Whit Friday Marches

19-Oct-2003

Highlights from the Delph March Contest 2003
Various Bands
Total Playing Time: 79.31

Amongst the many phrases used when talking about the Whit Friday March Contests in Saddleworth and Tameside is �The greatest free show on earth'. The opportunity to hear the world's finest brass bands in action is just too good to miss, and it is no wonder that people come from miles around simply to sample the atmosphere and listen.

Every venue will promote their own contest in advance of the event to entice people to attend, and one of the most popular on the whole circuit is Delph. The organisers of Delph contest are fortunate to have one of the best venues for the bands to play. As you walk into Gartside Street, (the home of the contest) a watering hole is on your left, some houses are at the end of the highway, and on the right is the Sunday school, which is adjacent to the church. All in all, the buildings provide the perfect ambience that creates an acoustic, which can only be described as �out of this world'

Its the sort of acoustic that persuaded the BBC to film when making a programme on the Whit Walks for Songs of Praise, and then followed by LTTB who have been to the village to sample the delights of the Whit Friday contests for BBC Radio 2. Its no real surprise then that Delph Contest has brought out highlights CD of the 2003 Contest.

Featuring fourteen marches from sixteen different bands, the listener has the chance to simply soak up the atmosphere and experience everything that is special about this one night in the year, whilst at the same time, decide for themselves, who they think should have been the winners and losers in what was a tight and competitive competition.

Great names such as Besses O'Th' Barn, Black Dyke, Brighouse, reigning National Champions, Faireys, Fodens Richardson, Hepworth, Marsden and Sunline International (formerly known as Navigation Inn) are all featured in over seventy minutes of great entertainment.

The first five tracks are the prize winners in order of merit, and the 2003 winners were Black Dyke, under Dr Nicholas Childs, who played Knight Templar. Dyke's performance at Delph is a typical example of why they were crowned Saddleworth Champions 2003. This particular rendition is clean, tight and extremely accurate and was awarded 99 points on the night. The atmosphere on the night was electric and that certainly is not missed on this recording with a huge round of applause at the end. Marsden Band were looking to make it a hat trick of wins at Delph in 2003, but had to settle for the runners up spot even though they produced a corker of a performance with Honest Toil. It is a very bold performance that does not pull any punches under MD Allan Widdop, and it certainly got the crowd's approval, but sadly not of the adjudicator, Keith Hollinshead.

Brighouse and Rastrick are regular attendees at the March contest and enjoy playing at Delph; they will have no doubt considered themselves unlucky to come third on the night having produced an exceptional performance of many people's favourite march, Ravenswood. At the end of the night, Brighouse discovered they were runners up in Saddleworth, having been beaten by arch-rivals Black Dyke, but, you really are splitting hairs when asking why they only came third. The quality of performances certainly didn't stop there either. The nature of the competition means that as long as a band registers between a certain time (4.30-10.30pm at Delph) they can compete.

Right behind Brighouse, were Hepworth Band, who'd come down the street and were stood listening to the Yorkshire rivals. You can judge for yourselves what you think of their performance of �The Wizard', but inspired by what they had heard certainly comes to mind, and they certainly deserved to be in the mix at the end of the night.

Sunline International Band is probably a new name for many. In actual fact, it is the band, which for many years went under the name of the Navigation Inn, the pub in Dobcross, Saddleworth, that is a shrine to brass bands. Nowadays, the band, which is made up of players that are not necessarily playing at the top level anymore (for a variety of reasons) have a sponsor, hence the name, Sunline International.

One thing for sure, whatever name the band competes under, it is always a band of real quality, and this year had ex-Fairey's player Philip Chalk on Top-Man, ex-Brighouse players Stephen Lord on euphonium and John Clough on bass, and when you add to that ex Black Dyke euphonium great, John Clough, and Soprano legend, Brian Evans, you are bound to get a performance. The performance of Senator does not really need to be �talked up' as it really does speak for itself � a really cracking performance and certainly worthy of inclusion on this CD.

