The Harrogate Band - Press Cuttings 1997

Harrogate Advertiser, 5th December 1997

Musical delight as bands link up for Christmas

For the second year running the Harrogate Band and Tewit Youth Band are tonight giving a Concert for Christmas together. They are the two brass bands in Harrogate and between them cater for the whole age range of players.

The Harrogate Band is a senior band with mainly an adult membership. It has been successful in a number of competitions and plays at a very high standard.

Tewit Youth Band members are generally under 20. They won the last Northern Youth Championship and have had many successful overseas tours to Hungary and various parts of Germany. Currently they are preparing to visit northern Spain in August 1998 on an exchange visit with Leioaka Musica Banda from near Bilbao. The exchange band had, until recently, a musical director who was a founder member of the Tewit Youth Band in 1978. Mr Ian Radcliffe has now returned to Harrogate after many years in Spain.

The Concert for Christmas will be held at St Peter's Church, next to Marks and Spencer, Harrogate, this evening starting at 7.30pm.

Harrogate Advertiser, 10th September 1997

Harrogate musicians celebrate

Musicians from Harrogate Brass Band are celebrating after winning their section at the Hardraw Scar Brass Band Contest held in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales. The band, conducted by David Lancaster, also won third prize overall in the competition, taking home Ł200 in prize money and the KLBB trophy.

Nine other bands entered the contest which takes place outdoors set against the backdrop of Hardraw Scar in Wensleydale. Afterwards a plea was made for more bands to take part in next year's contest, and for sponsorship of the event, by the secretary of the Yorkshire and Humberside Brass Band Association, Dennis Hill.

British Bandsman, 9th August 1997

Ripon Explained

Contrary to your article "Audience costs band two points" in BB4943, there was no fuss following the Ripon Contest, simply journalists getting their facts wrong and, in one instance, publishing an article known to be wrong to make a good story.

As the organiser of the event may I put the facts right for once and all? The contest rule that Harrogate Band fell foul of, as did seven other bands on the day, is quite simple. "The band's performance will be timed from the first note to the last note and will include introductions, etc. during the performance." Applause after the last note has been played was not timed and therefore all published comments to this effect are wrong.

The Harrogate Band were penalised two points because they played too long and the applause they received for their excellent performance at the conclusion had not bearing on the these penalties.

I hope this will clear up any questions that bandsmen and potential entrants to the contest may have. On the day all the bands were quite happy with these penalties as they knew they had played over the time. In many cases they had timed themselves.

Secondly, in reply to the letter from A. Smith regarding vocals at entertainment contests, two bands at this year's Ripon Contest featured vocals in their programme - the singers being members of their respective bands. We see no problem whatsoever with this, though we would need to ensure that the vocalists were complementary to the band and not vice versa, and why should they be band members? Remember Frank Renton's dialogue accompanying a band at Spennymoor in 1996?

Anything goes, within reason, is what we at Ripon encourage. Up to 30 players plus percussion - bring five euphonium players if you have them - what a lovely sound. The Harrogate Band had a troupe of nine dancers fronting their Riverdance finale - tremendous entertainment.
P.Gilby.

British Bandsman, 9th August 1997

Several new players have been welcomed to the Harrogate Band in the last few months. Jamie McVicar (euphonium), Claire Hastings (horn), Karen Shore (cornet), and Holly Garrett (trombone). The band is also delighted to welcome back David Gall (euphonium) and Jason Harper (flugel). Harrogate's player of the year award for 1997 went to Sadie Randle, one of the band's excellent cornet soloists. Sadie is currently a final year student at the University College of Ripon and York St John completing a BA degree in Communication Arts and specialising in Music and has played with The Harrogate Band since coming to the area in 1994.

British Bandsman, ? July 1997

Audience costs band two points

There's been a bit of a fuss in Yorkshire following the Ripon Contest. The trouble arose when Harrogate Band brought the house down with a spirited performance of Riverdance, the finale to an entertaining programme which gained them the highest marks of the day.

Such was the extent of the audience's response that the applause carried the band's time on stage over the prescribed 20 minute limit, costing them two penalty points and the contest.

The band's disappointment was widely reported in grossly exaggerated terms in the local press and discussed on air by Radio 2's Steve Wright. Conductor David Lancaster told BB: "There are certainly no "grumpy" bandsmen at Harrogate. On the contrary we were delighted to finish in the top places among some distinguished opposition."

The band's fortunes have been boosted by two pieces of good news. The first is that they have gained promotion to the Section 2 in National gradings (which renders them ineligible for next year's Ripon event, which is held specifically for Section 3 and 4 bands) and the second is that they have renewed a sponsorship deal with local company Readydrive Ltd. The company operates a fleet of 80 self-drive vehicles.

Band chairman Steve Morland said: "This is a great boost for the band. We have gone from strength to strength since our association with Readydrive began and look forward to continuing our success in the coming year."

Daily Telegraph, 26th June 1997

Damning ovation

A concert in Ripon ended on a sour note recently for a Harrogate brass band when it was denied first place because the audience liked them too much. According to the Harrogate Advertiser a storming rendition of Riverdance caused such delirium that the audience would not stop clapping. The applause lasted two minutes too long so the band suffered a cruel time penalty and ended up in second place.

Daily Star, 21st June 1997

Band that's brassed off

A brass band lost a top contest because the audience clapped too much! The applause, cheers and stomps went on so long judges ruled the band had gone over the 20-minute time limit for its performance.

They imposed a time penalty which meant Harrogate Brass Band finished runners up in the contest at Ripon Cathedral. One grumpy musician said "We lost because we were too good. What were we supposed to do? Tell the audience to shut up?"

The Sun, 21st June 1997

Brassed off

Musicians in the Harrogate Band missed first place in a contest when rapturous applause took them over their time limit in Ripon, Yorks.

Harrogate Advertiser, 20th June 1997

The band that was too good

The talented musicians of Harrogate Band were brassed off this week after top scoring in a prestigious contest only to be snubbed by judges for getting too much applause.

The band were leading a brass band entertainment contest at Ripon Cathedral after a spirited performance of Riverdance, but the rapturous reception lasted so long that it brought a time penalty which lost them first place.

Organiser David Boase said "Harrogate Band went down a bomb with the audience, but the extended applause meant they went two minutes beyond the allotted time and they were penalised for it. It was an excellent performance, but they lost because of the prolonged applause which went on longer than anticipated."

It was the band's final appearance at the annual contest, after winning it last year, as they will be promoted to the second section of national gradings next year to compete at a higher level.

Ripon Gazette, 6th June 1997

Applause robs band of trophy

Harrogate band nearly brought the house down with its spirited performance of tunes from the popular show Riverdance, but the rapturous applause of the audience ended up losing them first prize in Saturday's brass band contest in the Cathedral.

In a nail-biting battle for first place Harrogate Band was neck and neck with Marsden Silver Band from Huddersfield, but lost out in the end because of a time penalty.

At the close of judging Harrogate was in the lead by just one point, but while Marsden lost only one point for playing over the allotted time, Harrogate had two points deducted.

With the two bands tying for first place the winner's trophy was awarded to the Huddersfield band because they had gained the highest mark for musical content.

Held for the third year running, the contest was the best yet, attracting ten bands from throughout the region, said Mr Boase.

A large audience filled the Cathedral to hear the bands competing over five hours. With Marsden and Harrogate taking first and second places respectively, Yarm and District Band was awarded third prize. There was also success for Ripon City Band which took the prize for the best Fourth Section Band.

Earlier in the day the competing bands had performed at various venues in and around the city, including Fountains Abbey, Lightwater Valley and the ..........