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 Site © 1999-2008 Rothwell Temperance Band and All Rights Reserved. |
6th March 2005 - Yorkshire Area (Championship)Adjudicators: Nigel Boddice & David Horsfield This year’s Area piece was the Overture from Rienzi by Wagner. This is an old orchestral piece, newly arranged for the contest by Howard Lorriman. It was in complete contrast to last year’s piece, where we required lots of technical percussion. For this piece, the percussion parts were easy, but unfortunately there were six players required! After some looking around we dragged Kath Kearsley back out of retirement to play once more, and co-opted Joanna Hammond, one of our spare third cornet players, to join the team. We also welcomed Lucy Beeson back to play the glockenspiel. The band parts for the piece were mostly straightforward, but required lots of stamina, and it was noted that some bands would be flagging towards the end. The band had been settled since late last year, with the only changes being the principal euphonium seat, where Emma Farrow returned to help us out, and the second baritone, where we recruited one of Tim Hammond’s colleagues. Unfortunately, in the run up to the contest both of them were ill, with Emma off with the mumps. On the day of the contest the band met at 3pm to have a short rehearsal and wait for the draw, which was at 3.30pm. When it came through we were drawn twelfth, which was good because it was late, but unfortunately we were between Brighouse and Grimethorpe. The band then went their separate ways, the majority of them going off on the coach to a pub for some food and relaxation. We met back at 6.15pm, had a short rehearsal and then loaded the coach to leave. We got out on to the main road, and before pulling out the coach driver stopped and started looking around the bus. When he eventually found Andy Riley he said: “Where are we going?”. No one had told him that we needed to be in Bradford, so we had to direct him. Half way down the motorway we were flashed by a passing driver who shouted to us that the boot was open. We pulled over to shut it, but were not sure if we had lost anything whilst it had been left open! We spent the rest of the trip wondering what we’d do if something important had fallen out. We arrived outside the hall, and had to wait ten minutes until we reached our allotted time to be let in. We then set up our equipment in the corridor, got changed, registered and waited behind the stage whilst Brighouse played. Brighouse had an interesting last note where the bass drum came in very early! After they were done we moved onto the stage and set-up our percussion equipment. There were so many of us, with so little to play that this year was the first we didn’t require any helpers to get our gear onto the stage. The start of the piece is very exposed and quiet, and our performance was a bit rough around the edges in places. The band then seemed to settle down and the performance improved as it went on. Toward the end, one of the strings holding the triangle on the stand came undone, leaving it hanging from only one string, and therefore made it harder to hit. Luckily Joanna coped well, and there were only a few bars of the piece left to play. The band came off stage relatively happy with their performance, but realising the beginning could have been better, and could prove costly. We then got changed and loaded the coach before most of the band headed to the bar, with some going into the hall to listen to the last band of the day, Lindley. There were several camera crews in the hall, recording all the band’s performances. This was because of the newly promoted Hade Edge band, who were being filmed for a six part television series to be shown later in the year. There were the usual speeches from the stage, including ones from both adjudicators. I was disappointed with these, they didn’t really say anything constructive at all, or give any indication of how they thought things had been. The full results of the contest were: 1. Grimethorpe Colliery (UK Coal) – Richard Evans, 13, 195 7. Rothwell Temperance – David Roberts, 12, 186 Looking at the adjudicator’s comments on the bus on the way back, one of them was quite negative, seeming to have nothing positive to say at all. We wondered what the remarks were like for the bands that came lower than us! I was disappointed to see a comment about the percussion overpowering the band at one point, where the part is a solo and marked louder than the band. The players were disappointed with the results, but not too disheartened. From a rankings point of view the result matched – the top seven Yorkshire bands were in the top seven positions. Some just disagree with the order they were placed in! The band would like to thank Kath Kearsley, Lucy Beeson and Joanna Hammond for bolstering the percussion section. Thanks also go to Emma Farrow for helping out on solo euphonium. We now look forward to the new All England International Masters Contest in Cambridge in May, where this year we don’t have to worry about playing at the Grand Shield a fortnight before. This gives us a much more relaxing run in to the contest, without seeming like we’re living in each other’s pockets all the time. Tim Sawyer |