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 Site © 1999-2008 Rothwell Temperance Band and All Rights Reserved. |
30th May 2004 - All England MastersAdjudicators: Dr Roy Newsome, James Scott, David Read This contest has always been something of a let down for us come the results, and in the three years we have taken part we have always come around the middle of the pack. Part of the problem has been how close this contest follows after the Grand Shield, as we have always been more concerned with getting into the British Open by coming in the top two at Blackpool. The British Open takes place in September, and so after our second place this year we are free to concentrate on the Masters from next year. 
The test piece, Harrison’s Dream, was composed to reflect the story of John Harrison, who spent 40 years of his life working to produce a clock accurate enough to allow seafarers to calculate their longitude. The music included lots of percussion, particularly the wood block which appeared to represent the ticking of the clock. The piece was very rhythmic, but also very difficult. I can honestly say that this was the first test piece I have played which featured a bar in 7/16 time! Our percussion team for the contest featured Lucy Beeson, the winner of the Percussion Final of this year’s BBC Young Musician. Lucy did not win the overall concerto final, which was a good thing for us as she would have been playing in the European Young Musician competition on the day we would have needed her in Cambridge! We also drafted in a friend of Rich’s, John, to play fourth percussion and I spent an entertaining afternoon re-scoring the music for four percussionists from the three supplied parts. This made it much easier to play, but only from a logistics point of view. I actually felt quite old, being in a percussion section of four players, where three of them were under twenty! The band left the bandroom at 2pm on the Saturday, and due to the excessive amount of percussion required, needed a trailer attached to the bus to carry it all. After the trip down to Cambridge, things ground to a halt at the Travelodge where the booking seemed to have been messed up. The bloke on the desk was having to book everyone in individually, rather than having us pre-booked as in previous years. 
We finally set off for the rehearsal in a school just up the road, and then came another problem – John had left his music in his car. We managed to cobble together enough from the spare music we had with us, though it wasn’t exactly the same part. Rich forgot his shoes, and so we had to call Glyn Thompson’s dad to get him to bring a pair to us in time for the contest the following day. Thankfully, we set up the percussion gear and hadn’t forgotten to bring any instruments! The rehearsal went really well, and we had an excellent run through. We were very confident of doing well in the contest if we could produce the same quality performance again. After the rehearsal most of the band went for a curry, which turned out to be late and not very appetizing, and they returned back to the Travelodge at about midnight. We got up the following morning to find that John Ward’s car was parked across two parking spaces. We were fairly confident he didn’t do it on purpose, and when we got in to breakfast at the Little Chef we found out that six or seven members of the band had been out during the night and bounced it around. 
After breakfast we waited around for the draw and found out that we had drawn 13th, just after Brighouse and just before Fodens, which could have been better. We then hung around for a bit and then went on to a Scout Hut in Cambridge to rehearse. John forgot his music AGAIN and once more made use of our spare copies. We had a percussion sectional first, which I think is the first one I’ve had where the section was heckled from Cornet players stood around watching. After a short rehearsal we packed up the bus and headed for the contest. The bus had problems navigating the narrow streets of Cambridge, especially with the trailer. We unloaded the bus and went up into the room over the road from the hall to get changed. The room was baking hot and after a while I took the percussion section downstairs with the gear to get some fresh air, and wait until it was our turn to go on stage. We then followed the band across to register behind the stage, and set up the percussion. I reached into my stick bag and instantly got a splinter in the end of my finger thanks to one of the pairs of sticks I was carrying for the other drummers. It isn’t really helpful to have blood running out of your finger just before going on stage. 
The band’s performance on stage could have gone better. There were too many slips and bits of music not quite together. The start was good but then it went off the rails a little. We pulled it back towards the end, but it was too little too late and there was an entry a bar late very near the end. Not good, and playing between two other good bands, was not going to do our final position any favours. We came off stage disappointed with our performance. This disappointment has been a recurring theme this year, but in other contests we have had good results, so the band sound must count for something. We then loaded the equipment back onto the coach and went our separate ways until the results. This year’s, the results were preceded by a one hour concert from Brighouse & Rastrick. The band played well, but some of the kit playing was a bit hyperactive for my liking. When the results were given, we weren’t placed in the top six. We went outside to find the bus and met up with Andy Riley who informed us we had come fifteenth, our lowest placing at this contest to date. The full results were: 1. Yorkshire Building Society 7. Aveley & Newham 
We kind of expected this position given how we played, and the calibre of the bands we were competing against. In the end, the performance on stage wasn’t good enough to achieve a top six place, though the performance we left in the rehearsal room the night before could have been. From my personal point of view, the lack of percussionists at rehearsals could perhaps have contributed to some of the problems. The percussion part was very off putting in places, and the band perhaps did not have sufficient time to get used to it. The band would like to thank:
We now look forward to the British Open, where we must play better, and to the following weekend in Switzerland, where we are hoping to do well. Tim Sawyer 
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