West Lothian Challenge Final

S

Steve Nicoll

Member
Congratulations to Whitburn on winning the West Lothian Challenge Final last night.

Naturally dissapointed to not win ourselves but we were beaten by a class band that was better on the night - but that's banding. However I personally enjoyed our performance which belied the lack of preparation time.

Results.

Winners : Whitburn
Runners-Up : Newtongrange
Best Soloist : Eleanor Ferguson (Whitburn)
Best Ensemble : Trombone Quartet (Newtongrange)
Best Overture : Kirkintilloch
 
Neillyp

Neillyp

New Member
Nittens program

Congrats to Whitburn and Eleanor. Also to Kirki fur the best Overture.

Nitten played:

Trumpet Blues & Cantabile
Russian Sailors Dance
Star Dust (Trom Solo Alex Philip (Ma brother))
Force of Destiny
Mid all the Traffic
Liberty Fanfare
Sunshine of your Love
Ol' Man River
Reunion and Finale from Gettysburg

It wiz guid. We were pretty knackered after a rehearsal and a galaday that afternoon. Also a rehearsal and a gala day the day before. All in all I think the band played for around 8 - 10 hours over the weekend. Ae Stevie.

I personally played a minim slightly to short in one piece and have composed my resignation letter. I have also booked my one way ticket to Brazil where I will undergo gender reassignment and change my birth name to Euphemia Garibaldi.
 
D

Dave1

Member
Cheers Neillyp - looks a great if not demanding program. Well done anyway and perhaps cancel the trip to Brazil. I'm sure we can find some rusty scissors more locally for you ?? OUCH :shock:
 
I

ivorbiginstrument

New Member
I must say Gettysburg was a thourgly enjoyable piece and it was played 1st class.
Top marks to your sop player he was outstanding.
Whitburn may have been the better band but your choice of programe was far more entertaining.
 
F

Flugelmahorn

Member
I must say Gettysburg was a thourgly enjoyable piece and it was played 1st class.
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Some very kind words there which I'm sure the whole band will appreciate. Personally I thoroughly enjoyed putting in the hard graft to give a good show in both the semi final and the final. It was quite a challenge to come up with another 25 minutes or so of new music for the final in such a short time, but I think we managed it!

Top marks to your sop player he was outstanding.
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I'll pass on the praise to Graeme. He came off stage grinning from ear to ear having played a blinder.
 
C

cornetcheese

Member
Congratulations to all at Newtongrange! Despite the end result, the band has proven itself quite rightly to be one of the top few bands in Scotland. Unfortunately I couldn't make the contest as I was far too drunk on a composer's night out in Glasgow, but I heard the band was first class, no doubt enhanced by Mr Ramsay's enthusiasm and dedication! Stunning stuff!

Don't mean to burst your bubble Neil, but I think I have came across a few people called Euphemia Garibaldi before (not literally obviously)!

Alan
 
M

McChambo

Member
On behalf of the band, thanks very much for the messages of congratulations.

Whitburn's programme was:

Duel of the Fates (from Star Wars 'Phantom Menace')
The Old Shepherdess (from 'A Hebridean Suite')
Tarus Bulba Overture
You Raise Me Up (Cornet solo)
Scherzo
Pantomime (Euph solo)
The Bass Boys (Bass Quartet)
Scarlet Ribbons (Euph, tromb, horn, flugel & piano feature)
A Manchester Tale.

Arranged/composed A. Duncan (except Pantomime of course).

It was a good night spent with the Nitten folk - especially when Neillyp started singing in the back of my car!

However, I was slightly disappointed with the overall adjudication. I'm not complaining about the fact we won of course, but I found it difficult to accept and agree with some of the written and verbal remarks.

In which orchestra does/did he perform? Which band did he make his name with as a player/conductor? He is a composer of well-loved and accessible test pieces though. :wink:

For me, an adjudicators comments will only be valid if the person has been successful in a performance capacity. Controversial maybe, just my opinion though.

Alan Morrison gained so much more respect in the semi-finals.

Maybe I'm just getting miserable/cynical in my old age. :?
 
Moy

Moy

Active Member
Maybe I'm just getting miserable/cynical in my old age.
_________________
Jim
Flugel - Whitburn
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Never James old age...you are not nearly there. :wink:
 
M

McChambo

Member
Philip Sparke. Well known and respected composer.

I have now calmed down. Folk were saying that I was becoming a moany old git. They almost called me Crookston :wink:
 
K

KennyC

Member
Jim,

You have a long way to go before you can claim to be as old and crabbit as me. Nice to see you have such a good role model though.

I thought Philip Sparke was an excellent choice of adjudicator. It's impossible to agree with everything that any of them say but much of what he had to say about our performance was right on the mark. Only thing I would seriously disagree with was his comment about us being too loud. How on earth are you supposed to play a piece about the war, with bombs and sirens going off all over the place, without being loud?

It's interesting to see the contrast from what Alan Morrison was looking for in the earlier round though. I can't help thinking that he (AM) might be surprised to hear the destination of some of the incidental prizes :wink:

Great contest though, and well done to Newtongrange for putting on two good shows within a fortnight. I think Scotland should make it a policy to put one of our better Championship Section bands in the 1st Section every year, so we can have a chance of winning the Nationals a bit more often. :D

Kenny
 
K

KennyC

Member
Tom,

An interesting idea and if we had played the way we did last year at this year's Scottish we might not have had much choice in the matter. However, I was thinking that the real potential for successful 1st Section banding lies slightly further West than Whitburn :wink:

Kenny
 
T

Tom

Member
I thought you might Kenny but I don't think you'll find a lot of volunteers in the West either. Maybe we should draw up a rota
 
P

PC

New Member
Kenny why dont you share with us your veiws on the destination of the incidental prizes? :lol:
 
L

Les Wood

Member
One man's "uncharacteristically subdued" is another man's "playing within the acoustic demands of the hall and not overblowing"?

Les Wood
Kirkintilloch Band
 
K

KennyC

Member
Les,

Who said anything about loud dynamics? I think you'll find that the guy that wrote that report was concerned as much with the lack of dynamic contrast and the steadier tempo than that normally associated with that overture. Maybe he was just expecting it to be more in the style that Brighouse had played it the previous week in Cambridge.

KC

PS Healthy debate, at last!
 
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