Friary put in a highly creditable performance of Peter Graham’s Harrison’s Dream at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday, to equal the Band’s best previous placing of 11th out of the 20 bands competing at the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain. It was the Band’s tenth appearance in the Finals, with six placings of 12th or 11th since 2016.
Drawn to play 15th, there was a wait of some six hours until just before 4pm for Friary to take to the stage, and for seven players it was a completely new experience, too. The two commentators on brass website 4barsrest were impressed with the performance, one even tipping Friary as a ‘dark horse’ for the top six. The audience reaction, too, was highly positive. The adjudicators - Rob Wiffin, Stephen Cobb and Arsène Duc - were slightly less enthusiastic, though, but still with some very complimentary remarks.
Band Chairman David Wicks was philosophical about the overall result: ‘Whilst it may be slightly disappointing only to equal our previous best, I believe that after significant rebuilding and successful filling of long-standing gaps, we are very much on an upward trend.’ ‘All the bands placed above us, bar one, are higher in the world rankings, and we left four higher ranked bands in our wake. We have much to be proud of,’ he noted.
Warmest congratulations go to Flowers for lifting the title, to Foden’s and Black Dyke who completed the podium places, and also to our London & Southern Counties fellow contestants who came in 8th.
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