Bolsover Festival of Brass 2013

By philNo Comments
Carlton Brass have been placed an extremely pleasing second place at today's Bolsover Brass Festival first section entertainments contest 06/11/2013. Drawn number one and a start time that preceded the bar opening (surely illegal) the band played an excellent quality programme that impressed the adjudicator Dr Keith Wilkinson. Congratulations to all members of Carlton Brass for an excellent result, but special thanks to our new MD Wink Watson who has pulled all this together. A job really well done. Thanks also to our borrowed players, Chris, Luella, Shelby and Rob. Your help was very much appreciated. Well done Silk Brass on winning, and also to our friends at Leicester Coop who won most entertaining band and overall third place. The facilities at Heritage School are very good, and we hope to be back next year. By Dave Rutt....
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Butlins 2012 Contest

By philNo Comments
Carlton Brass acheived a highly creditable 9th place in the First Section contest at the Butlins Brass Band Festival. Playing number 7 out of 25 bands, Carlton put in a fine performance that probably deserved a higher placing - but that's contesting for you. If we look only at bands in the Midlands area we came 2nd out of 9 bands and only one place behind the top Midland band, so we can head to the Midland area contest in March full of confidence. p.s.   A Big thanks to Diane Mann who helped us out on 2nd Trombone - a great performance and a great character to share the weekend with.   Result 1. Becontree Brass (Adam Cooke), 5 2. Drighlington (Jim Davies), 6 3. Yorkshire Imperial Urquhart Travel (David Nesbitt), 19 4. UNITE Union (Derek Renshaw), 16 5. Kidlington Concert Brass (Duncan Wilson), 11 6. GT Group Peterlee (Joe Cook), 4 7. Cawston (Leigh Sharpe), 15 8. Enderby (Jonathon Mott), 12 9. Carlton Brass (Geoff Hawley), 7 10. Kippax (David Lancaster), 14 11. Foresters...
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WMBBA Contest Result

By philNo Comments
WMBBA Contest Pershore  20th Nov 2011 After a long and tiring day and unluckily being drawn to be the final band of the day to play,  Carlton put in a fine effort to come 4th in the WMBBA contest at Pershore. We were just squeezed out of the prizes by one point due to a handful of errors all around the band in the opening section.  However we take great heart from the performance. After the opening the band played superbly well and the adjudicators comments were very complimentary. The piece played by us , High Peak is not an inspiring exciting piece when compared to some of the other band's choices and this may also have been a factor.  A narrow miss this one ! However, the result is an excellent platform to go forward to the Butlins competition.   Bring it on.  ...
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2nd Place at Bolsover Contest

By philNo Comments
The Bolsover Entertainments Contest on Sunday 11th Sept 2011, saw Carlton Brass take 2nd Place behind the Jackfield Band (who went on to take 3rd place in the Championship section contest with the same programme) Being pitted against such quality opposition, Carlton were very pleased to receive the prize for Most Entertaining Band. Carlton played an entertaining program of Fanfare from Carmina Burana Tocatta You Needed Me (Flugel solo) Just a Closer Walk Excerpts from West Side Story (America/Somewhere) ...
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A Fine Fifth at Bedworth

By Dave RuttNo Comments
Carlton Brass competed in the Midlands Regional Championships in Bedworth at the weekend. Playing Berlioz's masterpiece La Carnaval Romain in a strong field of 18 bands Carlton impressed both the audience and the adjudicators with a fine performance. The band earned a satisfying fifth place, making up for a disappointing 15th position last year. Although the band won't be heading for Cheltenham for the National Finals the performance on the day proved that they are able to compete with the best bands in the section. The result was due to hard work in the rehearsal room and expert direction from MD Stan Lippeatt. The band will take great heart from improvements made to the quality of the band under Stan's direction and 2011 promises to be a very good year for Carlton Brass. Congratulations to Phoenix West Midlands for winning the contest with a very fine performance, and also to Ratby and Hathern for joining them in the top three. Good luck at...
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Carlton Brass hit Butlins for six

