A Great Success for Denton Brass
On Sunday 7th October 2007 the Band took part in their first contest with the North West Counties Brass Band Association NWCBBA an organisation they only joined this summer. The contest was held at Fleetwood and started at 9:00 a.m. So an early start was required by all players and supporters (we do have many friends and families follow the band around to various places to listen to the band), The band arrived at the rehearsal room at a school hall in Fleetwood between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m. Although one member came via Wales having missed a turning on the Motorway (still arrived in time for the rehearsal, WHAT COMMITMENT). The rehearsal went well and the band set off for the Marine hall on the sea front, finding parking spaces for so many people was not easy. We were not the only people to have to be there early because as we arrived there were three other bands already there. As this was our first contest at this hall the band were dismayed to find that there were no changing rooms or storage facilities for instrument cases and personal items.
The band were drawn to play first ( we knew this in advance), not a popular place to play, many bandsmen believe that you never win anything from a first place draw, however, the good point about first draw is that the band get to play the National Anthem prior to playing their chosen test piece this gives a short reprieve so that the players can get a feel for the accoustics of the hall before being judged on their playing.
So on with the playing, Jonathan Davies our New MD (January 2007) had chosen for the test piece “ A Cambrian Suite” by Michael Ball. The band played excellently and were well appreciated by the audience, we then stayed in the hall and listened to the other bands who played many different pieces in different styles, as the Judges were making their decision we felt reasonably confident in either a third or fourth place (this would have meant a monetary prize).
As the Prize giving took place and the fourth and third places were announced we started to think that our performance maybe wasn’t as good as we believed, however when the announcer said that second place goes to the band who played No 1 our band members errupted and noone could hear the name of the band concerned, which was of course DENTON BRASS, this is the first MAJOR prize that the band has won since it’s reforming in 1999. The band believe that this win is all down to the hard work and enthusiasm of Jonathan who has inspired the band since he took over as MD in January of this year.
The band were drawn to play first ( we knew this in advance), not a popular place to play, many bandsmen believe that you never win anything from a first place draw, however, the good point about first draw is that the band get to play the National Anthem prior to playing their chosen test piece this gives a short reprieve so that the players can get a feel for the accoustics of the hall before being judged on their playing.
So on with the playing, Jonathan Davies our New MD (January 2007) had chosen for the test piece “ A Cambrian Suite” by Michael Ball. The band played excellently and were well appreciated by the audience, we then stayed in the hall and listened to the other bands who played many different pieces in different styles, as the Judges were making their decision we felt reasonably confident in either a third or fourth place (this would have meant a monetary prize).
As the Prize giving took place and the fourth and third places were announced we started to think that our performance maybe wasn’t as good as we believed, however when the announcer said that second place goes to the band who played No 1 our band members errupted and noone could hear the name of the band concerned, which was of course DENTON BRASS, this is the first MAJOR prize that the band has won since it’s reforming in 1999. The band believe that this win is all down to the hard work and enthusiasm of Jonathan who has inspired the band since he took over as MD in January of this year.