Not to forget Campbeltown Brass either..

[Ship called Dignity]

Just to remind everyone we also have a very very talented Brass Band in Kintyre too so here is a bit of news from their cracking website

http://www.campbeltownbrass.co.uk/


Training Weekend for Scottish Championships 24/02/06 - 26/02/06

After last years successful training weekend in Glasgow before the Scottish Championships, we held another one, this time in Campbeltown. We invited the Co-op's Charlie Farren down again, as well as our newly signed Soprano player, Tom Poulson, to help out, and along with Craig began to dig out our test piece, "Entertainments".

It was straight into a practice on Friday night to see which parts of the piece needed the most work, then it was sectionals all day on Saturday and Sunday with a full band practice at the end of each day. By the end of the weekend, the piece was sounding pretty good and hopefully we'll be able to give our best performance on the stage in Motherwell, on March 11th.

Stephanie also benefited from some lessons from Tom, and was playing the solos beautifully by Sunday afternoon. Tom, who is originally from Sussex, is now studying at the RSAMD in Glasgow. He is a member of National Youth Band of Great Britain and also a member the European Youth Band. We're very pleased to have signed Tom on the Soprano chair, although he did get a bit of stick from the result of the Scotland/England rugby match!!!



Instrument Changes

We have had a few people shifting around instruments and positions just in time for the Scottish Championships, to make the sections stronger.

Katrina Barr had 1st decided move onto EEb Bass to help Willie and Ewan in the bass section, as she wasn't getting much time on baritone due to conducting the band when Craig's not here, but found herself going back onto cornet, to strengthen up the back row!

Murray Ralston moves up from 2nd to 1st baritone to fill Katrina's place and Julie Brown has moved onto 2nd horn from euphonium as Karen Semple has just acquired a shiny new set of braces and will be taking it easy for a while!!

With only having two basses for the contest, we can afford to use David Cosgrove alongside Mark on 2nd trombone and use two 2nd baritones, Greg Bannatyne and George Good.



Scottish Solo and Ensemble Championships 4/02/06 - 5/02/06

The start of February saw members of the band travelling to Livingston for the Scottish Solo and Ensemble Championships, where Roger Webster (Grimethorpe) and David Thornton (Black Dyke) were adjudicating.

The Quintet retained their title of Intermediate Ensemble Champions, for the 3rd year. Its just as well they did, as nobody could remember where the trophy was from last year!! It was eventually found after they had all left for Livingston, still in the engravers shop, where it had sat since April last year!!!

Erin McSporran continued her winning success by coming 1st in the Junior Solos playing Wiederkehr, beating a very strong field of 14 competitors in the class.

Mark Good and Lynne Campbell came 5th and 9th respectively, in the Intermediate solos, where 18 competitors took part.

Willie Ralston came 14th out of 19, in the Open solos. He decided to do try something different this year, playing "Blue Bells of Scotland", on the BBb Bass, something that raised a few laughs between the other soloists when they 1st heard what he was doing!!!

Also congratulations to former bandmember Stuart Gorringe, and close friend of Campbeltown Brass, Alan Edmond, who are part of Broxburn & Livingston's Senior Quartet. They won the Open Ensemble class by a 5 point winning margin, and of which Roger Webster said of their performance, "it was without doubt the best playing (so far) I have heard all weekend." Well done to Stuart and Alan and the rest of Broxburn's ensemble!

[Campbeltown Lass]

Just to keep you up to date on the band's news, we travelled to Motherwell on Saturday to compete in the Scottish Brass Band Championships. All of the band and our conductor - Craig Anderson were very pleased with our performance and were chuffed to say the least when we gained a very credible 4th place! not bad for a band with only 6 members over 18 years of age!
more news of that can be seen on the website too along with some very incriminating photos from years gone by!

[oorly gourlay]

Katrina Barr had 1st decided move onto EEb Bass to help Willie and Ewan in the bass section, as she wasn't getting much time on baritone due to conducting the band when Craig's not here, but found herself going back onto cornet, to strengthen up the back row!

Aye if Katrina had been in the "back row" on Saturday we might have beaten the Irish. Is that no' right Donald

oorly

[Campbeltown Lass]

Keepin you lot up to date on ctown brass. We travelled to Dunfermline to compete in the Fife Brass Band Festival and gained first place in the 3rd section! Everyone was very pleased with this result and a full account of the day will be up on the website in no time!