A terrific day (evening) at Bradford yesterday. Brighouse was drawn 5th and though it was not nearly their best performance (quite a few uncharacteristic splits in big spots) they won!!!!

As I scored the 13 bands, I was sure B&R had played the most musical and best sounding rendition. I just thought the splits would be too much to overcome given that a couple of other bands played nearly perfectly. I had them 3rd and then moved them to 4th as I figured “the men in the box will just get it wrong and won’t appreciate the performance”. Thankfully I was wrong!

In the end, the judges were most impressed with the sheer music making of B&R. For m,e one of the key differences in B&R’s performance as compared to the other bands were the accents. B&R’s accents were never sharp but always with weight and stress. I also thought the tempos were closer to the written metronome markings. I felt most of the other bands played significantly faster then the written tempos.

As I get my thoughts together I’ll write more about my impressions of the day, but you should understand that this Area Championship is at the heart of the brass band movement. Of the 13 bands in the championship section, 6 of them are in the top 11 in the world. A very strong section to say the least.

Cheers,
B-