Mount Charles Youth Band have added yet another prestigious national award to their long list of achievements. On Sunday 17 th September 2006 they won the title of British Open Youth Champions 2006 (Section A) held at Pontin’s, Prestatyn, in North Wales under the inspired leadership of Richard Marshall.
Just to add a little icing on the cake they were also awarded the prizes for best Solo Cornet (Glen Philp), Best Solo Horn (Gavin Pedlar) & Best Percussion Section (Rachel Scott, Jenna Preston, Joanne Westlake, Carl Stevens & Jack Tucker).
The band had put a tremendous amount of effort into the 25 minute programme which consisted of “Agincourt Song”, the horn solo “He Ain’t Heavy He’s My Brother”, the set test piece “River City Suite”, the hymn tune arrangement “Crimond”, the wild circus march “The Waltonian” and finally the visually spectacular “Kongolela”.
Rehearsals began in early August when Richard Marshall (Principal Cornet of Black Dyke Mills Band) was in Cornwall on holiday staying with his mother in law, Julie, during which time, incidentally, he also became an uncle!! A lot of very hard work was put into laying down the foundation of the deceptively difficult James Curnow test piece and the rest of the programme. Several of the lucky youngsters also took up his offer of personal tuition.
The hard work on the programme was continued during the summer holidays by David Loukes who also conducted the band for many of the summer engagements.
The week before the contest once again saw Richard return to Cornwall to complete the final preparations for the contest. In the first half of the week both Richard and the band worked incredibly hard to produce the necessary quality in all aspects of the programme, and it was the first time that all of the players had been together at one time due to various summer vacations!!
By the end of Thursday’s rehearsal at the Keay Theatre, St. Austell, they had climbed a steep mountain together and had conquered the technicalities of a highly contrasting programme that Richard had deliberately constructed to show off many different styles of playing and interpretation. The final polish, however, was still to come.
On the Friday the band were due to leave the “lemon” car park of the famous Eden Project and this is when the first “bonus” of the weekend occurred! Nearly everybody had a grand tour of the Eden Project whilst frantically cruising past the apple, mango, banana, strawberry and pineapple car parks trying to find the elusive citrus location. Eventually cars and coaches found each other and the journey began at around 8.30am with Roselyn Coaches driven by Neil and the inimitable and well known bandsman Tony Moon.
The long journey, just shy of ten hours due to various motorway hold ups, passed quietly – Julie & Kath were asleep most of the way! Arriving at Pontin’s at around 6pm a quick check in was made before setting off for the first “away” rehearsal at the excellent Nova Centre in downtown Prestatyn. The function room of the Nova was broadly similar to the actual contest venue and provided the perfect practise environment.
Parents and supporters (and Richard!) were taken by surprise by the quality of the playing after such a long journey and were left in no doubt as to the band’s determination to win. The final polish had begun!
On the Saturday a relaxed start was made to the day (some parents were nursing delicate heads – it had been a good night!), some of the players went swimming and biking and there was a trip to the seaside resort of Rhyl (as featured in the television programme “ Britain ’s Toughest Seaside Resorts”). Certain of the ladies could not resist the shoe shops and certain other ladies could not resist the (temporary) tattoos – Yeo Ho Ho!
The early evening saw another practice at the Nova and, whilst tiredness was catching up on the youngsters, they put in two entire performances of the programme with Richard adding the final touches. The all important presentation, deportment and choreography was finalised in great detail along with Bianca Davies’ bubbly narration.
A relatively early night was had by all in anticipation of the task ahead.
Sunday finally arrived. It was up early and back to the Nova Centre for the final practice. Richard “top & tailed” the programme and again went over the logistics and presentation. Most of the parents were a bag of nerves but there was a huge buzz amongst the players who, by now, knew that they were well prepared and ready to deliver a stunning performance – and deliver a stunning performance they did.
The band were drawn first to play and were on stage at 12 noon. They were introduced by the contest controller, then Bianca stepped up to introduce the first piece, the rousing medieval cornet and drum feature “Agincourt Song”. Next up was Gavin Pedlar with an immaculate and moving performance of the evergreen horn solo “He Ain’t Heavy”.
The set test piece (which provided some common ground to judge the bands) River City Suite, was in three contrasting movements with heavy American influences. The third movement in particular was a major and deceptive test for the bands and, as is usual, the slow hymn like second movement would test intonation and musicality.
Thanks to Richard’s skilfully crafted interpretation and their own hard work, the band gave a dazzling performance of this piece. In contrast the next piece was the hymn tune arrangement by Cornwall ’s own Goff Richards of Crimond. The band chose to do the first “verse” as a quartet of principal and rep. cornet, solo horn and solo euphonium giving a perfect atmospheric feel to this well known hymn.
Next the band breezed through “The Waltonian” at a breathtaking “circus” tempo before sweeping away stands and chairs to perform the all singing, all dancing, toe tapping “Kongolela” complete with party poppers!
After the performance the players quickly changed into their familiar black and gold Cornish rugby tops and were back in to hear the performance of the West Lothian Schools Brass before the results were announced. The adjudicators were extremely impressed by both bands and announced that it had been very close indeed.
After the exhilaration of hearing that our band had won and the added thrill of the soloist prizes the band all gathered for the customary photos and Richard handed out special Pontin’s 30 th anniversary of band contests medals and read the adjudicators remarks which contained words like “Wow” and even a special mention for Bianca as compere.
It was then back to the chalets for lots of celebrations and, inevitably, a great evening was had by all with impromptu fancy dress (especially Alex!!) and ladies drinking colourful blue cocktails – any guesses who??
All too soon Monday arrived, the coaches were loaded and away by 10am for the long, and very quiet, journey home.
Richard Marshall had this to say about the event:
"It was an absolute pleasure to see and hear the band play as they did to win the title, British Open Youth Champions. The band worked extremely hard and I must place on record the support from their parents"
“The programme chosen worked very well and tested the standard of the band, and to make my job easier I had good principal players and very confident secondary players, which I feel learnt from the experience”
“I am over the moon winning this title and, earlier in the year, the national title with the band, and I wish the band every success in the future ”
The band are now looking forward to their next contest with the SWBBA at the Riviera Centre, Torquay in November.
