British Open 2023 - Retrospective
The weekend of 9th/10th September marked the 169th British Open Championships, widely accepted as the pinnacle of the UK banding calendar. We travelled to Birmingham in high spirits after a busy summer of music making and the best attended open rehearsal in memory, where we previewed our rendition of this year’s chosen test piece: ‘Sand and Stars’ by French composer Thierry Deleruyelle.
This set test was chosen after receiving an enthusiastic reception at both the Swiss National Championships and European Championships by Brass Band Treize Etoiles, both of which the band won. Our principal cornet Luke Barker was part of these performances during his studies abroad, and so we were very excited to play the piece after hearing great things about it! It is a demanding work with technical and musical challenges for all sections of the band and soloists, in particular flugelhorn, solo euphonium, solo trombone and principal cornet. Our Musical Director Paul Holland put us through our paces in rehearsal to ensure we paid attention to all the small yet significant details of the score and brought to life the storyline of aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s attempted record flight in the 1930s.
The contest day was a test of the band’s stamina and nerve as we found ourselves drawn to play band number 18 of 18, on one of the hottest days of the year. After hearing the draw at 9am we waited over 10 hours for our moment on stage, trying to keep our adrenaline levels under control and not let dread take over as we heard reports of the steadily increasing temperatures in the auditorium of Symphony Hall! At this point we were even more grateful for our trip to France in June as the 32+ degree heat on stage there was good practice for this contest!
We were determined to put on a great show, both to honour the hard work we had put in in preparation and also to thank the intrepid audience members who had stayed all day in the sweltering conditions to listen to us. We were delighted with both the performance and the audience reaction; we received the loudest and longest applause we can recall in recent times, and a standing ovation from many in the hall. Thank you also to everyone who was watching remotely on WOB Play who left comments on social media; we read every comment and we are so grateful for your support.
If you would like to listen to our performance on demand, it is available on WobPlay, where you can also find our latest CD, DA Vinci.
The adjudicators placed us 8th out of the 18 competing bands. Stephen Roberts described our performance as “a real treat at the end of a long day” and “A splendid performance, full of verve, energy and passion”. This may not have been the result we were hoping following our performance, but we were very proud of the way we played, and had a great weekend socialising too!
We would like to congratulate our friends at Foden’s Band for their fantastic victory in an extremely competitive field. They will go on to represent England at the 2025 European Championships.
We are already back in rehearsals for our next competition which will be the Championship Section National Finals at the Royal Albert Hall, playing Edward Gregson’s ‘Of Men and Mountains’. We’d be delighted to see Flowers fans in the audience if you are able to be in London on 21st October, and tickets are available directly from the RAH website.
National Brass Band Championships | Royal Albert Hall
The next opportunity to hear us in concert is Thursday 21st of September at the Nest, Little Verzons Farm near Ledbury.
Flowers Band - Thursday Sept 21st - Little Verzons Farm
We are also returning to Pershore on 7th of October for an “Afternoon of Stage and Screen” at Number 8 Arts Centre.
The Flowers Band in Concert: An Afternoon of Stage & Screen - Number 8