It’s all change in the front row for the cornets as the band’s Principal Cornet, Caroline Munroe gave her final performance with WLSBB at the Variety Club of Scotland’s ‘Spirit of Youth 2’ concert in the Clyde Auditorium on Sunday 28th November. It was also time to say goodbye to our principal tenor horn player, Lauren Carrigan.
It’s the end of a magnificent term with the band during which we have been treated to numerous, top notch performances by Caroline.
Unfortunately, her final performance with the band was not one of their best. Squashed in at the back of the stage, the band spent long periods as a backdrop to the other dancers and singers . When they did get a chance to play, the poor microphone arrangements resulted in an unbalanced sound, not representative of the normal high quality and polished performances that we are used to. Possibly due to the long periods of idleness, the band didn’t sound 100% comfortable during the normally excellent ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Gaelforce’ in the first half of the concert. Things did improve after the interval when ‘Queen Rules’ and ‘12th Street Rag’ were nearer the standard we expect, but again, the poor sound balance just took the edge off the performance. The ‘Highland Cathedral’ finale was as stirring as ever - once the pipers from George Watson’s College were finally located!
It’s a fact of life with youth banding that it seems that just as young talent matures, it’s time for them to move on. I for one will miss the contributions from Caroline Munroe at the band’s concerts, and I think all her fellow musicians, and followers of the band, will join me in wishing her well in her future career - and we can keep an eye on this at the Scottish Co-Op Brass Band’s website.
In the meantime, it’s Vicky Blair who is the worthy and very able new star at West Lothian, taking up the post of Principal Cornet. I am looking forward to many more years of excellent virtuoso cornet solos - not putting Vicky under any pressure of course!
