CSB Strike Gold

Last Sunday the Croydon Symphonic Band, played at the Colchester round of the National Wind Band Festival.   Despite an absolutely horrible journey (for me because of my bad back, for others because a lorry shed it's load of Christmas Trees on the A12) we all arrived i decent time, had a run through ad then hit the stage.
The consensus of opinion in the Band is that we played as well as we could have, and quite possibly as well as we have.   I am glad to be able to say that the adjudicators seem to have agreed and given us a Gold Award.    couple of years ago BASWE introduced an extra, higher, standard of a Platinum award, and now it is only Platinum award winners who get an automatic invitation to the finals, gold award winners have to wait.   Given the standard of our performance we are hopeful of an invitation to the finals, which we are especially keen to be at this year, since they will be help at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Well we followed that with a fund raising concert lat night (Saturday) for Ifield Church.   As well as the program we played at the festival we added a few repertoire numbers including my favourite show selection - Les Miserables.   I get a tremendous kick out of playing with this band, I have been with them for well over 30 years now, and I think that overall we are better now than at any time in the past.   However we are short on numbers in the heavy brass, a shortage that is about to become critical as our first trombone is leaving due to a change in his work.   In consequence I don't know what part I will be playing when we start up again after Christmas, at various times this term I have played Bass, Bass Trombone, First Trombone and Euphonium.   The only one of these I would not be happy commit to would First Trombone.   I am not a tenor player, I never have been and never will be I just can't play up there.

How many Tuba players does it take to change a light bulb? None we can't reach that high.

Busy Weekend

I have a busy weekend looming ahead of me, on Saturday the Brass band has a gig in Surbiton playing for a Mason's dinner.   We are only doing a half hour slot, but it still takes up the whole evening, and off course I will have to take the band kit and give a couple of members a lift.   We will not be doing anything too taxing, but this job came in very late so quite a few members are already committed to other activities, still we should be able to give them an entertaining half hour with a few songs to sing along to.

Then on Sunday it all gets a bit more serious. CSB are playing at the Colchester area round of the BASWE National Wind band Festival.   I shall be playing Bass Trombone for this, I am glad to be getting the trombone out, but am still surprised at how little I get to play.   It is always an odd feeling when you look around the band and see everyone else blowing their hearts out while you are still counting bars rest.   Of course with a Bass Trombone there is always an impact when we do come in, especially if it's a ff fzf.

One orchestral conductor I had stopped the orchestra to point out to the violins that the Bass Trombone had a dynamic that no other orchestral instrument possessed, "Obliterato".

The Program

I should have said what the program for the festival is we are playing three pieces
Finnegan's Wake by Archibald J. Potter
The Sun Will Rise Again by Philip Sparke, and
The first three movements of Robert Russell Bennett's Suite of Old American Dances.

this is a good varied, and challenging program.   Let's hope the adjudicators agree.