Cornet player and brass tutor Mark Rodgers gives us an insight into the band world with his column, Brassed Off.
MARCH IS here and with it comes one very important contest for our local bands: The Northwest Regional Brass Band Championships, or ‘The Areas’ as they are lazily but fondly referred to.
Sunday 9 will see Blackpool awash with players in uniform, laden with cases, suit carriers and other equipment. They will all be hovering around the famous Winter Gardens complex, each one showing different emotions on their faces.
Those who have yet to play will either be eager to get on stage and deliver their performance, others will be dreading the nerve wracking ordeal. Those that have played will be showing signs of relief but their demeanour will reflect how the performance went, either on a personal basis or the whole band effort.
Last month I suggested contests aren’t the ‘be all and end all’ of brass banding, but the Areas come pretty close.
Held over three weeks throughout England, Scotland and Wales with more than five hundred bands competing across five sections (the equivalent of football leagues), a place in the top two or three bands gains the golden chalice of an invitation to the National Finalslater in the year.
This does not mean instant promotion though – this is worked out on point accumulation, as is the dreaded relegation.
All our local bands competing at Preston last month will visit the coast with an air of optimism as Saddleworth dominated the prizes.
Greenfield showed how well their rebuilding work is going with victory in the Fourth Section while neighbours at Boarshurst Silver proved they are a force to be reckoned with as theygained the Third Section title.
Although it may have appeared my band Delph ‘let the side down’ as runners up in the Second Section, we were delighted with this result from our first stage performance of the year. It gave us a real psychological boost ahead of Blackpool.
One new player in our ranks will have to settle in very quickly before The Areas as we welcome American trumpet student Brad Jones to play Soprano Cornet. He has never played for a Brass Band before so this will be a real baptism of fire on his debut.
There is no news on the preparations of our other local bands but I imagine they are all working extremely hard towards the contest. With seven bands at this competition Saddleworth comes together musically despite the local rivalries and we should be wishing each other ‘all the best’ on the big day.
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