Congratulations to everyone involved with West Lothian Schools Brass Band, who achieved a Gold award and took home the David Hughes Memorial Trophy after winning the premier section of the Scottish Youth Brass Band Championships held at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Sunday 26th November 2006.
The band faced some stiff competition from Aberdeen City Youth Band, who were also awarded a Gold award, and from Moray Concert Brass who finished in third place and gained a Silver Award, but on the day, West Lothian produced a fantastic performance which allowed them to retain the title and add to their tally of four previous Scottish Youth Championship successes.
The contest was held in the Strathclyde Suite of the Concert hall, but the band could have done with the extra space which the main hall stage would have given them - and their sound would certainly have filled the main auditorium without any difficulty!
The adjudicators for all three sections of the Youth Championships were David Childs and Alastair Orr.
The Premier Section Bands were required to perform an own choice programme not exceeding 25 minutes. West Lothian kicked off their challenge with an impressive opener “Eye of the Tiger”, the theme from Rocky III, arranged by Rieks van der Velde. They followed this with a complete change of tempo with a piece called “Share My Yoke”, written by Joy Webb and arranged by Ivor Bosanko, which featured a cornet solo from the band’s newly appointed Principal Cornet, Susannah Downs.
Raising the tempo again, the band then gave us an Andy Duncan arrangement of Quincy Jones’s “Soul Bossa Nova”, featuring an excellent flugel solo from Karla MacPherson.
Slowing things down once more, the band’s fourth piece was the hauntingly beautiful “Deep Inside the Sacred Temple” from the “Pearl Fishers” by Bizet, featuring a Euphonium duet from the band’s Principal Euphonium Isla Cameron, and Duncan Parkinson.
The band’s penultimate offering was an old favourite - Rimsky Korsakov’s “The Flight of the Bumble Bee”, featuring the usual sensational and comical Xylophone solo from the band’s principal percussionist, Kenny Carlyle. The comedy was further enhanced by the appearance of another of the band’s percussion section, dressed as a giant furry bumble bee, who danced around the hall before finally joining Kenny at the Xylophone to play the last note to thunderous applause!
The band concluded their programme with a Steve Sykes arrangement of Duke Ellington’s “Caravan”.
It had been a long day for some of the young musicians who had been involved in playing with bands in other sections of the championships, which meant they had been there since 10 o’clock in the morning. Finally, the waiting was over, and the award ceremony began around 8 o’clock in the evening.
It was worth the wait when it was announced that West Lothian had been given a Gold Award and first place for the second consecutive year! The band’s (and Nigel Boddice’s) fan club were in fine voice during and after the awards ceremony!
Certainly, Kenny and Isla seemed to be very pleased to be receiving the trophy, and there was a satisfied smile on the face of MD Nigel Boddice MBE, also on stage as an adjudicator in the Scottish Challenge Shield contest.
A fantastic result for the band and just rewards for the effort involved in achieving this level of performance. Again, well done to everyone involved.
