Stourport-on-Severn Brass Band News

 Plenty of things have happened since Dave Deakin posted the last news in November 1997 - almost a year!

You will soon see why I'm not a reporter - my talents must lie elsewhere, although according to our MD it's not necessarily on Baritone!<G>

I've just thought through what's happened in the band the best part of a year and jotted these down chronologically relating to concerts, contests, player changes etc. If any band members can let me know if I've made any errors, forgotten anything then I'll correct it in the next news.

I'll try and get something better done for the next news which should be after the Pontin's Contest at Prestatyn, North Wales over the weekend of 23rd to 26th October - I'll post the results late on Monday 26th October and follow this up with any news, stories and pictures probably the following week about 2nd November. If anyone reading these pages is going to Pontin's get in touch with me and hope we can have one, two (or more<G>) beers then!

Stop Press! - 24th September
No sooner had I got the latest news together and thinking I can have a rest until an update after Pontin's and we had to call a committee meeting.
This was mainly due to Roland declaring that he would like to step down from the post of Chair but giving a couple of months notice of this. Roland has been a very good chair and steered us through the maze of the successful Lottery Application and we quite understand his desire to get back to playing without these extra duties - thanks Roland! - no excuse now for lack of practice for Pontins and the 1999 Area!<G>. Although there is an emminently suitable replacement he/she needs to think about taking this up over the next couple of months.

Also various other band matters were discussed and Lisa resigned as Band Manager due to the amount of time she could commit to the job. However, this was resolved with the appointment of Annabelle Pattinson to take over the job. Thanks for taking on this important job (as well as the Trustee status that comes with it) & Good Luck Annabelle! - Mind you, if you know Annabelle it's the band that needs the luck as Annabel does "call a spade a shovel"!<G>

• We usually enter the contest at Aylesbury in early December but this year decided to enter in both the 2nd and 3rd Sections at the more local Leamington Spa contest.
• We played "Four Preludes" by Eric Ball in the 3rd section that was the test piece for Pontin's where we were a creditable 6th but this time we came 3rd out of 5 bands - not good but could have been worse.
• In the 2nd section we played our specially commissioned piece by John Frith - "Revolution" - and came 4th out of 6 bands. Again, not good but not at the bottom.
• We did our usual round of christmas concerts in the locality plus playing carols in Stourport and on the Severn Valley Railway to enter the Xmas spirit and collect for band funds before having a break over the holiday.

• Started working towards the Midlands Regional Qualifying Championships in March learning the test piece - "Three Saints" by Goff Richards.
• We usually enter a contest in February to get back in the swing before the Regionals and this year entered Milton Keynes in the combined 2nd and 3rd section.
• Perhaps we shouldn't have bothered as we were last out of 14 bands (haven't got the details as we were too gutted!).

• We were hopeful of doing well at the Regionals and although we thought we played quite well we had another disappointing mid table result coming 12th out of 18.:-(
• I think this keeps us solidly in the 3rd section with not much danger of going down to the 4th but also not much chance of getting back into the 2nd section for a while.
• We again entered the Worcester Competiive Music festival in the Open section to defend our trophy from 1997.
• Although a small contest there were 3 bands including our local rivals - 2nd Section Arrow Valley Brass.
• We were very pleased to win again beating Arrow Valley and adding to the band funds with the prize money!
• This year we also entered 3 ensembles in the competition and came 1st, 3rd and 4th.
• Dave Deakin (Solo Trom and Asst Cond) decided to move to pastures new and joined local rivals Arrow Valley Brass on 2nd Trombone.
• Rob Clarke moved up from the 2nd seat to Solo Trombone and Tony Parslow who was the additional 2nd Trombone with Rob gained the 2nd Trombone place in his own right.

