The Brass Hub

Well, there we go. This Nationals is now my 7th (yes, only my 7th!), and my first time involved behind the scenes. Sure, there were some points which weren't so good, but generally the contest was a really good one.

Highlights:

Writing for Brian Nixon during the solos - so many times I thought the same as he did, and we talked a lot about his adjudications, so it was a fantastic learning experience.

Playing the Organ part for Dove Descending for Waratah Brass - I was bloody nervous, and apparently you couldn't hear it, but it was there anyway! And I don't remember seeing any other band do it!

Dinner conversation on Sunday night with the BANSW crew. I can't repost it here, but we were in stitches for quite some time - let's just say the contest had sent us all a little crazy!

The percussion all running smoothly all weekend - aside from one broken bongo skin, we didn't have any major dramas at all. 

Working with the fantastic team that was the organising committee, BANSW committee and NBCA. 

And now some thankyous:

Firstly, to Jeff and the team for putting on the contest, and letting me loose with the percussion, even if I did come on board late in the process. Thankyou for trusting me to do something important like that, and helping me make it smooth sailing for everyone.

To Kurt Jacob and Co., and particularly Hans and Jac Smits, without whom we wouldn't have had any percussion instruments at all. The KJ team were really, really good to us, and we managed to get almost everything we asked for, even in the last couple of days before the contest.

To Willoughby Band and Waratah Brass, for loaning their Vibraphones, trap tables and Tam Tam to the contest. These were the few things that we couldn't get from KJ, and without them we wouldn't have been able to go on. Also thanks to Peter Selosse and Grahame Scott, both presidents of their respective bands, for actually moving the instruments to and from the Seymour Centre on their own time. Massive thanks! Never let it be said that the presidents don't do anything!

To all the backstage volunteers - they helped make my job run smoothly by communicating to the percussionists and making sure they knew what they had to do before going onstage.

To the percussionists themselves - you were all very co-operative and understanding of our requests, even those that weren't aware of them until you were backstage. We were able to push through bands so quickly all weekend because you communicated with us and worked with us, and believe it or not, most of you only took 5 minutes or less to change over, even with big setup changes. Big thanks to the guys from the two bands that used different stage setups for Dove, thanks for helping move gear back to where it "belonged" so the next band had an easier time setting up.

To my friends in percussion sections, thank you for letting me be a hard-arse when I had to be, and understanding why I had to have such a hard stance on percussion. It wasn't easy for me to turn to my friends and say "no, I can't let you do that" but unfortunately that's part of the game when you're a contest official :(

To the folks from Optimum Percussion, for stepping in to help out bands who needed percussion equipment at short notice, thankyou for your generosity. Also thanks to Allan for letting me man his trade stand for half an hour - I know you might think you should be thanking me, but I actually enjoyed it for that half an hour or so!

To Buck and the Seymour techs, thanks for being so fantastic to work with, without your help the contest wouldn't have gone anywhere near as smoothly, plus we were able to have a few laughs along the way. Also thanks to all the other Seymour Centre staff - BBQ and Cafe staff, door people, stage people, we really appreciate your work to keep us all happy.

Finally, thanks to all the competitors, both individuals and bands, without whom we wouldn't have had a contest at all. Ultimately, we weren't there for our own self importance, we were there to serve you, the bands and competitors, as best we could, and I hope we were able to succeed at that.

I would like to invite anyone who wants to give constructive feedback on the contest, whether negative or positive (but always constructive please) to email us - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - and let us know so we can take it into account for our state contests and our next national contest in 2014 or so. We will be having a debrief meeting in a couple of weeks and anything brought up will be discussed, so please don't be afraid to pass on your thoughts.

This is Spock signing off for Nationals 2009. Take care everyone :)

Our final day of Nationals dawned on Monday, and it felt like nothing could go wrong. Frankly, nothing really did, at least from my point of view.

Hall 2 had been packed up on Sunday - as soon as C Grade brass had finished, we started to pack up all the percussion in the hall. That was when I started to realise that the contest was coming to an end,  not even after I'd finished playing an hour earlier. But anyway, moving back to Monday, we had hall 2 packed up already, so all that left to be done was to wait until the junior concert bands finished and then we could pack up the rest.

