Six of the Best for Newstead at Bedworth

Newstead brass were awarded 6th place of the 12 bands in the Championship section of the Midland’s regional championships held ay Bedworth Civic Hall on Sunday March 8th. Adjudicator Alan Morrison wrote “Much to commend here, capturing the flow in general well. Some confident soloists in general but perhaps more risks could be taken to find the detail and musical line.”

The result emphasises Newstead’s established position amongst the leading midland’s brass bands with 7th, 5th and 6th places over the last 3 years in the championships.

A band spokesman commented, “We were a little disappointed with the way we played, it was a good performance but we know we could have played better.  This was the first major contest for the band after appointing our new principal cornet, Mathew Hampton, and principal horn, Jackie Greensted at the beginning of the year and internal player moves into the flugel and principal EEb bass ‘chairs’.  We now feel ready to build on the success of our recent wins at the Leicester and Oxford contests and push on to the next level to regularly be in the ‘top 3’ in the midlands with good performances in the British Open Spring Festival and English Masters later this year.”

Our best wishes to the winners and runners-up, Virtuosi GUS and Desford, as they go on to represent the midlands in the National finals at the Royal Albert Hall in October.

It was a successful weekend for Newstead’s musical director Duncan Beckley as he also led Horbury Victoria band to second place in section 3 of the Yorkshire championships at Bradford on Saturday March 7th.  They will go forward to the division 1 to 4 national championship finals at Cheltenham in September.

Trio of Trophies for Newstead Brass

Newstead brass gained three trophies at the Oxford & District Winter Open brass band championships held at the Marlborough School, Woodstock on Sunday March 1st, taking the awards for best test-piece, best instrumentalist and best bass (tuba) section, matching their haul on their only previous visit to the contest in 2013.

21 bands from the midlands and south of England took part in the competition, with Newstead one of the 5 bands in the highest ‘Championship’ section, all of whom chose to play Peter Graham’s ‘Torchbearer’, the set piece for the forthcoming regional qualifying rounds of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain.

Adjudicator Frank Renton, well known as the voice of Radio 2’s ‘Listen to the Band’ said that he gave the prize to the band with the most musically coherent performance of the piece.

Newstead Brass were presented with the Frank Grey Shield, donated by Oxford’s then MP for the first contest in 1923, for their winning performance.  Principal cornet Mathew Hampton, in his first contest for the band, received the Hampden shield as the best instrumentalist and the band also collected the Webster Cup for the best bass (tuba) section of the day.

A Newstead band spokesman said, “The trophies are a great reward for the hard work put in by the band and our musical director Duncan Beckley.  Performing in contests is an excellent way of maintaining our musical standards which are seen not just in contests but in our concerts throughout the year.”

Newstead will now be looking to put just a little more polish on their brass in final preparation for the midland championships in Bedworth next Sunday (March 8th) before preparing for their spring and summer concerts.  The band are also looking for further contest success in May at the British Open Brass Band Championships and All English Masters International Contest.