News

Rhys Cave (Back Row Cornet) took part in the Basildon Young Musician of the Year competition on Thursday 10th July. Against a field of 52 finalists from all musical disciplines, Rhys was not only the winner of the brass prize on the day winning him the brass class cup, but also scooped the main prize for the winning finalist taking home a shield and £250. Rhys impressed the judges with his performance of share my yoke by Joy Webb.

On the 25th May 2008, the Aveley and Newham Band competed in the All England International Master contest held in Cambridge. Entry to this competition is by invitation only. Twenty one bands from all across Europe took part. This year's line up of bands was once again extremely strong. The difficult task of choosing between them was left to the well respected trio of David Read, Eric Cress and Philip Sparke.

On Saturday 10th May 2008, the Aveley and Newham Band performed in the Grand Shield contest in the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. This contest forms part of the Spring Festival of the British Open Championships. Sixty bands competed from all around the country in three different sections. The Grand Shield is the most prestigious and holds the coveted prize of an invitation into the elite British Open contest in September. This year that prize would be decided by the experienced ears of Dr Robert Childs and Major Peter Parkes who acted as adjudicators.

The Aveley and Newham Band have once again gained qualification for the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain with a second place finish at Stevenage.

The National Championships of Great Britain is one of the biggest and most loved events in the Brass Band Calendar.  With just the top bands from each area qualifying for this event at the 'Regional Qualifying Stages' in March. It always shows banding at the highest quality from around the UK.

Having qualified for this event no less than eight times since 1997, the Aveley and Newham Band were under know illusion about the difficulty of 'holding their own' at the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington and knew what the weeks of preparation would entail.

This was the second year that The Aveley and Newham Band has attended this most prestigious contest- held at the Symphony Hall Birmingham, on Sat 15th Sept.The testpiece was a towering new work Visions of Gerontius,by Kenneth Downie. The inspiration for the work was found in the hymn Gerontius and in the words of the poem, The Dream Of Gerontius, by Cardinal John Newman.The adjudicators for the day were Steven Mead, Geoffrey Wittham and William Relton.

During the cold late weeks of June, the band prepared for what was to be an extraordinary weekend in Germany, which saw the band perform to packed crowds and president Tim Casey hailed as “Fantastische” by the local papers.

The test piece chosen for the contest was On Alderley Edge, by Peter Graham and the adjudicators:- John Berryman, Alan Fernie and William Relton.

The test piece for the contest was In Memoriam RK by Elgar Howarth and the adjudicators were David Read, John Miller and Alan Morrison.

The Area test piece chosen for 2007's qualifying competition was Isiah 40 by Robert Redhead. The Aveley and Newham Band last performed this work at the National Championships in the Albert Hall way back in 1996. Those still playing with the band were under no illusion of the level of technical difficulty that this would present, althought the announcement of the test piece was well recieved. It was generally felt that, unlike some of the test pieces of recent years, only the very best performances would do it justice and so present the adjudicators with a much easier day's work. This view was underpinned by results from other area contests as they became known.

The year to date has been one of the most successful contest seasons in the history of the Aveley and Newham band. It was bettered only when the band was officially ranked 13th for a period of time back in 2000.