European Brass Band Championships 2000
by Trevor Johnston
The last days of April 2000 will not be easily forgotten by the members of the Drogheda Brass Band. For months there had been talk of our trip to Birmingham and finally at the beginning of April it hit home - in just a few weeks time the band would be taking its first trip abroad in many years. We were travelling to Birmingham, England, to compete in the 23rd European Brass Band Championships.
Having won the previous year's Championship Section of the Irish National Band Championships, the Drogheda Brass Band was formally invited to represent Ireland at European level. With the close proximity of the playing field and a chance to really up our playing standard, we decided to go ahead and take the plunge.
The band members sail off into the sunset (well, off to Birmingham into the gloomy cloudset)
The band committee had been devoting enormous amounts of time to the excursion's organisation for more than six months, but when it announced that Archie Hutchison - one of Scotland's best-loved and most successful brass band conductors and a long-time friend of the Drogheda Brass Band - had agreed to give up his Easter weekend to give some serious tuition to the band, all the members had to sit up and took notice.
Archie arrived on Friday 21st April and the long haul began: in the seven days leading up to the competition, the band put in an average of three hours rehearsal each day (including the day that we arrived in Birmingham after ten hours of travelling!). Archie must be thanked wholeheartedly for the effort he put in and for travelling over Easter. The increase in the standard of our performance of the two pieces after his stay was testament to his work.
Thursday the 28th April came and with it an early morning for the members of the Drogheda Brass Band, who had a boat to catch before 9.00pm and Dublin rush-hour traffic to beat. But, they, and Finlay's Coach Service of Ardee, made it and at six o'clock that evening they were cruising into their hotel, just outside Birmingham city centre.
Guest percussionist for the weekend was Alan Bourne, of the RAF St. Athan Band, Wales, who had very kindly agreed to be fill in and who was already waiting for us in the hotel. A skilled musician and an examiner with the London Guildhall School of Music, it didn't take Alan too long to blend in with the band and we were able to get some well earned (and much needed) rest for the next day.
The band take their group photo outside Symphony Hall shortly before performing in the competitions
The weekend's main attractions are the Championship Brass Section and First Section Brass, which we were competing in. The test piece this year was "Corpus Christi", a Salvation Army piece by Robert Redhead, and the Drogheda Brass Band had chosen to play "Hollywood!", by Goff Richards. We were drawn first and so were going to be the first band on stage that day.
Three other bands were entered in the First Section - Faroe Brass, of the Faroe Islands, Toolo Brass Band, from Finland, and Brass Band Normandie, from France. Brass Band Normandie were to emerge victorious on Friday evening, with the two other bands separating them and the Drogheda Brass Band in the placings.
Final place was, of course, not what the band members would have chosen, but we did not let the result get us down. The weekend as a whole was a success - an intensive rehearsal schedule had done wonders for the band's playing standard, we got a much-appreciated opportunity to hear many of Europe's best brass bands and all had a most enjoyable weekend away together as a band.
Winning was never really our intention - much like our move into the top section of the North of Ireland Band Championships in 1999, the trip was all part of continuing our slow but steady climb up the rungs of the brass band ladder. The idea was to increase the standard of our band and to broaden its experience and horizons - and this writer believes that we achieved it.