Tongwynlais come out top
THE Welsh Open Brass Band Entertainment Championships took place on Saturday, February 18, at the Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl, and what a great day of entertainment it turned out to be.
Every band seemed to be playing for the audience rather than trying to impress the adjudicator.
Every band played well and when word spreads about how good a day it was I am sure that the public will be booking their tickets well in advance for next year’s event.
Lewis Merthyr band under Nigel Seaman set the standard playing a varied programme which included The Home Of Legends by Paul Lovatt-Cooper, a very technical trombone solo The Blue Bells of Scotland and ending with Danses Polovtsiennes (Borodin arr. Eddie Huckridge).
Ebbw Valley evoked memories of the 1940s and 50s radio programme Dick Barton – Special Agent as they opened with Devil’s Gallop. They played an excellent band full of vigour, excitement with plenty of panache. Lucas Wong showed his musical ability with Dance of The Selkie.
BTM began playing With a Little Help From My Friends, with a Flugel Horn lead played by their conductor Jeff Hutcherson.
The solo, Rhapsody for Euphonium, was very well played and there was much in their programme appreciated by the audience – it was a relaxed and comfortable presentation.
Yeovil Town Band’s programme depicted the 150 years of the Salvation Army. Their solo cornet played with feeling and their whole presentation was quite emotive which caused me to shed a tear. It was a lovely performance.
Tylorstown’s programme contained facets of Mexico, Spain and the USA, playing Postcard from Mexico, Don Quixote and West Side Story which was a crowd pleaser.
The first half of the Championship was brought to a close with Markham finishing their programme with Extracts from Symphony No 3 by Katchaturian after wowing the audience with Papa Can You Hear Me, Mambo Calionte and Mid All The Traffic.
The second half started with City of Cardiff (Melingriffith) playing Windows of the World, Amazonia: The Rain Forest, followed by Circle of Life from the Lion King.
Tim Hughes played a fine soprano cornet solo Memory from Cats with the band ending the programme with Ivory Ghosts and The Incredibles. All in all it was a good all round performance.
Goodwick followed with an American theme and wole up the audience with a powerful rendition of Duke Ellington’s Caravan. They followed this with Goodnight My Angel, Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, and Amazing Grace and all were very well played. Listening to these two performances one was aware that the bar was being raised even higher.
Filton Concert, The Reigning Welsh Open Champions, followed Goodwick and much was expected from the champions and the audience was not disappointed.
Their programme was based on Song and Dance and there was some top class individual playing particularly from the flugel horn player.
Variations in rhythm, style and volume were professionally controlled and the pieces they played Nefarious, Goodnight My Angel, Vallflickans Dans and Somewhere were all very well played. They could be Open Champions again.
Llwydcoed began with Ride followed by a lovely Euphonium solo I’ll Walk With God – played beautifully by Darren Morris.
Melody Shop and Family Portraits, a piece of music based on Lowri’s sketches, followed – both being very well played.
The final piece was One Small Step, by Andrew Duncan, which was a reference to the moon landing. There was some fine confident playing in this program to make success a strong possibility.
Tongwynlais Temperance began with a new arrangement of Somewhere Out There by musical director Chris Bond which saw the baritone player lead the band in this first piece.
America was the theme of the programme and Moon River, another Chris Bond arrangement, held the audience as they heard some inspiring tenor horn playing by Emily Evans.
An American Tale by Dan Price completed their programme to rapturous applause.
This had been a fabulous day for hearing such rival bands playing in harmony and accepting the results in such fine spirits.
Tongwynlais Temperance became the 2017 Welsh Open Champions and the adjudicator, Melvyn White, described their presentation as “a very, very good performance with big sounds and quality contributions from across the band”.