News Page 2008
Sunday 23rd November 2008
West Midlands Brass Band Association
Annual Contest, Leamington Spa
Due to a certain trip to America rehearsal time was rather short for the bands annual trip to the Leamington Contest. But as members of the West Midland Brass Band Association we felt it was important to turn out.
Because of the lack of time the band decided to play ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ by Paul Lovatt-Cooper. This was the Area test piece and most of the band was familiar with the piece, however the one person who was not familiar was our MD Nick Smith. He was ill for the Area contest and had to get to grips with the piece for this contest rather quickly. ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ is a very descriptive piece of music and Nick had his work cut out getting his own interpretation out of the music.
So off we went feeling more than a little under prepared but ready to do our best. We drew number 3 out of 10 bands, a little early for our liking and we had a little shaky moment or two in the early bars. However a sign of a good band is the way they recover and recover we did, the piece really flowed. We were a little disappointed with the start but overall pleased with the performance.
There were some very good third section bands in the contest, University of Warwick were National Finalist this year, Matlock, Rushden and newly promoted Amington are all highly very regarded bands.
In the box, adjudicating was a legend of Brass Banding, Major Peter Parkes, The man who conducted Black Dyke through some of their most successful years. When the results were announced in third place was, “The band that played number three, Avonbank”. That's the second year running that we have been placed third at this contest. When Alan Robbins went up on stage to collect the trophy the Major remarked “You could have won that, you were so close!” Our early mistakes had cost us dear but considering the lack of rehearsal time, what a result.
Not only did we get third, we were also awarded a shield for being the highest placed Midland association band.
So, we set off not exactly brimming with confidence and returned with two trophies! Can't be bad?
Congratulations go to Matlock who were placed first & Rushden Windmill who were second.
June 2008
The family grows......?
The family that is Avonbank has increased by ONE and that one is called Jessica Amanda Shepherd.
Our congratulations go to Cary our bass trombone player, his wife Liz & little Issy on the birth of Jessica born on the 5th June, weighing 6lb 11oz.
May 2008
Weston Super Mare Contest
This year the bands deputy MD, Andy Davidson decided the band would play Laudate Dominum. This piece was chosen because Andy felt it really showed the bands sound off to it’s maximum potential. The piece written by Edward Gregson is based on a hymn tune & has some glorious sounds within it.
The band drew to play 3rd out of 9 bands, a little earlier than we would have liked but last year we came 3rd after drawing the dreaded number one!
Everyone felt the band played extremely well, there were a few clips but overall we felt we had played the piece musically & Andy was very satisfied with the performance. As they did last year, the Brass Band Website ‘The MouthPiece’ gave an open adjudication from the back of the room & they really praised Jen, for her solo euphonium playing. However, in their opinion they placed us in 9th place…. Last!
It was a good job John from the MouthPiece was not the real adjudicator, that was Derek Broadbent & he had a much higher opinion of our performance, he placed us 4th! We’re really not sure how John could have placed us so low after the reaction of the audience & the remarks from listening player from other bands???
Congratulations go to Blaenavon Town Band who came 1st, we’ve met Blaenavon on a number of occasions & know what a good band they are.
4th was not a bad result, especially considering we had only been rehearsing the piece for 4 weeks & when we went on stage it was the FIRST time we had actually had a full band!
April 2008
St Georges Day March.
There was a great turnout by the band for the annual St Georges Day March in Pershore. It was pointed out that the weather forecast was not at all good for the day, but to our surprise the band assembled in sunshine! The band headed the procession to Pershore Abbey where they played a hymn for the service. However, when we re-assembled outside the Abbey for the return march the sunshine had gone, replaced by a cool breeze & clouds. Just as we set off it started to rain, not just a shower, but really heavy rain. To their credit the band kept going applauded by the people of Pershore. By the time we had returned to the car park the rain was a torrent (clean version!). Thank you to all who turned up for the march, just hope the uniforms have dried out???
Asparagus Supper & St Georges Night
23rd April 2008, St George’s night.
Band President Diana Raphael organised an Asparagus Supper & St Georges Day Concert in aid of the bands trip to the U.S.A. The hall was decorated to reflect St George’s day & looked beautiful.
The supper, obviously with an asparagus theme was really well received. Followed by the concert by the band & featuring Soprano Singer, Rebecca Fearnley.
The concert had an English theme for St George’s day ending with a ‘Last Night of the Proms’. The band would like to thank Associate M.D. Gary Smallwood who again conducted the band on the night….. a Welshman! Rebecca started things off with some songs accompanied on the piano by Ken Smith & the audience really found out what a fantastic voice this young lady has. She then joined the band for Jerusalem, Rule Britannia & of course Land of Hope & Glory.
It was a great night with everyone, including the band enjoying themselves. But most of all the band would like to express their thanks to Diana & her team who worked really hard to make this night a success.
