The Whitburn Band reinforced its claim to be Scotland’s premier domestic contesting outfit with victory at the West Lothian Festival of Brass entertainment contest in Livingston on the weekend.

After reclaiming the Scottish Championship title in Perth in March, they made it a double at the Howden Park Centre under the baton of Anne Crookston, taking home the winner’s cheque of £500 for the first time since 2010.

Weighted

With the organisers employing a new ‘weighted’ marking system, Whitburn’s first place from ‘Quality of Music Performance’ adjudicator Ian Brownbill proved crucial, as they ended the contest tied on points with rivals Co-operative Funeralcare directed by Allan Ramsay.

That took precedence despite the reigning champion being placed above Whitburn in both the Entertainment & Presentation and Programme Content categories, and taking the award for the best new composition.

New home

It wasn’t quite good enough however, as Whitburn claimed their second successive domestic victory of the season and place the first piece of silverware in their brand new bandroom which they will be officially moving into on the next few weeks.

The band’s rendition of the ‘Lament from Macbeth’ also won the performance award of a work written by the contest’s featured composer, Peter Meechan.

Good run

Kirkintilloch continued on their good run of form as Eoin Tonner led the Grand Shield runner-up into third place, claiming the awards for ‘Most Entertaining Performance’ and ‘Best Section Piece’.

There was a great deal of inventive thinking as well as quality music making on show throughout the day, as the six bands made every effort to meet the contest mission statement that emphasised the desire to provide ‘a progressive form of the genre’.

With bands making use of the in-house multi-media facilities and others exploring more exotic musical genres, there was certainly a diverse selection of musical entertainment on offer for the appreciative audience to enjoy.

Garage to Corea

Whitburn certainly showed that with a 25 minute programme that contained everything from indie garage rock to West Side Story via the machinations of Macbeth and a touch of jazz fusion from Chick Corea.

They opened with ‘Bustout Brigade’ from the Brighton based six piece group ‘The Go Team’, which lead into horn soloist Iain Fleming showcasing his talents on ‘Capriccio Brillante’.

Dave Kinross provided the Shakespearian quotations from ‘The Scottish Play’ as flugel player Caroline Farren led in ‘The Lament from Macbeth’, whilst the latin influence of Chick Corea’s ‘La Fiesta’ and the neat comedy ‘Gee Officer Krupke!’ segued into the ‘Mambo’ and finale from Leonard Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story’ suite.

Impressed

Quality of Music Performance adjudicator Ian Brownbill was certainly impressed by what he heard from all the competing bands.

"The overall quality of the performances was good, with the winner’s just having that extra level of consistency about the delivery of the music they played," he later told 4BR.

"The contest format certainly asked searching musical questions of all the bands – and it was good to hear them tackling really diverse repertoire so well."

Eclectic

There was certainly an eclectic sense of style and presentation to Co-operative Funeralcare’s programme, with a neat touch of humour provided by a mock television interview between MD Allan Ramsay and composer Paul Lovatt-Cooper.

They also spanned genres to, with a programme that included music from PLC and Chick Corea to new works from Philip Harper and the Apollo 11 moon landing inspired, ‘One Small Step’ by Andy Duncan, which won the ‘Best New Composition’ Award.

Parting Glass

Kirkintilloch’s ‘Most Entertaining’ award winning programme featured music from the rock group ‘Queen’ to the traditional Scottish folk song, ‘The Parting Glass’ which won the ‘Best Section’ award.

Kingdom Brass trombone soloist Chris Mansfield claimed the ‘Best Soloist’ award for his superb rendition of, ‘As If We Never Said Goodbye’.

Whitburn certainly showed that with a 25 minute programme that contained everything from indie garage rock to West Side Story via the machinations of Macbeth and a touch of jazz fusion from Chick Corea4BR

Result:

Programme Content (20%)/Entertainment & Presentation (30%)/Quality of Music (50%) = Total

Adjudicators:
Bruce Fraser (Programme Content)
Simon Johnston (Entertainment & Presentation)
Ian Brownbill (Quality of Music Performance)

1. Whitburn (Anne Crookston): 38/54/100 = 192*
2. Co-operative Funeralcare (Allan Ramsay): 40/57/95 = 192
3. Kirkintilloch (Eoin Tonner): 36/60/90 = 186
4. Kingdom Brass (Lynda Nicholson): 34/51/85 = 170
5. Lochgelly (Martyn Ramsay): 30/48/80 = 158
6. Dalmellington (Archie Hutchison): 32/45/75 = 152

Best Performance of a Peter Meechan work: Whitburn (Lament from Macbeth)
Most Entertaining Performance: Kirkintilloch
Best Section Piece: Kirkintilloch (The Parting Glass)
Best Soloist: Chris Mansfield – trombone (Kingdom Brass)
Best New Composition: Co-operative Funeralcare (One Small Step — Andrew Duncan)

Image used with thanks to photographer Linda Cairns