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Re: compare and contrast

Marc Robbins wrote:

>
> IMO, the Arts centre at Warwick Uni would make a reasonable venue, but then
> again, anythings better than Nottingham!

I agree. I thought the venues used in Scotland were poor (especially Motherwell
which never seems to suit our band :-)

I visited friends in Nottingham last year, and attended the regional contest.
The venue is unbelievable, especially the hall which held the 1st section (the
low ceiling, with the stage raised slightly off the ground !!!!). The congestion
in the foyer was really bad .... and the beer tent - with the rain dripping in
........ !!

It's like everything else .... what can you do ?? It's the same as the debate on
adjudicators last week, and percussion. I think most competitors know what
improvements should be made to make these events at least bearable :-

i) Improved venues - with decent facilities. Bands should not be changing in
coaches, or waiting to go on stage in a cold hallway with no warm up facilities.
Our area is in Troon next year, and the venue struggles to cope with ten bands !
Rumour is there is to be a tent in the car park, it'll either be for beer or
changing in !!!
ii) Percussion - the choice to use equipment provided, or bring your own. The
provided equipment should be of a standard which would satisfy percussionists.
How many contest organisers would recognise high quality equipment ?
iii) Adjudicators - a minimum of two adjudicators for the top two sections.
Adjudicators for all sections at all areas should provide a short synopsis on
the music, just to prove they know it, and they must give genuine indications on
how they interpret various aspects, including the tempi, volume etc.
iv) Registration - further streamlining of the registration system. All band's
should be sent a list of their 35 registered players two weeks before the event,
and must choose their 28 from those. No additions after two weeks. No signing on
.... that's what the photographs should have been used for. It would have
prevented the fiasco at the 2nd sectional nationals in '97, and taken some of
the burden off us overworked secretary's :-)

Overall it's amazing how many organiser have never set foot in a band hall in
years. We are lucky up here to have Neil Watson recently appointed as Secretary
of the Scottish Association (SABBA), hopefully things will begin to improve.
Some (humerous, but slightly scary) examples of how it has been recently - I was
helping organise a local contest a few years ago, and was amazed to see some of
our SABBA officials setting up the stage in the morning, placing four seats and
four stands on the stage for the trombone section and the front row cornets :-)
Another good one was when attending a contest two years ago, the organisers had
placed the adjudicators box in the balcony, but on one side of the hall .... up
and behind the cornet section .... imagine if that had happened in the Free
Trade Hall ;-)

			    John

p.s. thanks for all the positive remarks about our website. It's about 75% done
now, should be finished next week.

 Cowdenbeath Brass Band



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