• In the run up to the summer break we did several concerts but no contests as is normal.
• The big concert for us was Pershore Midsummer Brass in July where there is a great gathering of Midland bands playing for enjoyment in the Abbey and a marquee behind a local hotel.
• Our solo horn Annabel unfortunately had a family commitment on the day but she did us proud arranging for Helen Batten, the Flowers' Band 1st Horn, to stand in.
• Our 1st Baritone, Lisa, went ill on the day but we were rescued by Annabel Lorton from Sovereign in the Marquee and Kate Minns from Staffordshire Building Society in the Abbey.
• Marc Robins played percussion for us but due to the timing of his spot with Sovereign in the Marquee he missed our opening piece in the Abbey - luckily Ian Aulton (again from Staffs Building Society) jumped in for our opening Sousa march - you can't play a Sousa march without percussion!<G>.
• Quite a few changes to band personnel in April when Phil Robins and Wendy Allan left to play Sop and Horn at Avonbank (Evesham) respectively.
• Annabel moved up to Solo Horn and Helen Howard and Joanne Shuck moved from back row cornet to 1st and 2nd Horn respectively.
• In May/June our 2nd Euph, Phillippa had to stop playing as she is expecting her second baby early in 1999 and again was suffering the effects of her condition. Hope that in 1999 after a successful birth she may want some peace and quiet and come along again to rehearsals!<G>.
• After the shuffle of players from cornet to horn we were getting concerned that the back row cornets were looking a bit bare! This was alleviated when another local band - Malvern Hills - decided to release their MD, Mike Caveney and along came their Flugel - Rhonda Caveney, Soprano cornet - Nigel Stallard and Principal cornet - Justin Cooke to join us.
• We had our A.G.M. in April and due to the various comings and goings there were a few changes on the committee.
• Just before we finished for our summer break our Principal Cornet, Neil Fishbourne and 2nd "man" down, Helen Kelson announced that they were getting married in September which immediately filled an engagement to play at the evening reception for the band!<G>. It also meant a few of us had to join Neil to "look after him" at a Stag weekend to Blackpool in August.

• We always have a break from band during August - and to have a rest from each other!<G>.
• This year was no exception except some of us joined Neil for his Stag do. I've put up some pages of Neil's Stag Weekend - they are not complete yet as I have to get the photos from Neil and get them scanned - plus get Helen's permission to use them!<G>

• Started back at rehearsals on 1st September with Neil and Helen's choice of music to practice - oh, and also rehearse the pieces for the Wychavon Contest the following weekend!<G>.
• I went along to Pershore Registry Office on the morning of 5th September to make sure Neil and Helen both said "I do" and that no-one in the band was there to "declare a just cause or impediment"<G>. Everything went well and the weather came good for the day. :-)
• In the evening the band (plus guest players) played before the partying started to give Neil and Helen a good send-off. They weren't going far though as the Sunday morning saw a lot of us accompany Neil and Helen for a day at Symphony Hall, Birmingham for the British Open Championships and have a few drinks during the day and afterwards at the "Fiddle & Bone" nearby where a lot of the bands were celebrating/commiserating!<G>.
• I've put up some pages of the wedding and evening reception. Currently there are just a few of those I took at the wedding - I've still to finish the film of the evening party and get others to scan in from Neil and Helen. So watch this space!
• Martin Kemp (a friend of Richard Hatfield) who had played a few times with us but was under pressure to finish his accountancy final exams before being able to commit joined the band to fill the 2nd Euph seat.
• We entered our local Wychavon contest at Pershore on 13th September playing the same program in both 2nd and 3rd Sections. The early playing time of 10:30 didn't mix well with us and we were disappointed with our performance but still managed 4th place beating local rivals Alcester and Malvern Hills. At the last minute our Bass Trombone Jacquie, was drafted in to play for Shipston Town who came 2nd - so well done Jacquie!
• We had the rest of the day to kill before playing in the 2nd section at 6:45 pm so we had a pub lunch and went along to see my son play for Drakes Broughton Rangers in an under-14 match. We didn't get there until the end of the first half by which time they were 6-1 down! However, with much barracking of the referee and support they managed to hold the score down to 7-2 at full time - I'm not sure if the band have been banned from supporting in future!<G>
• In the 2nd section we played much better than the morning and although we finished =6th we were the highest placed 3rd section band and did beat local rivals Arrow Valley Brass plus tied with Bedworth Brass who have just come 6th in the 2nd Section National Finals this last weekend! So we weren't too unhappy.

• We have a few concerts to get ready for including the annual "Music for You" Proms concerts at Kidderminster Town Hall early in October.
• The main contest coming up is Pontin's at the end of October playing Philip Sparke's "Music For A Festival" where we hope to do as well (if not better) than our creditable 6th place on our debut last year.
• Just seen that the Area Test Pieces were announced at the lower section finals in Harrogate - it's Eric Ball's "Main Street" for us in the 3rd section. I don't know the piece but I'll get a chance to hear it at Pontin's as it's the test piece for the 2nd section!<G>
• I'll update the news after Pontin's next so watch this space!