Yesterday saw the band travel to Bedworth to compete against 16 other bands in the Midlands area contest. Although a 9 am rehearsal was a bit of a shock to the system (most of us previously believed brass instruments didn't work before lunchtime), rehearsals on Philip Harper's "Olympus" had been going well. We went on stage feeling optimistic and left it 12 minutes later grinning from ear to ear. Although a few had to shoot off a big group of us stuck together for fish and chips in the local pub before returning to listen to last few bands and await the results.
4th place from such a large field of quality bands, alongside a performance of which we could be so proud, was a great achievement! We really want to thank the players who gave up their time to stand in for a few ours who couldn't make it, as well as those who switched instruments to fill a couple of gaps. Most importantly we need to thank our MD Warren, who is so passionate about helping the band achieve its potential. His hard work on keeping a controlled tempo and sustained sound seemed to win favour with both the judges and the audience.
This blog hasn't been updated since the summer when we were gearing up for our "History As You've Never Heard it Before" concert. That was such a big success that we decided to put highlights on youtube and repeat the whole thing this January in Solihull. In between we've run a Young Composers Competition, had a lot of fun rehearsing Edward Gregson's challenging piece "The Plantagenets" (even if that time we saved our best performance until the concert after the contest!), and as well as our usual concerts we had some new ones over Christmas which let us help raise a load of money for charity.
Overall the last 12 months have been a great time to be in the band, something that was captured for me in two moments yesterday. Firstly one of our deps for the contest expressing an interest in coming back, because the band had such a "great atmosphere" about it. Secondly the muted celebrations when our 4th place was announced, knowing that we were so close to a top 3 finish that would have sent us to the nationals. We've never been a band obsessed with contesting and we probably never will be, but over the last year we've gained a real ambition to do everything as well as we can, and that's something that's a lot of fun to be a part of.
