Today was the day that I finally took to the stage again with Knottingley Silver Band to perform Gareth Wood’s Brass Triumphant at the Yorkshire 1st Section Brass Band Championships at St. George’s Hall, Bradford.
We were drawn to play eighth out of twelve which meant a bit of hanging around but we were in good mood generally.
We went on stage, in socked feet due to the amount of moving around us percussionists needed to do, and played.
There were, it has to be said, some hairy moments and we didn’t play very well overall. Still we did a reasonable job and were moderately confident of a decent placing – I was hoping for top half at this point.
The amount of time to get off stage, packed up and out of the dressing room meant that I missed the band after us playing but I settled down to listen to the final three bands play.
First one I heard was Barnsley Chronicle. I considered their effort to be reasonable, I couldn’t hear all my parts, but there was some good ensemble playing along with some scrappy stuff. They would end up coming in 10th.
Next up, band 11, were Kippax who were, honestly, awful. They played with very little structure, either too fast, too slow and they were rarely playing as a band with lots of individuals seemingly taking over. There was more than one time too when the conductor mightn’t have bothered standing there for all the attention his band were paying him. They would end up in 12th and last place.
Stannington, band 12, started far too quickly. The second movement was too slow in my view and it lacked the urgency that’s written in the music. They appeared to have sneaked an elephant on too with random percussive stomping and brass based squealing all over the place. In my view, Kippax were worse, but this wasn’t great. The adjudicators seemed to agree placing them 9th overall.
What I haven’t mentioned is where we came, which was 11th.
Now, I don’t feel our performance was that bad really and reading the comments from the adjudicators didn’t really help as 1) I was so focused on my playing that a lot of the piece just flew by, and 2) I’m not sure that a lot of why they wrote was an accurate reflection of the parts I did hear while counting bars waiting to play.
The happy part of this posts title stems from the fact that whenever the percussion section was mentioned in the feedback it was with a positive note.
I know I played well today. I also feel the band were a little hard done by. It doesn’t hurt quite so much for me knowing that I’m not a permanent part of their group and I’m glad I could help them not be last. However, it’s a huge come down after the great result of a few weeks ago and means that Knottingley will be relegated to the second section for next year.
First Section:
Sunday 3rd March
Test Piece: ‘Brass Triumphant’ – Gareth Wood
Draw: 8.00am
Commence: 9.00am
Adjudicators: Dr Robert Childs & Chris Wormald
- Hebden Bridge (Alan Hobbins), 5*
- Drighlington (Jim Davies), 6*
- City of Bradford (Lee Skipsey), 3
- South Yorkshire Police (Leigh Baker), 7
- Hatfield (Graham O’Connor), 1
- Clifton & Lightcliffe (John Clay), 2
- Frickley/South Elmsall (Brian Rostron), 4
- Hade Edge (Simon Wood), 9
- Stannington (Geoff Hawley), 12
- Barnsley Chronicle (Grenville Moore), 10
- Knottingley Silver (Dr Owen Wedgwood), 8
- Kippax (David Lancaster), 11
*Top 2 bands qualify for National finals
- Best Soloist: Amy Smith (Euphonium) – Hebden Bridge
- Youngest Player: Bronte Wilkinson (12), Kippax
