Highest Ever Placing!

The band is celebrating this week after achieving our best ever result in the Regional Championships by coming fourth in the Second Section. Promotion in January to the Second Section followed a great couple of years for the band, during which we were crowned West of England Third Section Champions twice and competed in the National Finals in both 2010 and 2011. Knowing that we would be facing a tougher challenge in a higher section, after Christmas we set to work on the late Goff Richards’s Cross Patonce to try and get to grips with this very tricky piece of music.

Cross Patonce proved challenging for every section of the band but, as always, everybody worked extremely hard to make sure they could achieve what was being asked of them. As the piece started to come together, we began to believe that achieving our aim of being placed within the top ten bands was a real possibility.

With a sense of positivity in the air, even being drawn in the dreaded number one slot was not enough to dampen our enthusiasm and we took to the stage bright and early at 10am. After a performance that we felt was good but perhaps lacking in some of the Sidmouth sparkle that had been present at rehearsals, we faced the long wait until gone 3pm for the results. With no real expectation of being read out within the top six, we were delighted to be announced as having come fourth, ahead of many very proficient and well-established Second Section bands. As this was our first outing at this level, we took great pride in the fact we were placed ahead of 12 other bands and had really made our mark in the section. A special mention must go to Elaine on euphonium who bravely agreed to take on the tough cadenza that featured early in the piece. 　She tackled it brilliantly and managed to hold her nerve on the day to play it as well as she had consistently played it during rehearsals. Well done!

With the Areas done and dusted for 2012, it’s time to turn our focus back to the recording of the band’s new CD, which is taking place over the weekend of the 23rd, 24th and 25th March. Although great fun, recording a CD is a very long and tiring process - both physically and mentally. Luckily, with Ivor and Fiona in the band we’ll never run short of food or water, so all we’ll need are lips of steel and coffee on tap to keep us going throughout the weekend. Keep an eye on our website for more details of when and where you’ll be able to buy your copy of the CD.