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“Our trip to the Finals in Manchester”

by Ashley Dick and Becky Mitchell

On April 12th, the Junior Band left Scotland and headed for Manchester to compete in the British Youth Championships.   Our months of training and weeks of intense 5 hour rehearsals were finally over with and with a proud flag waving farewell from our fan club (who wouldn’t look out of place in a scene from “Brassed Off” ) and after one very long bus journey, we were able to relax in the Doric Hotel in Blackpool the night before the competition.

It was a tough few weeks in the run up to the championships, though it paid off.   We had help from Les Neish (Tuba Soloist from the Fodens Band) who ran a very enjoyable and memorable workshop.   We took part in weird and wonderful games, such as the “paper blowing competition”, standing in a circle and clapping our hands like idiots and playing “twinkle twinkle” through our mouthpieces.    Strange as it may seem, this actually helped our concentration and playing skills, so our thanks to Les Neish for a brilliant weekend.

We all had a fantastic time in Blackpool, thanks to the groovy disco put on for us by the hotel and, of course, the swimming pool (which the majority of us spent our entire time in!).   Apologies to the hotel staff for putting up with us, racing around in nothing but our swimsuits trying to make it out of the rooms before checkout.     This was not a challenge for us, since our room matched the capacity of our bus seats, unlike some of the other juniors, who stayed in rooms matching the size of the entire bus!

The competition itself went by in no time.  The moment we arrived we were rushed off the bus, up to the practice room, warmed up for a few minutes and were hurried on to the stage.   We all played the very best we could and our conductor, Ian Taylor, certainly made us a band to remember with his “flamboyant” style of conducting.    Thankfully, no nose bleeds this time Ian!

We gained a SILVER award and we were all very pleased with what we had achieved, and would like to say thanks to our Patrons and Organisers for allowing us to have this wonderful experience. 

Roll on next year!