On Thursday 30th April a party of over 40 members and supporters travelled to Ostend, Belgium where we represented Ireland as National Champions in the B Section of the European Brass Band Championships, run by the European Brass Band Association and hosted by Vlamo (the Flemish Band Association).
We stayed in the Hotel Ter Kade and rehearsed on Thursday evening and Friday in nearby Celtic Ireland, before going to the magnificent Kursaal Hall contest venue on Saturday 2nd May. Our section began at 9am and as we were drawn to play first of six bands it meant an early start for everyone, but also gave us the distinction of playing the world premiere performance of the specially-commissioned test piece “Catedrales” by Bert Appermont. This extremely complex piece attempts to recreate the wide variety of sounds (including echo-effects) one could expect to hear in any of the world’s great cathedrals.
Under conductor Michael Maher we opened our programme with “The Plantagenets” by Edward Gregson – a major musical depiction of England during the reign of the Plantagenet kings – which we had also played when completing out hat-trick of National Championships a fortnight earlier in Cork. We followed this with “Catedrales”, and closed the programme with Richard Rock’s “Island of the Setting Sun”. This piece has particular connotations for us as Drogheda-native Richard is a former solo horn player with the band who is carving out a successful career as a player, composer and arranger in England, and the piece takes its title from a book of the same name by one of our euphonium players, Anthony Murphy, from a quotation of Amergin, who is buried locally at Millmount.
In the afternoon some members went off on sightseeing trips in Ostend and nearby Bruges, while others (gluttons for punishment!) returned to the hall to hear some of the world’s top bands perform in the professional A section. A great day was rounded off in front of the big screen watching Leinster thrash Munster in the Heineken Cup semi-final, before going back to the hall (again!) for the Gala Concert and Results.
The other bands in our section were 3BA Brass (Germany), Brass Band Wipptal (Italy), Austrian Brass Band of the University of Music & Performing Arts, Graz (Austria), Murley Silver Band (Northern Ireland) and Brass Band Senjorai (Lithuania). The standard was, as expected, extremely high especially from winners 3BA Brass and the Italians and Austrians who were placed 2nd and 3rd respectively.
In recent years the Irish have understandably been the whipping-boys of this contest given the gulf in standard – and financial & educational support – between Irish bands and our continental cousins, but on this occasion Drogheda rose to the challenge with a fine performance and were unlucky to be just pipped for 4th place by Murley. 5th place in our section of the most prestigious brass band contest in the world against bands mainly comprised of professional and academy players is a wonderful achievement for a genuine town band, and one of which we are extremely proud.
Having won the National title again we qualify for next year’s European contest in Linz, Austria. Whether we go is a decision for another day – for now we’ll savour the memories of Ostend.

There are also two different galleries available. View them here:

http://www.droghedabrassband.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=2886

http://www.pbase.com/troonly/2009_ebba