Campbeltown Brass
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News from 2005 (January-June) |
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January
Band Members Solo Contest. The Band holds their annual solo contest in memory of Jenny Ralston, Lynsey Wardrop and Emma Paterson, all whom were former players and whose lives were tragically cut short in different road accidents. The adjudicator was John Boax, from Kilmarnock. Beginners - 1st Kathryn Howell, 2nd Rachael Cosgrove Juniors - 1st Donald Brian, 2nd Erin Mcsporran Intermediates - 1st Mark Good, 2nd Eilidh Brian Open - 1st Hazel Barr, 2nd Willie Ralston.
John also gave a master class and took band practice during the weekend, going over Tam O' Shanter's Ride in preparation for the forthcoming Scottish Championships.
Campbeltown Brass secures grant from Arts Council. At the start of 2005, the band received some great news, their application for a grant from the Scottish Arts Council for music tuition had been approved. We have been awarded just over £7000 to cover two schemes we hope to set up in the springtime. The first, an intensive weekend weekend course in Glasgow, working with 6 top musical tutors, who will work with the contest band on Tam O' Shanter's Ride, the test piece for the Scottish Championships in March. The second course, which is in Campbeltown, around Easter time, will be for the whole band, but more importantly, to bring the younger members on with their playing. Hopefully, again 6 tutors will be on hand to give sectionals and master classes to help boost the overall playing of the band.
February Besson Scottish Solo and Ensemble Championships. 8 members of the band traveled to Livingston to compete in the Championships, with entries in the Junior Solos, Intermediate Solos, Intermediate Quartets and Open Solo classes. Junior Solos - 2nd Donald Brian Intermediate Solos - 3rd Mark Good, 4th Eilidh Brian Intermediate Ensembles - 1st Campbeltown Brass 'A' Open Solos - 13th Willie Ralston
Campbeltown Brass holds intensive tuition weekend for Championships Campbeltown Brass recently got an approval from the Scottish Arts Council for a tuition grant, in which the band held an intensive training weekend for the contest band, on Sat 19th & Sun 20th in Glasgow's Swallow Hotel. We invited some of the top musicians in the country to help us out with Tam O' Shanter, in preparation for the forthcoming Scottish Championships in March. The weekend was split into mostly sectional practices during the day and band practices at night. The tutors invited to help out the sections were: Mike Bennett Front Row Cornets John Boax Back Row Cornets Alan Edmond Horns Alison Bonnar Euphoniums/Baritones Nigel Cox Trombones Dave Nesbit Basses
Craig Anderson will be taking the band to
the Championships, while he only manages down once a month or
so, and with nobody else to conduct them, the band work
away every week themselves, keeping it running. Instead
of the annual England tour at this time of year, the idea
came up to hold this course, not only benefiting the band for
the contest, but also helping the band in the long run. With the average of 16, and the idea of trying to tackle Tam O' Shanter without some outside help, it was near an impossible task for the band to undertake without such a course. There will be another course & lessons to help the youth band in April, with the rest of the grant money. After 10 hours of sectionals with the tutors on Sat & Sun and 5 band practices over the long weekend, a session at the go-karting in Clydebank and trip to the cinema on Monday, the trip was a major success. All the members came away with plenty of knowledge of the piece and proved that, by showing what they had learned at the last practice in front of the tutors. Special thanks to John Boax’s girlfriend Carrie Wilson, from Irvine & Dreghorn for helping out the short-staffed percussion section! Campbeltown Brass will show what they have benefited from the weekend, at Dundee in a few weeks time when they aim for promotion into the second section.
March Scottish Championships 12/3/05 After many months of preparation, Campbeltown Brass made the long travel up to Dundee to compete in the 3rd section. We were drawn 11th, last on in the section and went on to give one of our best performances of Tam O' Shanters Ride. Although the competition was tough, the adjudicators placed us a very disappointing 6th place. There was lots of support from audience members and fellow banders that we had been robbed of a few places in the contest, but that's just banding!! Everybody came away a little low, but the mood soon changed on the eventful bus journey home!! Hopefully we can use what we learned from working on the test piece this year and have better results at the forth-coming contests in the rest of 2005. Third Section Results Mid Argyll Music Festival 19/3/05 Well done again to all our solo performers and ensembles who came back with prizes from Lochgilphead and also to the contest band who won the Open Band Contest for the 15th year in a row. The youth band also competed for the 1st time and came away with a trophy, so it was a very satisfactory weekend for all. Campbeltown Brass members tour Luxembourg 26/3/05-29/3/05 During the Easter weekend, three members from Campbeltown Brass traveled to Luxembourg to play concerts with the Young Ambassadors Brass Band of Great Britain. Katrina Barr, Willie Ralston and Ricky Evans made up the band of 30 members, with players mostly from the 10 top bands in Britain, such as YBS Band, Sellers, Faireys, Yorkshire IMPS, Leyland, Travelsphere, Ever Ready, Buy As You View Cory Band, BT Band and including the current British Open Solo Champion, Alex Thomas from the YBS Band. The band played four concerts with conductor Frank Wolff, to large audiences around Luxembourg, playing in bandstands in Diekirch, Place D’Arms in Luxembourg City, Echternach and a final concert in Place D’Arms again on Monday night. There was no time for rehearsals, so it was straight into the concerts with quite a bit of sight-reading! It was very demanding but very enjoyable tour, all three came away with lots of experience and gave them a taste of how high the standard is of Championship Section banding in Britain. Willie will be playing with the band again in August, when they will tour America and Canada for two weeks.
