Durham Music Shop, a small business based in the city that hosts the North of England Regional Championships is supporting six of the qualifying bands that have made it through to the National Finals.

They stated that as part of their regular assistance to qualifying bands who had also bought their regional pieces from them, they have paid for six National Final works for them — over £600 of support.

One band already their piece in their library whilst the remaining three hadn't bought the regional test-piece from them.

One less bill

They stated: "This may be a token assistance to bands facing thousands of pounds of expense to make the trip, but we feel it is one less bill for each one and so significant.

We don't view this as a total loss to our business, while we meet any shortfall, we balance against our sales of all the regional pieces.

This means that all the bands who buy music from us for the (Area) contest have in effect contributed to fellow North of England bands on route to Cheltenham and the Royal Albert Hall — so the region comes together in support."

Find out more

To find out more about the business go to: www.durhammusicshop.co.uk