On the weekend of 7th September, the GUS Band travelled to Yarm in North Yorkshire, a picturesque market town situated on the banks of the River Tees.  The Yarm School at the top of the Main Street was the venue for the Dr Martin contest, at which the band was to defend its win from last year.  The contest, for champion section bands, requires each band to perform an own choice contest march, solo piece and a test piece.  The GUS Band chose to play the march The President, (William German). James Screaton, the band’s principal cornet performed a stunning rendition of the solo Concertpiece for Cornet, (James Curnow) and the band’s performance was rounded off with the challenging tour de force and previous European Championship test piece From Ancient Times, (Jan Van der Roost).  After a thorough examination, the adjudicator Leigh Baker pronounced the band super fit and well and awarded us Best March, Best Soloist and overall winner!  Dropping only six points out of a total of 250, Leigh Baker ended his remarks with “A cracking show – a real statement of intent from a band on top, top form”.

Following their recording of the 3^rd and 4^th Section Regional test pieces last year, the GUS Band were put through their paces again on Sunday 21^st January when they took part in two workshops for conductors and players of bands who are going to be playing these pieces.  Facilitated by the British Bandsman and sponsored by Barnes Coaches, over eighty delegates representing bands from afar afield as Northumberland to Cornwall attended the morning or afternoon sessions at the Kings Sutton Millennium Memorial Hall near Banbury, Oxfordshire.

The test piece  to be played by 4^th Section bands across the country will be Alan Fearnie’s Music of Jock Tamson, which was commissioned by the Scottish Brass Band Association in 2021.  This was the focus of the morning workshop and the title of the music refers to a Scottish phrase, which can be interpreted as “we are all God’s children” or in this case, “music for everyone!”.  The piece is in three movements: the first, “Nyay Fearties”, is based around a popular Scottish cartoon character, the second, “Inchkeith”, describes the picturesque island in the Firth of Forth while the title of the third is a shortened version of the toast, “Wha’s Like Us?”.

Chris Bond, the Band’s Musical Director, took the Band through some typical warm-up exercises including hymn tunes and a contest march, in this instance the Contestor, before focusing on the test piece.  The band played through the test piece as a performance before zoning in on particular aspects that bands could focus on and demonstrating possible pitfalls when performing the piece.

The afternoon workshop concentrated on the 3^rd Section test piece, which this year is Corineus by the GUS Band’s very own Chris Bond.  Corineus was a medieval warrior and legend has it, the founder of Cornwall and the piece is based around his story.  It begins with heraldic fanfares, while the middle section is slower and reflects on Corineus’s daughter’s longing for her husband who has eyes instead for a German princess.  The final section portrays a battle and includes a reference to the Cornish national anthem, Trelawny.

The afternoon forum followed a similar format to the morning’s  and each of the workshops ended with a question and answer session, with some great observations, concerns and queries raised by the delegates for Chris to answer and advise on.  There were lots of appreciative comments from those attending and the GUS Band wishes all the bands in the 3^rd and 4^th section Regional contest this year the very best of luck.