April Training weekend for Youth Band 2/4/05 During the first weekend in April, Campbeltown Brass held its second tuition course, this time for the Youth Band. Alison Bonnar, Paul Kiernan and Charlie Farren from the Scottish Co-op Band and John Boax, Carrie Wilson, Alan Edmond, Mike Bennett, Darren Tanner and Miriam McKay were all asked down to Campbeltown to help teach the younger members of the band. All the sections were split up and the tutors had two days to work their magic on the kids! Even the beginners were subject to Charlie's teaching methods, amongst all their giggles and laughter! The weekend ended on a high with a concert in the Castlehill School on the Sunday night, showing off what everybody had learned over the busy weekend.
With the success of these training weekends, plans are underway to hold another in the summertime. Congratulations... To trombone player Mark Good, who was presented with the Norman Milne Memorial trophy by the Rotary Club of Campbeltown, as Most Promising Young Musician of the Year. This was the 5th year the award was made and the 3rd time it has been won by a member of Campbeltown Brass. The previous 2 winners from the band being Rhona Barr in 2002 and Hazel Barr in 2004.
Fife Brass Band Festival 23/04/05
Formally known as the Carnegie Invitation Contest, the Fife
Brass Band Festival was held in the Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline,
on Sat 23rd April. The band played well and came 2nd to Shotts
St. Patricks, the current Scottish 3rd Section Champions. We
played Chicken Run, Georgia On My Mind (cornet soloist
Hazel Barr), For the Love of a Princess and Cossack Dance. It was a busy weekend for some of our members, Ricky and Mark also guested for Mr. Evans' band, Flimby Saxhorn and Willie guested for Kirkintilloch Kelvin Band. KKB have a strong line-up of ex Campbeltown members, (Rhona Barr, Laura Hall, Ranold Rixon, Leigh-Ann MacInnes, Rhona Watson and Susan Marrison) and it is good to see them still playing and doing well. KKB will be playing at the National Finals in Harrogate in Sept and will be promoted in to the Championship Section in Nov. We, ourselves had another former member, Graham Fuge guesting for us on percussion. Other ex-members who were playing at the contest were Stuart Gorringe with Broxburn and Livingston Band and Iain Hill with Newmilns and Galston. It was good to catch up with them all again and to know they are just managing to cope in life without being in Campbeltown Brass!
May Band members join in the Whit Friday
fun! 20/05/05 On the 20th May, Kenny Campbell, Katrina Barr and Willie Ralston travelled down to Saddleworth in Yorkshire, to compete in the Whit Friday Marches for the 1st time. They joined L&SC 1st Section band, Denham & Hendon Brass Band, playing “Death or Glory” on the road march and “Bramwyn” in the main contest. They did 7 contests throughout the day, travelling between the local villages on the contest circuit. Whit Friday is one of the few contests in the country where the smaller bands can compete against all the big name bands, such as Black Dyke, Fodens, YBS, Brighouse, Hepworth and Leyland etc. There were hundreds of spectators about, as all the bands marched down the main streets of the local villages and even more at the contest sites! The band eventually finished their contesting day, playing at Greenfields, at 10pm under the floodlights, (where the adjudicator was sat in an old caravan!) to lots of cheers! At Delph, one of the busiest and most popular villages on the circuit, the band came 40th out of a record 75 bands competing there throughout the day, where it didn’t finish up till 12:45 in the morning!! Their best results were in Scouthead (15th out of 63), Dobcross (19th out of 49) and Denshaw (24th out of 58). Overall winners were Black Dyke, taking home over £6500 prize money! A highly enjoyable day for all, who knows, maybe Campbeltown Brass will make the trip down next year!
Website Launched! 28/05/05 As of Saturday 28th May, our website was officially launched on the World Wide Web! After months of work building the site, we are very pleased that we can finally promote our band over the internet. Tarbert Boat Race 28/05/05 The band played at the annual Boat Race in Tarbert, although the weather wasn't the best and at one point we thought the marquee was going to blow away! The band entertained some of the boat crews and public, but the rain didn't help and the crowd wasn't as large as most years. However those that did listen, said the music did brighten up their day!
June Barbara Mactaggart Memorial Service 4/06/05 The band were privileged to be invited to play at the memorial service for former band-member, Barbara Mactaggart. Barbara was tragically killed with her boyfriend, Craig Stanley in Thailand, in the Tsunami disaster. The hall was packed with friends and family to celebrate Barbara's life. Our thoughts go out to the Mactaggart & Stanley families. 550 Hits!! 4/06/05 In just 1 week, our brand new website has already had over 550 hits!! Various press releases have been published in the media and on the internet to advertise the new site. A few folk have also signed the guestbook, pity they're nearly all from the band, the band-members can hardly sign in as guests!!
Kintyre Music Festival 18/06/05 The Kintyre music festival was held in the Lorne & Lowland Church, running over 3 days, with solos, ensembles, duets, choirs and bands all taking part. Well done to everyone who took part, particularly our younger members, some of whom were competing for the 1st time. There wasn't a bad performance from anyone and some of them were outstanding, resulting in very high marks. Annual General Meeting 23/06/05 Was held in the Community Centre and was well supported. There was lots of discussion and plenty of new ideas put forward. The committee for the forthcoming year is: Chairman: Jimmy Taylor Band Manager: Tom Fuge Musical Director: Craig Anderson Bandmaster: Willie Ralston Youth Band Musical Director: Katrina Barr Youth Band Bandmaster: Mark Good Committee Members: Kenny Campbell Catherine Cunningham Andrew Ralston Lynne Campbell Jamie Hardie Fundraising Committee: Mhari Macalister Clive Good Margaret McSporran Jane BrianLifeboat Day 25/06/05 The band played at the annual lifeboat gala day on the pier. It was a great day out amongst the stalls, playing to the public, who were out supporting the local lifeboat station.
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