By Dave RuttNo Comments
This weekend saw Carlton Brass take part in the Butlins Mineworkers National Open Brass Band Festival in Skegness. It's the band's favourite weekend of the year - we're previous winners of the contest back in 2005 - and the band were hoping to build on a recent improvement in form since the appointment of Stan Lippeatt as Musical Director. Stan handed the conductor's baton over the Geoff Hawley for this contest, as Stan is one of the contest organisors and would have his hands full. Stan and Geoff have worked the band hard on the test piece - Darrol Barry's very difficult Granite Variations - and the effort has paid off: we were placed a very respectable 6th place out of 20 in a very strong field. Drawn number 2 the band gave a performance full of confidence and control that saw favour with the adjudicators. The sixth place is the band's best result in the first section, which sees entries from...
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Good result for Carlton Brass in Bedworth

By Dave RuttNo Comments
Saturday 14th of March 2009 saw Carlton Brass compete at the Midlands Regional Contest in the First Section. This was the band's second year in this section and there were high hopes of repeating last year's excellent 4th position. The test piece was the rather difficult Pentacle by talented, young composer Graham Cole. Graham had created a piece of music that would have tested most Championship Section bands and comments around the various regionals have shown that many bands have struggled at rehearsals with Pentacle. Opinion of the piece has been divided. Some people love it and some don't but the band managed to find enough music in the piece to be adjudged sixth in a field of 16 bands. Despite a wobble during the Fire movement the other four movements featured some good ensemble work and many fine solos that impressed the two adjudicators enough to give us a top six finish. The band were delighted with the result considering the difficulty...
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Midlands Regional Contest 2009

By Dave RuttNo Comments
The Midlands Area approaches and Carlton Brass are busy working up this year's challenging test piece Pentacle. Written by Graham Cole, and based on the myths and legends surrounding the ancient symbol of the same name, the piece is proving to be a bit of a handful. Pentacle is a very modern brass band piece of music and contains some very clever, if difficult, musical ideas. Most themes are created around the use of fives which makes for some interesting intervals and time changes, however the band has been working hard at rehearsals and will be ready for the challenge. Once again the area contest is being held in Bedworth with 16 bands competing in the first section. Results from the North-West and Yorkshire regionals have suggested the piece is proving to be a real test for many bands. Brass band news website 4barsrest is predicting us to come third on Saturday. We will see, but if we do achieve that position we...
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Whit Fun

By Dave RuttNo Comments
Carlton Brass have enjoyed a fun day (and night) in the delightful region of Tameside for the traditional Brass Band event Whit Friday Marches. The band loaded themselves into a large, red Premier coach at two in the afternoon and headed across the Derbyshire Dales towards the beer-soaked, band-loving villages of Lancashire. The drive over was made more interesting by the Satnav device favoured by the driver - it seemed intent on taking us around tight, tree-lined corners and roads so narrow that they make cyclists breathe in a bit on the way through. We arrived a little later than planned at Stalybridge Celtic, our first venue. Our tardiness didn't seem to matter, though, as we still arrived earlier than the adjudicator, a certain Mr Duncan Beckley. The traffic is appalling around here during the Whit Friday Marches so perhaps he managed to get stuck behind some other TomTom-following coach on a narrow road somewhere. Once the adjudicator was tucked away in his...
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Friday 16th May 2008 – Whit Friday Marches

By Dave RuttNo Comments
Carlton Brass will be attending the famous Whit Friday Marches this coming Friday 16th May 2008. The band will be heading to t'other side of t' Pennines to compete against some of the country's finest Brass Bands around the beautiful villages around the Oldham and Saddleworth area. If you're in the area then please either gives a cheer or buy us a drink. This marching lark is thirsty work! We could do with a couple of cornet players for the day, so if you're free and happy to help us out then please check out the list of contacts and give us a call....
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