The band enjoyed yet another great weekend away at Brass in Concert at the fantastic Sage Centre, Gateshead over 17 – 20 November despite only managing 11 th place.

The band left on Friday evening, breaking the long journey up north in 2 travelling as far as Nottingham. The Friday journey allows the band to ‘chill out’ before the contest and the theme for the night was ‘Mexico’. Most of the band came resplendent in their sombreros and ponchos and Ady Davies was adjudged the best dressed, if not only because of his blow up cactus! Other notable entries were Martin Saunders and Karl Stevens who had obviously paid a stop at New Look and Miss Selfridge for their ponchos. Have a look at some of the photos!

The short (ish) journey on Saturday up to Gateshead flew by and the band rehearsed locally in the afternoon. Thanks got to the Felling Band who helped us with arrange a rehearsal venue and loan some percussion.

This year the band were unable to perform at Stanhope as we had in previous years but it was great to see some of the band members at the Sage on the Bras Band Aid stand.

On the day of the contest the band knew it had pre-drawn to play 5 th and so rehearsal at 10:30 meant that everyone could have a lie in but that wasn’t possible for solo baritone, Terry Sleeman, who had only managed 3 hours sleep despite having gone to bed at 21:00 the night before. He needn’t have been so concerned as his rendition of Queen’s Love of My Life was one of the highlights of the programme.

The band opened up with Valero before running out The Padstow Lifeboat in memory of Sir Malcolm Arnold and to mark the new lifeboat stationed on the North Cornish coast. Terry then stepped up and played with his usual stamp of quality before the band played the Armenian Sabre Dance leading in to the 10 piece Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair featuring Neil Pascoe on euphonium who, like Terry, put in a great show. That then led to the band’s finale in the form of Manuel de Falla’s Three Corned Hat.

Overall the band felt it had played well, and many of our supporters and other contest regulars thought that the band was placed a bit low but the quality of playing on the day was extremely high and the programme didn’t prove as popular as hoped with the adjudicators. That left the band lower down the order than had been hoped for but the result didn’t ruin what was yet another enjoyable weekend away.

Extended thanks go to our deps for the weekend – Richard Marshall, Brett Baker and Jon Truscott.

The band will next be performing its first Christmas concert at the Eden Project on 2 December – for further details, see our Diary. Full results are set out below and remarks will follow shortly.

Position, Band, Conductor, Draw, Pts

1 Brighouse & Rastrick Richard Evans 4 255

2 Grimethorpe Steven Mead 10 253

3 Sellers International Phillip McCann 12 246

4 BB of Central Florida Michael Garasi 8 244

5 The Fairey Band Simon Stonehouse 6 243

6 Reg Vardy Ray Farr 2 243

7 Leyland Russell Gray 9 242.5

8 Fodens (Richardson) Garry Cutt 3 241

9 Scottish Co-op Allan Ramsey 7 238.5

10 Whitburn Andrew Duncan 11 231.5

11 Mount Charles Nigel Weeks 5 230

12 Polysteel Philip Harper 1 229.5

Special Awards

Presentation of Scores: Polysteel

Don Lusher Trombone award: Runar Valheim Vaernes, Leyland

Youngest player: Phillip Tait, 14, Reg Vardy

Soprano award: Nigel Fielding, Brighouse & Rastrick

Best Euphonium: Morgan Griffiths, Fairey

Best Principal Cornet: Iain Cullross, Sellers International

Best Percussion: Brass Band of Central Florida

Best Entertainment performance: Brass Band of Central Florida

Own Choice March: Brighouse & Rastrick (New Colonial)

Best Soloist: Michael Dodd, Grimethorpe (Believe Me if all those Endearing Young Charms)

New Composition award: Leigh Baker, Brighouse (Bare Necessities)

Quality of performance: Brighouse & Rastrick

Winning MD: Richard Evans