Cory are first to be presented with historic RAF St Athan shield
AT THE conclusion of the Welsh Brass Band Championships, the winning band in the Championship Section, the new Champion Band of Wales, was presented, for the first time ever, with the RAF St Athan Voluntary Band Shield – and it will continue to be awarded to the winning band for the next 30 or so years.
The old RAF Voluntary Band will never be forgotten thanks to Alan Bourne and I am sure that he is delighted that the first winning name on the Shield is that of the Cory Band.
The 2024 Finals of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain have been announced and the First, Second, Third and Fourth Sections will compete at The Centaur, Cheltenham Racecourse.
Some 77 bands have qualified and Section Three and Section One will play in that order on Saturday, September 14, while Sections Four and Section Two in order, will compete on Sunday, September 15.
The Championship Section competition will take place at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on Saturday, October 5 and there are 20 bands involved.
Pontardulais Band were rather concerned that there were only three bands competing in the Fourth Section at the Welsh National Championships and as a result have decided to try to do something about it.
Without a Fourth Section, the rest of the sections have no foundation. They have asked their training team to try to apply themselves to developing the “Brassatbont” Community Group into an aspiring Fourth Section band!
In order to achieve this, they will need the support from existing players who would like to help secure the future of banding in Wales by working alongside our youth and inexperienced players.
Can you or someone you know help? Contact info@pontardulaistwnband.com if you can.
Prior to the Welsh Championships, Cory decided to give a community a taste of the music that was required to be played at the Welsh Region Championships.
They chose to do this in a hall which would have some resemblance to the acoustics of the Brangwyn Hall, Swansea – the venue of the band competition.
Getting to know the effect of the acoustics of a hall on the sound of a band is very important and the experience of the band at such a lovely church as St German in Cardiff certainly helped them, as the band won all the prizes that were possible to win at the Welsh National Championships and in so doing regained the title of Champion Band of Wales.