Brass band notes
Festival of Brass win could pave way for place in Open
THE contesting season in Wales is coming to a close with the final contest of the Welsh League taking place at Merthyr Tydfil on Saturday, November 25.
However, Welsh bands are still involving themselves in contests in other regions of England with quite a number of bands taking part in the Wychavon Festival of Brass which takes place in Evesham this Saturday, October 28.
This contest has created a direct link with the Spring Festival at Blackpool in May 2018.
The Spring Festival has the three stepping stones competitions – the Senior Trophy, Senior Cup and Grand Shield – which sees the best two bands eventually get an invitation to take part in the British Open contest by being successful at the Grand Shield.
Winning the Championship Section at Wychavon could lead to an invite to take part in the first of these preliminary contests at Blackpool. It is a long process getting an invite to take part in the British Open as only the best 20 bands in Britain are invited.
Taking part in the British Open is being made even more difficult these days as European bands are now getting an invite which has only occurred over the last three years.
At present Valaisia, the Champion band of Switzerland are the current British Open Champions, the first ever European band to hold the title.
Eligible Welsh bands hoping to get a foothold in the Open qualification stakes are B.T.M. and Ebbw Valley Brass.
Other Welsh bands competing in the 19 strong Championship Section are City of Cardiff, Llwydcoed and Tongwynlais Temperance. Ebbw Valley Brass and B.T.M. are ranked by the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain as being in , but are allowed to compete in the higher Championship section according to the rules of the Wychavon Festival of Brass. Melingriffith band from Cardiff are also playing in Section One in a strong field of 13 bands. Town and have Ammanford, Blaenavon Melingriffith from Wales competing in a field of 12 bands. There are 10 bands in
and four of these are Welsh bands – Crosskeys, Oakdale Silver, Porthywaen Silver and Ynyshir. Oakdale and Porthywaen are also playing in in a field of seven bands.
This is an Entertainment Contest so the audience are given a concert of between 17 and 20 minutes’ duration by each band. It makes for a very interesting day of listening to so many different pieces of music.
Just prior to the last Welsh League contest to find the champion of each of the five Sections we find the best two bands in Wales competing at Newcastle, or specifically at The Sage, Gateshead, on Sunday, November 19.
This will be the 41st Brass in Concert Festival which caters for the top bands and creating workshops in the field of education.
Cory band have a hectic weekend as they have workshops in the morning, a public concert involving students in the afternoon and are with Only Men Aloud in a concert in the evening.
On Sunday, 11 bands, representing the best of Great Britain, Europe and USA will play a programme which will be critically judged by Jan Van der Roost of Belgium and Lito Fontana of Italy who are judging the Quality of Performance.
Judging Programme Content is Nick Grace. Entertainment and Presentation is being judged by Richard Evans and Tom Redmond and the Soloists will be judged by Ian Bousfield.
The competing bands will play in the following Drawn order...
1st on stage is Paris Brass Band (France), 2nd Carlton Main Frickley Colliery, 3rd Virtuosi GUS, 4th Fountain City (USA Champion), 5th Eikanger – Bjorsvik Musikklag (Norway European Champion), 6th Cory (Defending Champion), 7th Brighouse & Rastrick (2017 Champion of Great Britain), 8th Grimethorpe Colliery, 9th Leyland,10th Fodens, 11th Tredegar.