Butlins Champions!
Flowers returned to Butlins after a Covid-enforced cancellation last year to retain the title of Champion Band 2022, picking up awards for Best Overall, Best Test Piece, Best Entertainment, Most Entertaining as well as a belated Soloist prize for Jamie Smith.
As reigning Champions from January 2020, we provided the Friday night concert featuring ABBA, Manhatten Skyline, and the premier of Bright Lights, Big City!, a piece from the pen of Richard Taylor and a brilliant crowd pleaser, as well as MD pleaser!
Paganini Variations was the set work for the Saturday and posed a challenge for all sections of the band. With 16 variations to master, we had an array of chances to extract music and drama from the page. Each section had a variation in which to demonstrate technicality and emotion and everyone performed incredibly well. Matt Rowe was on imperious form on Euphonium, as well as Paul Richards once again proving why he remains one of the best Soprano players in the banding movement. Tony Pemberton even made a rare appearance as a soloist on Bbb Bass!
We had a number 5 draw for Saturday, and after we played, made our way back to North Shore Golf Club to our rehearsal venue to work on the Sunday Entertainments programme.
Monopoly was the theme and each piece represented a square on the famous board. We began, where else, but GO! (Rags to Riches) with a funky new commission from Christian Overhead to fire us into our set. After flying around the board and with a flurry of Monopoly cash thrown into the crowd, the Flowers Band were flying high at Mayfair. Jamie Nuss was the inquisitive diner in a posh restaurant as Mark Cowley served up a delicious and excellently timed staging to the backdrop of Paul Saggers’ arrangement to an Eric Coates classic. Even the Champagne cork was in time!
St. Paul’s from Fleet Street was our soloist piece. The new Andy Wareham composition reflected the beauty of the protected view of St. Paul’s Cathedral, although the beauty was perhaps better realised by our Principal Cornet, Jamie Smith. A truly captivating performance of utter nerve and musicianship left the audience and band spellbound. The effect was so intense it even appeared to have confused the administrators of the event, as after the contest an incorrectly awarded soloist prize was presented to a rival band’s cornet player, despite having not played a solo! After the initial recipient queried the award, the Contest controllers realised their mistake of mixing up Band drawn number 2 and Band placed number 2, and presented Jamie with the Geoff Dove Soloist Challenge Shield.
Jonathon Bates, a regular in Flowers Band’s repertoire, was once again called upon to pen an item to show off the strength in depth that we have here at Flowers. Pel Mel, a famous W.Hogarth Lear piece, was adapted to become our fourth piece; Pall Mall. A whirlwind of sectional virtuosity, (including the Trombones playing directly into a forgotten microphone!) allowed every member of the band to navigate around the stage and deliver some awesome playing whilst the capacity audience at Butlin’s Centre Stage watched on.
The Monopoly board game usually finishes with the game falling apart and everyone becoming enemies. This is where we at Flowers broke this tradition and rounded off our entertainment set where we began; with Christian Overhead. To Jail! (Riches to RAGE!) depicted the player being in jail (Jamie Nuss once again adopting the actor role and dressed in a black and white striped prison jumpsuit) to show the fall from the riches of Mayfair earlier in the programme; chains were used as percussion to show the need to roll a double in order to get ourselves back in the game. Our finale urged onwards, rising in tension and desperation until, inevitably, we had to admit it was GAME OVER! The audience cheered their approval and we could finally relax and await the results.
Flowers Band had no less than 8 active players performing in the 25 strong National Youth Reunion Band later in the evening (including Luke Barker, Josie Allen, Lauren Chinn, Emily Evans, Gregor Spence, Alex Walton and Ruth Mellor) as well as alumni (including Bethany Peck and Brett Baker), more than any other band in the country. During the interval, Flowers Band were announced as winners of the Championship Section, including Best Test Piece, Best Entertainment and (eventually!) Best Soloist. We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who supported us and spoke to our players over the weekend to congratulate and say how much they enjoyed our playing. We put so much time and effort in, as well as every other band this weekend, so for it to pay off shows the dedication of our MD Paul Holland and his vision for where Flowers Band can be. Each and every member of Flowers, player or otherwise, is committed to performing to the best of our ability and to compete against the very best in the world. We have achieved so much at Butlin’s over the years and we are hopeful that although the contest won’t be held next year, will make a strong return in 2024.
Thank you for the support, we are now getting ready to challenge for the West of England Championship in March!