Regent Brass showed their rivals a clean pair of heels at the recent scaba entertainment contest in Crawley.
Prior to their appearance at the All England Masters in Kettering, the London & Southern Counties Area champion produced an inventive set based on a colour theme – from Red to Blue, to claim the honours ahead of First Section challengers Alder Valley and Otterbourne Brass.
Red to Blue
Under the baton of Alan Duguid, Regent started their programme with the swirling sounds of ‘Red’ from Gilbert Vinter’s classic test piece, ‘Spectrum’, before segueing into ‘The Thin Red Line’ march and ‘Don’t it Make My Brown Eyes Blue’, featuring ‘Best Soloist’ prize winning flugel player Vickie Curran.
They continued with ‘Black Bottomed Stomp’, ‘Lux Aurumque’ (Light of Gold) and ‘Rhythm and Blues’ to close.
Pleased
MD Alan Duguid told 4BR: "Obviously, the band was really pleased to win at the contest. We’ve had quite a number of second place finishes here in the past, but to win was a particularly rewarding and showed that we had built on our Area success."
Alan also rounded off a fine day of personal success by taking the ‘Best Compere/Conductor’ Award in the B Section, directing Regent Community Brass.
Awards
In addition to the title honours the band also won the awards for ‘Best March’, ‘Best Soloist’, and ‘Highest-placed SCABA Member band’. This was presented by scaba Chairman Andrew Wilson, who gave a moving speech when talking about the new ‘John Williams Memorial’.
John was the much-loved President of scaba, and a very well-known conductor around the south-east who sadly lost his battle with cancer last March.
B Section
In the B Section event, the honours went to Second Section St. Sebastian’s Wokingham, conducted by Lee Woodward, who played a lively programme that narrowly pipped Denmead Brass. Their fine flugel player Jane Bryden won the ‘Best Soloist’ Award.
Amersham was third, with Cobham taking the ‘Highest Placed Third Section Band’ honours and Berkshire County Youth Band claiming the ‘Highest Placed Youth Band’ award.
The winners opened with ‘Fanfare for Rocky’, before leading into ‘Born of the 4th July’, ‘Skyfall’, ‘Walking with Heroes’ and ‘Hawaii 5-0’.
Adjudicator Paul Holland commented that he was impressed with the overall standard on show in both the A & B Sections, but that sometimes he felt bands focused too much on the visual elements of their programmes at the expense of the basics of tuning, balance and ensemble.
We’ve had quite a number of second place finishes here in the past, but to win was a particularly rewarding and showed that we had built on our Area successMD, Alan Duguid
Results:
A Section:
Adjudicator: Paul Holland
Music/Content/Deportment = Total
1. Regent Brass (Alan Duguid) 54/26/8 = 88
2. Alder Valley (Roger Burke) 52/26/8 = 86
3. Otterbourne Brass (Gareth Pritchard) 51/27/6 = 83*
4. Tilbury (Andrew Austin) 49/24/7 = 80
5. Egham (Gareth Green) 48/18/6 = 70**
6. Yiewsley & West Drayton (Chris Cole) 48/14/5 = 67
7. Horsham Borough (Andrew Kershaw) 45/16/5 = 66
* Time penalty of 1 point
** Time Penalty of 2 points
Highest Placed First Section Band: Tilbury
Best Soloist: Vickie Curran (Regent Brass)
Highest Placed scaba Band: Regent Brass
Best March: Regent Brass
B Section:
Adjudicator: Paul Holland
Music/Content/Deportment = Total
1. St Sebastian Wokingham (Lee Woodward) 53/25/8 = 86
2. Denmead Brass (Estelle Flood) 53/24/8 = 85
3. Amersham (Paul Fisher) 52/22/7 = 81
4. LGB Brass (Ian Stewart) 48/22/7 = 77
5. Hangleton (Richard Baker) 51/18/6 = 75
6. Regent Community Brass (Alan Duguid) 44/22/8 = 74
7. Crystal Palace (Michael Gray) 48/20/5 = 73
8. Cobham (Robin Langdon) 43/10/5 = 58
9. Brighton & Hove City (Matthew Hackett) 36/15/6 = 57
10. Berkshire County Youth Brass (John Watts) 34/15/7 = 56
Highest Placed Third Section Band: Cobham
Highest Placed Youth Band: Berkshire County Youth
Best Soloist: Jane Bryden (Denmead)
Best Trombone Section: LGB Brass
Best Compere/Conductor: Alan Duguid
