With the announcement of the results complete and the fun and games of celebrating a win in the Second Section just about to start, Haslingden & Helmshore Contest Secretary Chris Faulkner revealed to 4BR the secret to the bands success – a bit of pre match singing and dancing!

Commanding margin

His band had just taken the Butlins Mineworkers Second Section title and the £1,500 top prize with a performance of Derek Broadbent’s ‘An Alberta Suite’ that gave them a commanding three point winning margin over second placed Dodworth Miners Welfare with Middleton Band a point further back in third.

In fact we were singing the piece before we went on stage and even a few of the band did a little bit of sneaky line dancing to get in the right frame of mind!Chris Faulkner

Sneaky line dancing

Asked by 4BR if the band had enjoyed the descriptive test piece, Chris answered with a bit of a twinkle in his eye – "Certainly. We all enjoyed it, especially the last movement. In fact we were singing the piece before we went on stage and even a few of the band did a little bit of sneaky line dancing to get in the right frame of mind!"

Unorthodox approach

That slightly unorthodox approach certainly paid dividends and under MD David Holland the band produced a high class account of themselves to take the first prize and boost their confidence ahead of the regional championships in a few weeks time.

"It’s a great start to 2008," Chris said. "The band has worked so hard in the past few weeks under David. Now we hope we can take that form into the Regional contest."