Competition success is music to brass band’s ears

USUALLY confined to bandstands, fetes and a cold band room, brass bands up and down the country look forward to the area contests each March as an opportunity to stand up and be counted.

Battle Town Band is no exception to this and on Sunday March 17 they travelled en masse to Stevenage where they competed in the London and Southern Counties regional section of the national brass band championships.

The brass band world is divided up into five sections according to ability and every year the different sections are each allocated a piece of music that will test the bands within it.

Battle Town Band have been enjoying a period of contest success and since 2010 have been promoted from the 4th section to the 2nd section.

A sign of the band’s improvement is that they have not been placed outside the top five in their five previous contests.

The regional contest this year was the band’s first outing in the 2nd section and they performed The Plantagenets by Edward Gregson.

Written for the Championship section bands in 1973, this piece presented challenges for every player in the band and was widely regarded across the country as the hardest 2nd section piece ever chosen.

Having rehearsed the piece every week since Christmas, the band arrived in Stevenage feeling prepared to give a good account of themselves.

They were drawn to play last out of the 18 bands on the day and performed well with musical director Jon Penton saying he was “extremely pleased and proud” with the way they had played.

The hours of rehearsals paid off and the band were awarded fourth place, considered an extremely good result for their debut year in the section.

To celebrate their achievements the band headed to Bay Spice in Hastings, which had sponsored the band last year towards the cost of new clothing alongside the band’s formal uniform.