Milnrow Band - Grand Shield Competition

The Winter Gardens, Blackpool was the venue for the 92nd Spring Brass Band Festival Championships.

The Milnrow Band was, for the second time, competing in the high profile 'Grand Shield Competition', the premiere section of the day, pitting its undoubted talents against 19 of the finest of the UK's brass bands.

The test piece was the very difficult, 'On the Shoulders of Giants', a concerto for brass bands and percussion composed by the renowned Professor Peter Graham and comprising of three sections, 'Fanfares', 'Elegy' and 'Fantasie Brillante', each giving homage to such world renowned composers as Bruckner, Sousa and performers Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Miles Davis and Tommy Dorsey.

There is a saying in brass banding that to win you do not have to play a test piece to perfection but just better than the opposition and to this end, the band took to the stage believing that the chances of a perfect performance by any of the bands was remote.

From the very first huge percussive notes of the tympany, to the final full bodied bars of the piece, every member had an important part to play.

It would be deemed unfair on this occasion to single out individuals, but suffice to say that under the direction of Mareika Gray the band and the soloists from every section performed admirably, and on the occasions where combinations of duets, trios or group playing was required, every member from percussion and the bottom end basses to the top end soprano cornet combined to produce a comprehensive team effort.

After such a performance there was high hopes of a top finish but the adjudicators decreed other wise, awarding the band a creditable 8th place (incidentally the same result as last year) out of a total of 20 performances, thus the band had played better than 12 of the opposition bands and maintained its status in this prestigious event.

On this occasion the band could definitely be labelled an international outfit, being under the direction of Mareika Gray (Australian) with a Solo Euphonium player (American),a Principal Solo Cornet player (Denmark) and at least one percussionist from (Scotland).

Ken Watts, Band President, said: "It should be stated that for many years brass bands shunned the help of female players but thankfully in recent years this attitude has totally changed and The Milnrow Band is proud that at least 50% of its members are young ladies.

"Well done one and all for your sustained efforts."