February/March is the time when all contesting brass bands set their sights on preparing for the regional contests that happen around the country during the month of March. The bands in the Championship (top) section were required to play a piece of music entitled the Torchbearer by Peter Graham.
BCB had to travel to Torquay to take part in the West of England regional contest, in the previous weeks Professional conductor Nigel Taken had been thoroughly preparing the band for this contest ensuring we were familiar with the direction he wanted to give, and that we could play our parts!
After a short rehearsal in Torquay on the Saturday morning we were advised that we had been drawn to play 13th (last). This meant that we would not be on stage until approx. 7pm.
We finally got on stage shortly after 7pm and produced a performance that both conductor and players were happy with, and a short while after it was announced that the adjudicators had placed BCB in 4th place, the band were extremely happy with this as not only was it an improvement on last year’s result but also meant that the band maintained its Championship status for another year.
This certainly made the trip back to Bournemouth an enjoyable one.