After just five tracks, the standard does not waver as Fodens Richardson produce another cracker of a performance with The President by William German. Earlier in the evening, Fodens had been competing in Tameside and picking up many prizes along the way. The band had managed to register to play at Delph before 10.30pm, but it was gone midnight before the band took to the arena. Whit Friday turned out to be conductor Russell Gray's final competitive night with the band, and he could not have asked for anything more.

The phrase �that is contesting' comes to mind. Despite picking up a new trophy, they were another band that could argue they deserved better than seventh place. That said, the fact they were crowned Tameside Champions, reflects the standard of performance the band had put in all night, it just was not enough at Delph, this time round.

Each contest gives prizes, which are based on variations of best cornet, soprano, bass section, euphonium and trombone amongst others. At Delph, the soprano cornet prize went to Black Dyke's Michelle Ibbotson, who was outstanding, but players of the calibre Kevin Crockford (Fairey's) Brian Evans (Sunline International), Alan Hobbins (Brighouse) and Alan Wycherley (Fodens) can consider themselves very unlucky not to have picked up the sop prize. Each one of the players mentioned brought a great deal more to their bands'performance than the notes on their part, and each one certainly shines through on this CD.

Throughout the disc, you never lose sight that it is recorded live, and outdoors. Its only a night such as Whit Friday, that the microphones would pick up people's voices whilst Black Dyke are playing, or hear someone going �ssshhh' in the early part of Foden's performance. Its all part of the Whit Friday experience, whichever contest you attend.

No one really likes to be drawn number one in a competition, but someone has to get things up and running. A number of bands enjoy the challenge of competing at as many contests as they can, especially with prize money available if you compete at six contests in Saddleworth and six in Tameside. One such band were National Champions, The Fairey Band, and having kicked off proceedings at nearby Denshaw, they then performed first at Delph. In all honesty, finishing ninth from number one isn't that bad, especially with what was to come as the night unfolded, and their performance of Knight Templar, is very clean, tight and high in quality.

Besses o' th Barn was another band to play around the midnight hour, and they sneaked into fifth equal place alongside Sunline International with Allen's march The Wizard. Its another fine performance, but as was said at the beginning, the listener could judge whether the man in the box got it right or not.

Whit-Friday though is not just about Championship bands competing; it is about all bands taking part regardless of grading. The remainder of the CD features a number of bands that play marches that are not always heard today. First Section band Dobcross Youth, under Ted Griffiths, plays �Peace and War'. Salvo Brass � a group of Salvation Army players from the Leicestershire area give an enjoyable performance of �Beaumont' by George Dickens.

Smithills School Senior Band is one of the finest school bands around, and under Chris Wormald, had a lot of fun and found the right path with Greenwood's �The Pathfinder'. In addition, the CD includes the more familiar marches such as The Contestor (Elland Silver) Mephistopheles (Diggle) and the William Rimmer favourites �The Cossack' and �Black Knight' performed by Boarshurst (Greenfield) Silver Band and Friezland respectively.

If you have been reading this review and thinking, �Why no mention of Grimethorpe, Leyland, Sellers International, Yorkshire Imperial, as they were out and about on the circuit?' Well, in short, those bands did not register to play at Delph, so are not featured on the recording. If they had played in the village of Delph, they would have no doubt had a realistic chance of featuring on the CD.

This superb recording closes with what commences Delph's Whit Friday at 9.00am sharp, Hail Smilin' Morn played by Delph's own band. The production team has done a terrific job with this high quality recording, which is definitely different. It is live and outdoors (which is not an easy task in itself) but not lacking in atmosphere and consists only of marches. If there is one thing a brass band can play better than anything else though, it is the march, and in this disc, all the magic that is Whit Friday is to be enjoyed the other three hundred and sixty four days of the year.

Malcolm Wood