Desford’s year 2007
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Desford’s year started in good spirits, coming off the back of its podium finish at the British Open Brass Band Championships at the end of end of 2006, it seemed that the work was starting to pay off. A cold January weekend in Skegness culminated in the Band’s second National Mineworkers title at three attempts and a blistering individual performance by David Smith was deemed worthy of the soloist prize.
Next, to the Midland areas, qualifiers for the National Finals at the Albert Hall. Whilst hailed as the perennial favourite to take this title by the brass band press, Burton Town Hall has proved a hit and miss affair over the past few years. This year, second was the result and just enough to qualify for London.
May saw the staging of the All England Masters. The test piece this year was Elgar Howarth’s In Memorium RK (Rudolph Kempe), arguably the best piece of brass band writing to grace the contest stage. This was probably Desford’s best opportunity to take a major title this year and there was enough confidence within the band to await the results before leaving Cambridge for the Bali and Jakarta.
Whilst catching the ear of both the audience and banding press, it wasn’t to be and seventh was the return. Whilst the confidence of band members tends to rely more on musical success of a performance, it has to be said that there was a moment of “what do we have to do!”.
Within twenty-four hours of the Masters result, the band had made it to Bali.
Having produced probably its best result in recent times at the previous year’s contest, the British Open at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall in September was a potentially pivotal contest. A single top six placing is one thing but to follow that with a similar result in the following year is quite another. Top six was the aim and fourth was the result.
Following close on the heels of the Open, the National Finals is a very different beast. Success in Symphony Hall relies on making some beautiful sounds in a responsive auditorium. The Albert Hall is not a responsive auditorium. Desford’s performance was cultured and blemish free. However, understated warm sounds have a tendency to get lost, and lost we were at the results. Tenth was a reality check and we really need to learn how to play the Nationals stage. Even so, it was another good performance and by this point in the year there was a sense of expectation as we took to the stage.
After a break of twenty years, Desford made a return to Brass in Concert in its new home at Gateshead’s Sage Theatre. This is a fantastic event, which pits twelve of the top bands against each other for the entertainment of a capacity audience. This is a contest where the very best pull out all the stops. Desford chose to pull out a Howard Snell inspired programme. After a week in which both Nigel Seaman and Andy Chettleborough both broke their ankles, inspiration was understandably at a premium. Kevin Steward, Desford’s bandmaster stood in at three days notice and whilst the band gave a solid performance, solid doesn’t quite fit the bill and eighth place come the results was about right.
Overall 2007 was a consolidating year for the Desford. We’re now knocking on the door of the top ten, having dipped our toe in for couple of months in the second half of the year. Some big lessons have been learnt during the year, not least the value of our depth of quality. Gary Wyatt’s stepping up to Principal Cornet for the National Finals and Steve Bailey’s performance on Soprano at the British Open deserve special note.
Hopefully working more cleverly over the coming year will lead to continued musical success and maybe even favourable contest results.