Frankly, I spent a lot of the day wandering around the Seymour Centre, checking that everything was properly packed up in hall 2, getting  the boxes ready for the hall 1 gear, wandering around the trade stands, buying from the trade stands, and even manning the Optimum Percussion stand for a short time while Allan Watson had a short break for lunch. It was great seeing so many young kids there with their parents, all looking around the trade stands, and hopefully buying lots of goodies. Of course, more important is that they were in there listening to the bands, and the hall was nearly full all day. Nothing is better than playing to a large audience, so those kids must have been thrilled, especially seeing members of other bands in there.

So the day was long with lots of waiting around but eventually we started to draw to a close. As  the last band started to go on, we took all the percussion they weren't using it to start packing it up. As soon as the final notes were played, we went onstage and started moving the percussion, with the help of the percussionists (thanks guys!). We had to stop packing up long enough for Jeff Markham and Jim Curnow to thank us all, but then it was straight back to work.  Oddly eough, it didn't take too long to make sure all was packed up, and we were pretty much done inside an hour. After that, it was time to pack cars and go home. I was the last to pack my car with a few bits and pieces, and after a final walk-through of the centre, we walked out the front door at 11:30pm, and it was finally time to head home.

Stay tuned for the epilogue :)

Well, Sunday, what a day. Having decided to go into the Seymour on the BANSW shuttle bus, I woke up and thought "oh great, 10 past, I've got 40 minutes until the bus goes, I can relax for a minute....... wait a minute, it's 10 past 8, it left 20 minutes ago!". What a way to start the morning. So after a quick shower I jumped into my car and made tracks.

I arrived to find everything was back in place after the Gala Concert, thanks to our wonderful stage cre. In fact, I barely had to do anything in the morning except make sure everything was still in the right number of pieces! First band off the rank for me was Gosford, which thankfully wasn't first band of the morning this time. Punchinello and The Undaunted were the pieces, and it was the first time I'd done Undaunted with a vibraphone handy (I hadn't even rehearsed the Vibe bits!). Fortunately I made it through without any glaring mistakes! Not too long after that was Willoughby, with Viva Berkenshaw and Rococo Variations. I was extremely nervous for that performance, partly because the percussion parts had to be rewritten late in the process to suit three players and I hadn't rehearsed properly with a full setup of instruments (or a Marimba, it was all rehearsed on Xylo). However, aside from missing one entry, I managed to survive without any big problems, as did our other two. In fact, full credit to Dorothy-Jane from Lane Cove Concert Band, who did a wonderful job filling in the third part under a lot of pressure.

So, after a short time to relax, it was time to get ready to go for Waratah, with Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Ravenswood.  It was certainly an enjoyable performance, and I must say that Jaime Brown absolutely rocked on Sop, as she always does! I felt a lot less nervous for Waratah than I did for Willoughby, probably because I had a lot less to worry about, instrument-wise - I only needed the Vibraphone! Oddly, it reversed Friday's nerves, where it was Waratah I was more nervous for, possibly for the added complication of having the organ to play as well.

Not long after Waratah I had two back-to-back C grade bands, CNL and Holroyd. Just as I was waiting to go on for CNL, one of the other volunteers came downstairs and grabbed me saying there was a problem upstairs in Hall 2, so I proceeded to bolt upstairs like a bullet, only to find out that the drum kit snare stand was supposedly missing, when in actual fact it was just under the tenor drum! But anyway, time to go on with CNL for Castell Coch and Variations on Maccabeus. Straight after that was Holroyd with Hollywood and ... oh bugger, what was the march again? Death or Glory I think. I wasn't expecting to play it necessarily, and ended up having to sight read off the score (for some reason the parts had gone AWOL), with one of the other percussionists page turning - wasn't that fun, what with DCs and repeats!

Anyway, that out of the way, and I had finished playing for the contest!! Yay! The rest of the day was mine to relax, help occasionally with stage crewing, wander around the trade stands and generally enjoy the day. Once the last band was just about finished, Kevin Christmas and I went around to the Duck and Swan for a drink thinking we'd have more time before the results - wrong!! We got back just in time to hear Gunnedah screaming and the conductors collecting their awards on stage. I was really happy to see them win, something they've been trying to do for many years, as well as Holroyd coming in third, again something deserved after many years of struggle.

