The Morecambe Band has been enjoying the plaudits and congratulations after they claimed the Fourth Section honours at the recent Kapitol Cory Online Championships.

Their audio-visual presentation produced by Adrian Boardman and Carol Porter was the brainchild of Musical Director Andrew Porter, and was their first 'performance' since they took to the stage at the 2020 North West Areas Championships — well over a year ago.

Brief Encounter

Talking about the idea and the work that went into their winning set entitled, 'A Brief Encounter by the Sea', the MD said it was simply about bringing some joyfulness back into banding lives.

"The idea was to bring a smile back to everyone's faces,"Andrew told 4BR, "whilst containing a theme, narrative and references to the local area.

It was about a journey from darkness to light, with a narrative reflecting the sadness created by the lack of banding activities, how we all found other things to do to fill the void, followed by a hope and optimism, the finally the light that one day we can get back together through this great contest idea."

Rendezvous

Opening with 'All By Myself' — which saw a rather forlorn MD hoping to meet up with some friends — it soon segued into 'Seaside Rendezvous' and the classic 'Bring Me Sunshine' featuring many of the band's soloists.

It eventually saw them claim the honours with a clean sweep of first place preferences from judges Glyn Williams, Ailsa Russell and Hannah Plumridge, with Cory MD Philip Harper adding that the performance "would stay with me".

Flugel player Carol Porter won the 'Best Soloist' award with accolades also claimed by their 'Best Euphoniums & Baritones' and 'Best Percussion'.

We hope that the banding community enjoyed our performance and that our local community have a lasting visual representation of arts and culture in the areaMD, Andrew Porter

Progression

Andrew added: "Since Summer 2019 we have been making our concert programmes much more interactive, innovative and engaging — so in many ways the online platform allowed us to show this progression.

Crucially though it gave us something to do and now puts a spring in our step as we hopefully return to some form of normality when safe to do so.

We hope that the banding community enjoyed our performance and that our local community have a lasting visual representation of arts and culture in the area."

Enjoy the performance:

You can watch the whole performance here: https://youtu.be/xFevdc-Tauw