Milnrow Band second place at North West Regional Championships

Milnrow Band final full rehearsal before the North West Regional Championships

Milnrow Band came second competing against 11 other top class bands in the North West Regional Championships at Blackpool on Sunday (26 February).

The band was familiar with the test piece, ‘Pageantry’ by Herbert Howells, as it was used as recently as a month ago at the Brass at the Guild (Preston) contest.

At Preston Milnrow had achieved second place against eight championship bands from Yorkshire, Midlands, Nottingham and Durham, so were aware of some of the pitfalls contained in this very listenable but difficult piece.

The test piece is comprised of three sections, ‘Kings Herald’, ‘Cortege’ and ‘Jousts’.

Milnrow made an excellent start, settling well into part one, the ‘Kings Herald’, with timing, technique and over all sounds, conveying the ‘pomp’ which the ‘Herald’ so richly deserved.

Milnrow band is known for its ability to provide lovely contrasts of ‘light and shade’ with excellent finesse of tone and depth between ‘pp’ and ‘f’, ‘ff’ and above.

The sympathy and warmth of these abilities were shown in the bands' rendition of part two, ‘Cortege’

In the final movement ‘Jousts’, the band exhibited its prowess in providing big and full sounds without distortion, so vividly bringing to life a jousting scene of old.

Allied to enthusiastic competent playing and all round finger agility this led to a grand finale to a great performance.

When required, the soloists excelled, and the accompaniment provided by the ensemble was of great quality throughout.

After the performance the atmosphere was of jubilation with many of the players visually affected and said: ‘I felt it was good’, ‘I was nearly in tears’ and ‘I had butterflies it was so good’.

The possibility of a very favourable result could become a reality and Mark Bentham (MD) said: “They could not have played it better.”

Adjudicators in the box were Roger Webster and David Lancaster and they duly appeared with their paper work. Their impressions of the music heard was imparted to the audience by Roger Webster, and it was clear that the first two placed bands were apart from the others.

Third place went to Fairey.

Then came a surprise for the top echelon of banding, Milnrow clinched second place one position behind Fodens, the present champions.

President Ken Watts said: "True to say there were blemishes and blips in all performances, but, it does not have to be perfect, just better than the rest, Milnrow nearly proved that.

"Every player must take credit for the bands' latest success after weeks of hard work with Mark Bentham, not least the excellent young lady players who comprise half of the band and match the men in every aspect of their playing.

 “Congratulations, I'm so proud to be associated with Milnrow Band and such wonderful friends, supporters and players. Thank you.

“Another excellent result for Milnrow, probably the most successful band currently without corporate sponsorship.”