Swansea salutes as European Champion returns to the top

Megan Allan reports from Swansea.

With only a total of 39 bands making it to the starting line at the Brangwyn Hall in Swansea this year, there was a slightly downbeat feeling to last weekend's Regional Championships in Wales. However, despite the reduction in quantity, the quality of the qualifying performances was highly encouraging in all the five sections, topped by a Championship winning rendition of Salute to Youth from the European Champion, Cory Band, that brought the written comment from adjudicator David Read, ‘Gilbert [Vinter] would have liked this. I can pay you no higher compliment!'
Directed by Dr. Robert Childs, it was also a performance that wrestled the Regional Challenge Trophy out of the grip of reigning champion, Tredegar, directed by Ian Porthouse, which had earlier posted a high-quality defence of the title to book a place at the Royal Albert Hall in October.

Joining the two heavyweights in Kensington will be Northop from North Wales, conducted by Thomas Wyss, which beat off the challenge of more fancied rivals to claim a place at the ‘Final' for the first time since 1996.
The Championship Section contest took time to reach its climax, as Tredegar's persuasive musical account off a number two draw was a class apart until Cory played as the last band of the day. David Read commented that he had been looking for a combination of interpretation and technical accuracy in the performances he heard from the ten contenders. As in his on-stage remarks at Blackpool a fortnight ago, he once again stressed the need for bands to get both aspects right from the very start of the work - the tied triplet quaver and semi-quaver motif in the second bar, in fact, which has become something of a bête noire for bands wishing to impress him in the box this year.