Champion bands

TWO Londonderry bands have outshone the competition at the Championship of Ireland Bands’ Contest, held in Armagh on Saturday.

The Churchill Band and the William King memorial bands both won their categories outright and enjoyed various category wins within their grades at the event, which attracted a huge field of accordion, brass, flute and concert bands.

In a special tribute, the Churchills dedicated their wins to the memory of the late Drew Porter, who was a member of the flute band for over 60 years, and who passed away in September. During their performance as a mark of respect for his contribution to the band, a chair was placed on stage for him, but left vacant.

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Entered in the ‘Second Grade Flute’ contest, the category wins included coming first, the ‘interpretation prize’ for the conductor and the percussion prize, and they came second overall.

In all 22 members of the band (17 flute players and five percussionists) travelled to take part in the event, and according to the secretary, Jamie Foster, they were “extremely happy” about their success.

“The practices beforehand were not going according to plan, so whenever we heard we had won it was unbelievable. We had not taken part in that competition for a couple of years so it was great to win our category and do so well overall.

“I want to congratulate the band and especially the conductor, Chris Wright, who put in a lot of hard work with us. It is great that he picked up the interpretation prize. We also want to congratulate the William Kings for their wins on the day too,” she said.

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Miss Foster added: “We want to dedicate the win to Drew, who was a member of the band for over 60 years. He was a much-loved member of the band and throughout the band scene.”

At the same competition the William King Memorial Band entered and won two sections: Melody Flute and ‘Melody Plus Flute’.

Again, while there was a small competition field, the standard was very high.

Conductor Derek Moore said 30 members of the band played a John Philip Sousa march for the ‘Melody Flute’ category, and in the ‘Melody Plus Flute’ category they played a Pachelbel canon and a march given to them by the Royal Marines called ‘Commando General’.

“I want to thank the members of the band who put in great effort to their practising, and we want to congratulate the members of the Churchill Band on their wins,” he said.

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