The Youth Band travelled to Manchester on Saturday 28th April to take part in the National Youth Finals 2007 in the community section. The Band left the coach park at The Eden Project at 9.15 am and eventually arrived at The Village Hotel in Cheadle at about 3.00 pm.

Much to the delight of the youngsters The Village had fantastic leisure facilities including a large swimming pool, steam room and sauna room, so most people threw their bags in their rooms and threw their swimming gear on and threw themselves in the pool. Adults and children alike had a great time splashing around before their evening rehearsal.

After an unintended tour of Cheadle, the Town Hall was eventually found and the ever enthusiastic youngsters were given the final polish and a complete run through of the programme. Parents and supporters were able to sit and listen in the comfortable surroundings and, as usual, were much more nervous than the players!!

Back at the hotel there was a choice of two restaurants and a fairly quiet, but enjoyable, evening was had by all.

On the Sunday morning, after the compulsory full English breakfast, there was time for another rehearsal. Simon did the usual topping and tailing and gave the obligatory "motivational speech".

While everyone was together Jill Davies, the youth band's manager, presented Laura Bullock with a certificate to mark her time with the band, she has arrived at the "magic" age and can no longer play in youth competitions. Everybody wishes her well for the future. At the other end of the spectrum Jill welcomed 10 year old trombone player, Andrew Hammett to his very first contest.

It was then back to the hotel for a quick relax and a drink, and then onto The Royal Northern Music College in Manchester. Mount Charles were drawn to play number 11 so there was chance to sit and listen before taking the stage at about 6.00 pm. The Youth Band started their programme with the rousing 20th Century Fox Fanfare arranged by Simon Dobson himself then going straight into the set test piece, Scenes Du Lac, written by Dr Roy Newsome, who was one of the Adjudicators. The third piece of the programme was The Irish blessing, which was beautifully played and showed the immense talent of such a young band to be able to play so quietly with such maturity. The wonderful Glen Philp came next with his playful and expert rendition of Alan Morrison's Buster Strikes Back. Glen's performance was polished and well received. Birdland was the Band's finale, which is a well known jazz fusion piece arranged for brass band. Simon's intention was for the Band to play it in a funky style - they did this and more, it was a great ending to a balanced and varied programme.

Although the Band didn't get a top three placing they came away with a Gold Award, one of only five out of the whole 14 bands in the Community Section. The adjudicators remarks show that both adjudicators enjoyed the Band's performance under the direction of Simon Dobson.

Camborne Youth were given first place and St. Dennis Youth had third. This does underline the quality of the youth band movement in Cornwall with three bands in the top four!

Back at the hotel in the evening the players enjoyed a buffet meal and soon shook off any disappointment by setting about having a great "party". They all then went off to bed for an early night i.e. 2am!

On the Monday morning, after yet another "full English", the coaches set off at 10am for the long (and very quiet) journey home.

Following his first contest appearance with the youth band Simon Dobson had this to say about the talented youngsters-

"I couldn't be more pleased with the performance our youngsters gave on Sunday, the energy and vitality they displayed was the envy of many. They really gave it their all and I firmly believe that they played to the very best of their abilities. Regardless of the result we should all be very proud. Onwards and upwards!"

4barsrest had this to say about the youth band in their community section retrospective-

"Mount Charles Youth also performed well in a carefully constructed and well-performed programme that included '20th Century Fox Fanfare', 'Irish Blessing', 'Buster Strikes Back' and 'Birdland'. The Gold Certificate achieved was well merited."

The band are now looking forward to getting stuck into Philip Sparke's "Music For A Festival" for Bugle Contest in June and to the summer engagements.

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