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Re: Contests/Concerts.

David Williams wrote:


>Steve Larwood  told how his band Melbourne Town, Derby.UK has a"concert
>only" policy, which I think it to be applauded.....a band that actually
>realises that  the prime purpose of a band is to entertain folk !  We all
>know the old argument that contesting improves the standard of a band...but
>surely one or two a year should be enough.   It is understandable that the
>top bands have to do the Open and National....but some have big money
>sponsorship to pay the costs.    How do the other section bands find the
>funds for conductor, travelling costs.etc. instruments, insurance,
bandroom,
>etc.   ....if they don't earn from concerts.   I have known the times when
>the village would
>turn out to greet a winning band from a contest.  But these days "it don't
>mean a thing" to the general public, no more than the local bowling team
>winning a cup !  I realise that turning a band out for an engagement (fetes
>etc.) costs a lot, but my plan would be to  try splitting a band ....say
>half the band to play at a reasonable charge at a carnival, etc. Even a
>quartet is better than nothing !   Somehow, bands must get back to playing
>for their communities once more ....music to suit all tastes, young and
old.
>Maybe they will find it is more enjoyable and satisfying than weeks spent
>practicing for a contest that usually ends in disappointment...and a waste
>of money .  Still I suppose that's how some folk get their kicks. But hang
>on....did,nt one recent poll show that most players preferred concerts to
>contesting ?    A last thought for us all to ponder one.  I believe most
>people would agree that our top bands are the best in the world....one of
>the few things that the country can really be proud of....when did our
>millionnaire the soccer players last win the world cup, a tennis players
win
>Wimbledon ?.....and so on !   The people who spend their time organising
all
>these contests should get together to make the media, broadcasters ,etc.
>aware of the potential of our bands and that there are many thousands who
>would like to hear a band in popular radio programmes now and again.
>Cheers.
>Dave Williams.
>
>


Well, our band is a fourth section band (Clydebank Burgh) and up until last
year the only contest we did was the area contest (ie Scotland). We have
since started doing more other contests to try and get us all used to
playing in a contest - since nerves quite often get the better of us
inexperienced players. I must say since doing that our band has improved,
although we have some personnel problems which  means we can't really do
ourselves justice in a contest, and we're  looking for a new conductor as
well at the moment. We have someone meantime until we choose a new one, but
we are still playing all the other gigs that we do, most notably a three
night christmas concert along with some other local groups that always sells
out. We also play christmas carols in the local shopping centre (an open air
part) to raise money and you'd be surprised to hear that we get much more
money doing that than all the fetes we do in the summer!

The band as a whole would like to be a contesting band despite our personnel
problems and we are working hard to overcome them. I agree that brass bands
are not as popular as they used to be, but people have more kinds of music
available to them now than listening to their local band in the park. I
think it would be nice if the brass band "movement" was a bit more popular
but you can't force people to like it I'm afraid!

Kirsty McCafferty

flugel.kjmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/8361/


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