13th September 2008 - British Open

Adjudicators: Peter Parkes, David Read, Michael Ball
Test Piece: Rococo Variations, Edward Gregson
Venue: Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Once again, the 2008 British Open featured a new commission, Rococo Variations by Edward Gregson. This was quite a long piece at about 18 minutes, featuring a theme and then six variations written in the style of various other composers.

The band left at 4pm on the Friday afternoon to travel down to Birmingham, and managed to beat several band members who left earlier, but got stuck because there was a lorry fire on the M1. We all made it in time for the rehearsal and we had a good run through, despite the lack of room for percussion.

After drawing number one at the Open in 2007 and still coming ninth, we were looking forward to getting a late draw and showing what we could do. Unfortunately, when the draw came it was number two, following Black Dyke on stage and then being followed by Desford and Grimethorpe. This wasn’t ideal. However, we knew we were playing well and put all negative thoughts aside as we boarded the bus for the short trip to the hall.

We were very happy with our performance, which was received well by the capacity audience that had stayed in the hall after Black Dyke. We came off stage happy that there weren’t that many slips, and that we had put across the performance that we had prepared in the bandroom.

When it came to the announcement of the results, Peter Parkes spoke for the adjudicators. He said that the piece had grown on them throughout the day and that they were seeing more detail as the day went on. This did not bode well after we played second.

The full results of the contest were:

1. Fodens Richardson, Garry Cutt, 10
2. Grimethorpe Colliery, Allan Withington, 6
3. Cory Band, Dr. Robert Childs, 11
4. Leyland, Jason Katsikaris, 4
5. Kirkintilloch, Selmer Simonsen, 15
6. Black Dyke, Dr Nicholas Childs, 1

7. Carlton Main Frickley Colliery, Russell Gray, 12
8. Brighouse & Rastrick, Alan Morrison, 16
9. Hepworth (Cookson Homes), Ian Porthouse, 17
10. Whitburn, Steven Mead, 9
11. Scottish Co-op, Andrew Duncan, 13
12. Flowers, David Hirst, 14
13. BTM, Nigel Boddice, 7
14. Desford Colliery, Nigel Seaman, 3
15. Fairey, Philip Chalk, 8
16. YBS Band, Morgan Griffiths, 5
17. Rothwell Temperance, David Roberts, 2

This was an incredibly harsh position to be placed in, after a good performance on stage that many people thought was better than other bands who had later draws. We can only speculate on what placing we would have been given if we’d performed the same from a later draw.

Unofficially, it looks like we, and Flowers, are demoted back to the Grand Shield. Flowers had a total of 29 points after adding together this and last years results, whilst we had a total of 26. Our 26 was the same as YBS, but as they were placed higher than us in this contest, we fall into the bottom two whilst they don’t. Had the bands’ positions been reversed with YBS last and us 16th, then we would be safe and they would be demoted – it was that close. We weren’t worried about relegation given last year’s ninth, and any reasonable result (in reality anything but last) would have kept us in the contest.

The band have accepted the situation and are determined to do well at the Grand Shield next year and regain their deserved place back in the Open as soon as possible.

We would like to thank:

- Dai Hale for travelling up from Wales to play on the front row
– Debbie James for playing percussion at the last minute
– Andrew White for covering on Trombone whilst Nick was at a wedding

We are very happy to have the National Finals contest in just under a month’s time, where we hope to perform well and make up for this unexpected bad result.

Tim Sawyer
Percussion
20th September 2008