Spring Concert
This years spring concert had a theme of Old Time Music Hall. Obviously a true music hall program is impossible for a brass band as originally the music hall contained comedians, acrobats, singers etc & often the entertainment was rather on the bawdy side!!! So the intent was to provide a program that contained music not only from the late 1800’s but about events from that period in time to provide an entertaining program that captures the essence of the music hall.
Proceedings were amusingly kept in check by our compare Albert Powers who was more than ably assisted by our M.D. Nick Smith. As always our thanks go to Albert who never lets us, or the audience down with his wit & it was a pleasure to see Nick up to his old tricks again! (see photographs!!?)
The Training Band ended the second half to the delight of the audience with a nice set of pieces. For quite a few youngsters playing it was their very first concert & they acquitted them selves very well indeed.
A very special mention must go to the bands special guest for the evening, John Raphael who did two guest spots & had the audience in tears….......... Literally in some cases!
John also provided the narration for the bands final piece ‘Zulu’.
TV Stars! ?
It was just before 8:00am on a VERY wet St. George’s day morning that the band assembled in the Abbey Gardens to film a T.V. report on the Asparagus Run to the Houses of Parliament. The report was being filmed for both BBC & ITV for their lunchtime & evening news. It was a great turnout by the band considering the conditions. If you missed the report it can be seen again by typing the following into your internet.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7363994.stm
March 2008
New Arrival
The waiting & deliberation is over, our 1st baritone player Mandy Campbell has had a baby boy, Angus. The band sends Mandy & her family their heart felt congratulations.
Midlands Area Regionals - Bedworth
Adjudicators:
David Lancaster and Malcolm Brownbill
Test
piece:
Dark Side of the Moon - Paul Lovatt-Cooper
A new venue for this years contest, the Chamberlaine Technology College In Bedworth. I think everyone agreed that it was a better venue than Belvidere Club at Burton on Trent?
The band has worked really hard this year with our 'Associate' MD Gary Smallwood after our MD, Nick Smith became ill. We have really endeavoured to make the piece as musical as possible whilst adhering to all the composers directions on the score. Setting off for Bedworth in a confident mood, we knew we had the piece under control & we hoped the adjudicators would recognise our efforts & Gary's musical input.
There were 17 bands in the contest, and we were drawn to play 15th, a good draw we thought? A few players listened to a number of bands and this increased our confidence as the performances were in our opinion rushed and very loud, (especially the percussion sections).
After playing to an almost full hall we were happy with our performance, it wasn't perfect but overall we considered that it had far more plus points than negative, but most of all we thought we gave a very musical interpretation that remained true to the composers intentions? A number of people in the audience rated our performance including our heavily pregnant 1st baritone player Mandy who had us high up in her top 5!
Congratulations go to Matlock who won but our 8th place was a disappointment, we all felt our playing deserved better than that? The adjudicators comments mentioned a few tuning problems that we were aware of, but they gave no mention to our interpretation or strict following of the composers metronome markings. We were not the only band who was left puzzled at the placings with a number of comments being left on the brass band Internet site, "The Mouth Piece" referring to bands that adhered to the score did not feature in the placings. Still, that's contesting for you, we were proud of our performance regardless of the result and we'll be back next year even more determined.
Final results were :-
1. Matlock, R. Jepson, 10. 184
2. Wellington (Telford), S. Curtis, 9, 182
3. University of Warwick, S. Hogg, 14, 181
4. Shirebrook MW (Unison), M. Wilcockson, 8, 180
5. WEM Jubilee, R. Thorne, 3, 179
6. Bakewell Silver, M. Wilcockson, 13, 178
7. Kirkby Colliery Welfare, S. Berrill, 2, 177
8. Avonbank (Evesham), G. Smallwood, 15, 176
9. Rushden Windmill, J. Fletcher, 7, 175
10. Newstead Abbey Brass, L. Cooper, 17, 174
11. Stamford, M. Ford, 4, 172
12. City of Birmingham, W. Belshaw, 16, 171
13. Audley Brass, S. Farrington, 5, 169
14. Dronfield CMW, A. Tyler, 12, 168
15. Syston, D. Powell, 1, 167
16. Moulton '77, M. France, 11, 166
17. Cubbington Silver, P. Johnson, 6, 165
January 2008
Our M.D. Nick Smith has not been too well recently so he's asked Gary Smallwood to be our Associate Musical Director and Gary will be the 'Man in the Middle' for the Area contest in Bedworth in March. Gary has helped us out by taking the baton for a number of our Xmas concerts & he will also be conducting at our Spring concert on the 26th April. The whole band sends Nick our best wishes and thanks Gary for his time, effort and expertise.
Gary is a very experienced musician and no stranger to success. He lead Bulkington Silver Band 4th & 3rd Section wins at the area also under his leadership Bedworth won the 3rd & 2nd Sections. Gary is currently the M.D. of The District of Dunchurch Brass . Avonbank wish to thank Dunchurch Brass for the 'loan' of their M.D.