Well, once the results were done with and we were all out, the officials decided to head for a well earned meal at the Broadway Cafe. We must've arrived just in time, because not long after we'd ordered, the place started to swarm with bandies, mostly from the top three bands.

Well that was the end of that day, I didn't stay out too late mainly because we still had Monday to go. But it was still a good night overall :)

Well, here we are, half way through the contest and things are so far running smoothly.

For me, the day started with a trip out to the Easter show for the street march. It ended up being a fairly leisurely trip courtesy of public transport and I was out there nice and early. I was Drum Major for two bands - Willoughby and Gosford -  and quite enjoyed it. The parade was an interesting exercise, with bands initially forming up as soon as they were ready for inspection, then coming back to step off when it was their time. As the day went on, that changed to bands being inspected in order, but with everything in one long line from step off to pre-inspection (one band ready to step off, one right behind, two bands in the inspection bays, two formed up behind ready to move into the inspection bays, and one other getting ready, that was what was happening). It was actually a very efficient system, both as the one-long-line system and as the come-what-may system, and somehow it all worked. Of course, the best part for me was I was just a participant, not an official, and I didn't have to worry about anything.

After finishing the parade, I headed back for the hotel to quickly get changed before getting back to work at the Seymour. Thankfully nothing serious had gone wrong during the parade (although there was another case of players not paying attention to the details of Newsletter No. 5). The rest of the day ran very smoothly with only a couple of minor things needing attention, percussion-wise before getting set up for the Gala concert (with a rehearsal in the middle).

I do have to admit, I didn't go to the concert, and along with a few other volunteers I went out for dinner and to enjoy a night off.

It'll be back to work again at 8am tomorrow, and my busiest day of playing, but it should be a good day overall :)

G'night all!

Hi again!

Well, another busy day, but less stressful than the last two. Again an early start, heading into the Seymour to fix up a few niggling little problems with the percussion before bands started, and make sure everything in place. We had to start B Grade without the tam tam stand being properly set up as it was missing a nut, and the snare drum in that hall had lost a small screw making the snare strainer mechanism not work properly. Also, some cymbal stands were missing from hall 2, so not the most ideal start for those bands (and, for the record, I played in band no. 1 in B Grade!).

Eventually those problems resolved themselves, and by lunchtime I was breathing a little easier, having played with one band and floated between halls. Once A grade started, it was into the business side of the day. Every band's percussion section got a briefing on the stage plan as well as reminders about the "BYO hardware" requests. Unfortunately a few bands hadn't been made aware of those requirements and had to leave cymbals or snare drums backstage .

Various points during the day saw me head to the sign-on desk so I could go play with bands - Gosford, Willoughby, CNL and Waratah were all on the agenda today. Waratah was probably a highlight, because I did something that was certainly not done by any other band today - I played the organ part for "Dove Descending". While it probably wasn't heard in the end (the band said they couldn't hear it, and I didn't want to crank the volume too much), it was still there, and I could hear it!

The day finished nice and early (by comparison from the last two days), with the last band finishing at 8:30pm. There was a little bit of percussion changeover (for the benefit of A Grade concert bands), but it was still an earlier night than before.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow - the parade will be a bit of fun, and I'm only stage crewing tomorrow afternoon, so it's much easier. Even Sunday will be nice and easy as long as there aren't any disasters! I expect there will be a lot more work with stage settings for Own Choices, but as long as the percussionists do the right things by us, everything will run smoothly.

Just before I wrap up, I'd like to say a big thanks to all the percussionists who were very co-operative today with our requests, and were understanding when I told them they couldn't take something onstage.  I was disappointed with some who blatantly disregarded the directions we gave, but onthe whole, everyone was quite co-operative and pleasant to deal with.

