SWBBA Annual Championships, Torquay

Since MSB’s Fairytale in Torquay last year when we won the 2nd section top prize and percussionist Henry Boler won best instrumentalist we have been promoted to the 1st section nationally. This means that for SWBBA 2009 the band had to enter the dreaded “Open Section”. This section is an amalgamation of the top two sections and meant that MSB really had to compete with the big boys.

With trepidation and a lot of help from Melvin White, MSB prepared the piece “The Saga of Haakon the Good” complete with Viking battle cry! As rehearsals went by Melvin’s greatest criticism was that the battle cry was sounding too much like the previous occupants of the band hall, the local WI!

When it came to performance day the band didn’t really know what to expect, having never competed in the open section before and knowing that there were two very good top section bands in the mix, a trophy was far from expected and the phrase “as long as we do our best” became the most frequent spoken.

Mr White is an expert at relaxing a band and when we sat on the stage of the Riviera centre, nerves evaporated and a distinct yet alien feeling of relaxation took over. Whether this could have been in part due to the 2nd Horn’s new found herbal remedy habit or the solo cornet concentrating more on not bringing up lunch is anyone’s guess.

The performance that followed was one of style, confidence and musicality including the loudest battle cry since Haakon himself. Not perfect but certainly a performance we could be proud of.

The biggest cheer of the day came when the 3rd place band was read out as Michelmersh Silver Band! The result is a real feather in the band’s cap for the first year in the open section and a result that pushed a top section band out of the prizes. The adjudicator’s remarks were glowing including comments such as “Fine Trombones”, “Good Horns” and “Superb Solo Cornet”. No best instrumentalist prize available in this section but if there had been, principal cornet Jan Boler would have walked it.

As a stand alone contest the result has no bearing on national grading but the battle cry will have been heard across the whole of the West of England ahead of the regional contest in March. The only bad news is that we have to go and do it all again on the 28th November in Weymouth, this time with something to live up to.