North of Ireland Brass Band Championships 2006
by Stephen Murray
Saturday 28th October saw the members of the Drogheda Brass Band make the long trip up to Belfast to compete in the North of Ireland Brass Band Championships Second Grade Brass contest.
The test piece this year was Goff Richards' "Oceans". This piece created many problems for the band but we went there confident that we could hold our own. In a move suggested by the band's conductor, Michael Maher, the band this year was lead by Alan Bourne who many will know from our annual "Summer Sounds" school of music.
However, the band could unfortunately only achieve third place in what was a tough field. The overall winners were Carrickfergus Band who set a bar which, in the adjudicator's opinion, could not be beat.
With this result, the test piece was announced for the Irish National Brass Band Championships 2007. Bands will have to get to grips with Peter Graham's "Gaelforce". Not generally classed as a test piece in the traditional sense it will still require a lot of hard work for each and every member of the band to be able to play it. However, following last year's performance, the band can enter confident they can go one better and end Arklow's amazing run of victories.