That's all for now, back tomorrow :)

Spock

rWell today got off to an early start, off to the centre at 7:30 to start organising percussion gear to where it was meant to go (mainly the solos). Like any good contest there were issues to be sorted - mainly that the snare drum was badly tuned, the Marimbas didn't respond so well to the beating some of the soloists inflicted on them, and there were no bongos for the open multi. Fortunately, someone was able to help tune the snare drum a little better, the Marimba could be put back together, and the bongos arrived more or less in time. Unfortunately the first pair got a stick through the skin during the first competitor, so thankfully a second pair was handy for the second competitor.

Workin behind the screen this year was difficult, especially writing almost solidly for 6 hours, but any time Brian noticed something i didn't I tried to listen.

Other than just the solos, we had our viewing sessions for percussion. Apparently there was something special about me running it :P Unfortunately, making sure every thing is in the right place is hard, and there's still a lot to bedone in the morning.

I'm gonna cut it short there, mainly because I don't know what I'm typing anymore (sooooo tired) and I'm about to fall asleep. 

More tomorrow!

DK

Well here we are, a bit over 24 hours later...and I'm already buggered!! What a day! Started out with work this morning, final packing, picking up some stuff, then heading to the Seymour Centre, arriving at around 2pm. First off it was just moving some things to the contest office while waiting for the percussion to arrive, as well as having a quick look around the halls (the York Theatre certainly looks interesting!).

The Percussion arrived around 3pm, unloaded and all moved into the Everest Theatre, which had a stage large enough to accommodate my mess. Unfortunately everything was boxed and had to be set up - that was the next SIX hours! Just trying to work out where to start was difficult, firstly getting out some Timpani, then a marimba...  Fortunately I had some help from various people during the day - Jono, Ross, Kristen, Jess, all doing their litle bits here and there to get things set up. By the time 8:45 rolled around, all the tuned percussion had been assembled (2 Xylos, 2 Marimbas, 2 sets of Tubular Bells), Drum Kits assembled and tuned (quickly mind you!), Dave Egan had been in to tune the Timpani and Bass Drums (which took 2 hours by itself), and a lot of hardware had been unpacked and put up.

There's still a fair bit to do, and tomorrow morning we'll be ensuring all the instruments for the solos are in place. The rest can wait until the afternoon. 

I'm looking forward to the solos tomorrow - it's a chance for me to see how life is like on the other side of the screen. All the best to all soloists, but naturally, particularly to the Percussionists. I look forward to hearing you all tomorrow :)

Until next time,

Spock

Well, it's that time of year already - the time I nearly kill myself running around like a mad animal sans head. Of course, everyone in the world wants to know what it's like, hence the blog :P

So, here I am, it's nearly Midnight Tuesday night, I'm not long home from a rehearsal. What have I got instore over the next 7 days...

Well, for starters, I'm playing with 5 bands this year - that's right, FIVE. I only planned to play with 2 at the start of the year, but unfortunately things changed. Which bands do you ask? They are:

Willoughby Band (A Grade)
Waratah Brass (A Grade)
Gosford City Brass (B Grade)
CNL Brass (C Grade)
City of Holroyd - no. 2 (C Grade)

With one band I am only playing the Own Choice, which helps things a little! I'm also acting as Drum Major for two of those bands, with both bands resident DMs having suffered injuries in the last few days preventing them from marching.

Now, on top of all of that, this year I'm on the BANSW Management Committee, and have been responsible for the co-ordination of the supplied percussion equipment for the contest. I will also be volunteering during the contest, mostly as stage crew, but also as a writer during solos. I'm really looking forward to this side of things as it's something I've never done before.

Everything starts tomorrow, Wednesday. I'm back home now for one last night, working briefly in the morning before packing up, getting some gear from work and heading south for a week. Bump-in starts at 12:30 and will go all afternoon, making sure that everything's ready for the contest to start at 8:30 on Thursday morning (groan...).

Of course after that, we all know what's happening - Solos on Thursday; Brass Bands part 1 on Friday; Street March (hooray, showbags!), junior brass bands and open concert bands on Saturday; Brass Bands pt 2 on Sunday; and Junior Concert Bands on Monday. Not much time to scratch myself in amongst all that, between playing, working and rehearsing!

I think I'll leave things there for now, this is just the beginning, and I'll update through the week as I can. Who knows, I might even grab the odd photo here and there if I can!

Toodles,

Spock