A Weekend in Prestatyn

This weekend (23rd and 24th October) both the Senior Band and the B Band took the 64 mile trip to Prestatyn.  Saturday was the B Band’s trip and Sunday it was the Senior Band’s turn.  For the B Band, the set work was "Partita: Postcard from Home" by Philip Wilby and for the Senior Band, the set work was Franz Liszt's "Les Preludes" arranged by Bram Gay.

The B Band’s Postcard Home...

Saturday 23rd October saw the Pemberton B Band rehearsing round the corner from Pontins Holiday camp - in the local tennis club.

The day didn't get off to a good start as nobody brought any music stands. Making do with cornet cases on chairs, music pinned to notice boards and one handed playing, the band managed their first warm up.

Onto Pontins for yet another warm up in the launderette ( or was that a cold down? ).
Registration and time to focus on the victory ahead (told 'em we should have done the Haka!)

Drawn 9th in a field of 10, the band were eager to get on with it. The first movement was energetic and showed great promise.  The soloists played a solid performance with just a few splits along route. Riding high into the last movement we hit a few rocks and almost lost a wheel - pitty as we had one hand on a trophy til then.

A credible 5th was the final outcome with the adjudicator suggesting that on another day the result could have been different for the top 5 bands.

Happy with the verdict, the band retired to the bar to review the "Ifs, Buts and Maybes".
A well spirited performance by the Pemberton team. Looking forward to a busy Christnas schedule and then Butlins in the new year.

 B Band report by Eddie Hill

The Senior Band’s Liszt...

On Sunday the band arrived at a Tennis Club in Prestatyn just after 9 o’clock.  It was a cold start, but the skies were blue and seemed to be promising for a good day.  The rehearsal was short, just enough for the band to warm themselves up from the frosty morning they left in Wigan.  At 10 o’clock we headed to the Pontins campsite.  We waited for our turn to play; we had been pre-drawn 5th, so not too long to wait after the 11am start!

We embarked on the ‘dressing room’, which was actually the onsite Arcade, and put on our stage uniforms.  There was no where to warm-up immediately prior to the contest, there was only a curtain separating the arcade and registration areas from the main stage.  We could hear band number 4 (Wakefield Metropolitan) lay down their challenge and then it was our turn, just after 12pm.

We took to the stage in our signature, professional fashion – in section order, which looks as smart as our uniforms.  The delicate opening of the piece set great atmosphere, despite a few less secure moments than we had been confident of throughout the week.  This led to the full volume, main theme which demonstrated the band’s full, round sound and technical prowess.

Further delicate playing ensued, which again wasn’t as secure as the band are capable of, however, things could have been worse.  The middle ‘storm’ section of the piece was another chance for the band to demonstrate it’s full sound and technical capabilities.  This was, as always, well-handled.  Following this was a delicate ‘pastorale’ section which heavily featured the Soprano Cornet (John Atkinson), Principal Cornet (Joanne Johnson), Flugelhorn (Carina Halliwell) and Solo Horn (Lynne Campbell), with some additional contributions from Repiano Cornet (Nicola Banks), Solo Baritone (David Marsh) and guest Solo Euphonium (Brendan Wheeler).  Again, this wasn’t as secure as we would have liked.

Further full band sections ensued, with some all-round controlled playing, full sounds, technical virtuosity and tight, ensemble playing from every seat of the band.  This continued with short contrasting sections which again called upon the band’s soloists.  When the band reached the reprise of the earlier main theme, the quality of the band’s sound shone through to an enormous finale.

After leaving the stage, many of the band were unhappy with the overall performance, however some were still hopeful of the judges finding favour with our good sound and technical skill.  However, after a long wait we found out that Dr Roy Newsome and Major Peter Parkes didn’t like our interpretation as much as we would have hoped.  We were placed 9th in a field of 15 bands.  This was obviously not the result we had wanted, although after we had played we knew that the top spot had fallen out of our grasp.

A recording of the Senior Band’s performance can be found at Mark Bentham’s website through the following link:
http://markbentham.webs.com/audiomp3recordings2.htm

With typical ‘Pem Spirit’ the band had an enjoyable, alcohol-filled journey home and will begin rehearsals on the set test piece for this year’s Scottish Open (‘...and when the river told...’ by Simon Dobson) as well as prepare for a busy November of concerts across the North West.