman away from his (or her) well-earned beer. Surely, either it was important enough to evacuate the whole building or else the people playing shouldn't have been disturbed either. Is there a health and safety issue here?

 

[Cornishwomble]

I must admit I can't see why they couldn't have come back on stage after the alarm and then started the whole piece again.
Personally if I was in the band and was told just to play the last movement, my heart wouldn't be in it as I'd know it would be end of story result wise.

 

[Will the Sec]

Worse still, a member of the band tells me that it is likely that they will be relegated becuase of this. Double the punishment.

I think that an appeal might be in order here. There will be plenty of witnesses to the events, and the regional committee would do itself a massive PR favour by being sympathetic.

 

[deezastar]

Worse still, a member of the band tells me that it is likely that they will be relegated becuase of this. Double the punishment.
Seams to me that no thought has been put into resolving problems like this. Organisers need to get their act together.

And who added the word 'another' to the title of this thread?

Alks

Surely they won't be relegated because of the fire alarm? If they played badly then they will have had a poor result. The fire alarm is a safety measure after all. What do you suggest? Disabling the fire alarms at contests?

 

[Nik_The_Insane]

Surely they won't be relegated because of the fire alarm? If they played badly then they will have had a poor result. The fire alarm is a safety measure after all. What do you suggest? Disabling the fire alarms at contests?

Nope not relegated beacuse of the fire alarm, but because of the intruption, distraction, loss of concentration, players generally thinking "What the heck is going on" and being sat on stage for a good 15 mins before continuing from half way through the piece, and the playing not being up to the standard before the intruption. It's very off putting being stopped half way through especially in a contest!

I must admit I can't see why they couldn't have come back on stage after the alarm and then started the whole piece again.
Personally if I was in the band and was told just to play the last movement, my heart wouldn't be in it as I'd know it would be end of story result wise.

I compleatly agree with Roy Taylors comments above.

 

[deezastar]

Surely they won't be relegated because of the fire alarm? If they played badly then they will have had a poor result. The fire alarm is a safety measure after all. What do you suggest? Disabling the fire alarms at contests?

Nope not relegated beacuse of the fire alarm, but because of the intruption, distraction, loss of concentration, players generally thinking "What the heck is going on" and being sat on stage for a good 15 mins before continuing from half way through the piece, and the playing not being up to the standard before the intruption. It's very off putting being stopped half way through especially in a contest!

I must admit I can't see why they couldn't have come back on stage after the alarm and then started the whole piece again.
Personally if I was in the band and was told just to play the last movement, my heart wouldn't be in it as I'd know it would be end of story result wise.

I compleatly agree with Roy Taylors comments above.

The adjudicator must have taken all of the chaos into account though.

 

[Valvecap]

Last year it was lights - Darlington Sports Centre lost lighting in the main hall half way through a bands performance for a good 2 or 3 seconds (in a room with no windows at all thats a long time in a fast moving piece). Maybe we can aliken it to Moses Plagues - we have had fire (thankfully not real) and light - whats next? Locusts? :twisted:

 

[johnflugel]

perhaps it was specially programmed to alert the adjudicator for part swapping?!? :wink:

 

[Rebel Tuba]

There are a lot of experienced players within Bendix and I am sure that if they had wanted to have started again then their committee would have insisted a later draw or full restart. They were asked to start from Var 7 and were happy to start from variation 7, at that time.

Okay so the rest of the performance was effected by what had happened but by then the Var7 continuation had been agreed by the band. Personally I would have insisted playing last, giving time to rest and re-energise.

It is sad when this thing happens but that is banding

 

[alks]

There are a lot of experienced players within Bendix and I am sure that if they had wanted to have started again then their committee would have insisted a later draw or full restart. They were asked to start from Var 7 and were happy to start from variation 7, at that time.

I have been informed by the principle cornet player of the band that the option to play at a later draw was not given. They were also not allowed a full restart either. The only option given was to wait until the lighting had been prepared. I know they were and are still 'not happy' with the situation.

But thats they way things go sometimes i suppose.

Alks