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15th September 2007 - British OpenAdjudicators: William Relton, Steven Mead & Geoffrey Whitham This year’s open was make or break for us, following a fourteenth at last year’s contest. The band needed to do well, or we would face the drop back down into the Grand Shield, a contest that is notoriously difficult to be promoted back out of. The test piece was another new composition, this year from the pen of Kenneth Downie, entitled Visions Of Gerontius. The piece featured mostly ensemble playing, with what solos there were in the piece being short lived. The percussion parts were difficult, and we opted to bring Rachel Maguire up from London once more to help out with the tuned part. The timp part was also challenging, and we decided to play with five timps. Most rehearsals in the weeks leading up to the contest took place on weekends due to the players who had to travel long distances to be with us, and we then rehearsed every night of the last week. For the last week we hired a set of five timps so that I could practice with Premier action pedals due to the amount of quick tunings required. Come contest day, the band were rehearsing in their usual room when the draw came through. Disappointingly we were first on stage, but on the plus side it gave us the chance to give the première performance of the piece. After running through the National Anthem the band left for the hall. The percussion section were given lots of time to set up on the stage, given that there were no bands playing before us. There was some confusion when the official behind stage said we could go on the stage to set up, but the official on stage said we couldn’t. It turned out that the BBC, who were filming the contest for a documentary, needed the stage to be clear. We were soon allowed on and we proceeded to arrange the equipment to our liking. The piece required two wood blocks, one high and one low, and it turned out that Ray Payne had forgotten to bring any with him. Fodens came to the rescue, providing their own on stage all day. The hall was fairly full because people attending the contest wanted to hear the piece for the first time. We played the National Anthem and then settled down ready for our performance. Things went well from the start, with only minor blips and the band sound seemed to come across well. However at one point in the piece as I was running towards the Tam Tam I kicked my stick bag and nearly tripped up. Thankfully I got to the right instrument in time! At its conclusion, the performance was enthusiastically applauded by the large audience. The band then returned to the rehearsal room to pack the bus before going their separate ways for the day. Come results time the band were not announced in the top six, so were understandably eager to find out their actual position to see whether it was time for a trip back to Blackpool. We eventually found out we had been placed ninth, and so were safe for another year. The Full results were:
Congratulations go to Cory for their result – their shield was on display in the bar at the hotel later in the evening. Our thanks go to : Tim Sawyer |