Norfolk Wherry Brass have spent two months, with extra rehearsals, preparing for the third section of the annual London and Southern Counties Regional Contest, which took place at the Stevenage Arts & Leisure Centre on Saturday 15th March.
The band was drawn to play 14th out of the 16 bands that had entered the competition and finally took to the stage at about 2pm. All of the performances were judged on interpretation and performance of the test piece “Partitia for Band (Postcards from Home)” by Phillip Wilby.
The band’s Director of Music, Andy Craze, told the band as they came off the stage that this was the best performance the band had given since he returned to the band two years ago.
A good number of the band returned to the hall throughout the day to support our friends at Great Yarmouth Brass and Harwich RBL, who both also performed admirably. Once the last band had played, there was a nervous wait whilst the results was totted up and the stage set for the awards presentation ceremony.
After what felt like an eternity (in reality probably about 10 minutes), we were then introduced to the adjudicators for the day, Graham Jones and John Doyle who gave impassioned and enthusiastic feedback both in their speeches on stage and in their written remarks sheet.
In time honoured tradition the results were announced from 6th place to 3rd and there was a touch of trepidation among the band whether they had done enough to earn a much coveted top 2 spot and thus qualification to the National Finals in September.
Having reached second place the band won the Gibson Cup, a cheque for £100, a certificate of achievement and an invitation to take part in the National Finals for the fourth time in its ten year history.