Blaenavon Town Band Weston Contest

Sunday 21st May 2006

Blaenavon Town 4th Place at Weston

After the successful second placing at Ebbw Vale, Blaenavon Band looked forward to Weston with some optimism and hoping to improve on last year’s Weston second placing and best instrumentalist.

In weather more fitting for ducks we started from the band hall to pick up points down the valley, Cwmbran and Newport, to arrive at the pretty village of Uphill and a rehearsal in the village hall.

Back at the Winter Gardens we heard we had drawn eight out of ten bands in the Third Section which gave us a chance for refreshment or to listen to the first three bands in our section.

Of these three bands, two were placed first and third. There were only two Welsh bands in the section and South Molton Town playing off number one spot, were adjudged to be the winners with 182 points, playing “Northern Landscapes”. Gillingham Silver, “Laudate Dominum”, were runners-up with 181 points and third was Totnes with 180 points playing “Music for a Festival.” In addition to coming second, the basses of Gillingham Silver took the W. Hurst Memorial Trophy for the best set of basses. We had played immediately before Gillingham, the same music so it gave the adjudicator, Mr Stan Lippeatt, opportunity to compare interpretations. The adjudication indicated some over blowing and sectional slips but no major criticism.

Our next contest date is the National Eisteddfod on August 5th at Swansea which will be an Entertainment programme. Prior to that we have a concert at Morgan Jones Park in Caerphilly on June 11, Blaenavon World Heritage Day on June 24th, Songs of Praise on June 25th and a Welsh Regiment Association Summer Ball on June 30th.

Quote of the week was made when certain Bass Player arrived to get the coach to Weston in a gleaming new Mercedes Benz motor. “Did you get a free pair of black trousers with that?” someone asked. Non Blaenavon band members will not see the relevance of the remark!

 The Adjudication is given below:

LAUDATE DOMINUM

Not all together on pick up trombones. Solid sounding band work. 6 before G horns sound forced. B Clear clean playing in a good tempo, just the odd tuning problem. D Accomp to be smoother please. Cor/Euph play well, just the odd blip. E Cornet/sop hit and miss, euph plays well 6 before G. Good tuba. G Nice band sounds but why so big up to the high Bb cornets? H Too loud for pp. I A shade of overblowing. J Horns play too hard. K The same as I. Link to M OK. M Nice euphoniums. N Quite a few tuning problems. P Only f and the < > become overdone. Q Good start. R Why so short in the crotchets horns and cornets but yes neat clean playing. Tune before V well done. Y Good big style (oops sop). Fine sounds, just a shade OTT in the last few bars.

A performance with things to offer but it also had a few problems.

Stan Lippeatt

The top 4 in the Third Section were: