A Blidworth Style Catch Up!

Well it has been a while! If you’re new here, welcome and if you’ve been here a while, welcome back and thanks for sticking around!

It’s been a busy few months at Blidworth HQ, the last time we blogged was just after the area contest in March and a lot has happened since!!

We started off our “post contest season” with a band social evening, which was a brilliant night of catching up, celebrating and a few beverages along the way!

During our social evening we presented our annual “band awards” some voted by the band, some decided by our MD Gary. The awards were as follows -

“Players Player of the Year” - Sandra, Solo Horn

“Bands Person of the Year” - Sarah, band manager (and repiano cornet!)

“Conductors Player of the Year” - Sandra, Solo Horn

“Conductors Section of the Year” - the Basses (Emily, Hannah, Phil and Martin)

“Conductors Most Improved Player” - Mark, Soprano Cornet

Of course in true Blidworth fashion we also had to have a bit of a laugh, and awarded to extra special awards. Firstly was the “loneliest player award” which was awarded to our fantastic bass trombone player John Gregory. John has had a pretty tough time in the trombone section having had either one or two vacancies in the section until the beginning of 2024, and he’s never moaned, never grumbled and turned up rehearsal after rehearsal no matter what!

Secondly, the award for the “most unorganised player” went to our wonderful and slightly forgetful Corey Kohut. In the months leading up to the area Corey famously forgot to bring his cornet to a rehearsal, as well as other things and we thought it worth recognise this achievement! We do love you very much Corey, you unorganised legend!

Finally, we had our “noisiest section” award. This was awarded to our Eb Bass section Hannah and Em! These two young ladies are an incredible section, to say (at the time) they were 16 and 20 years old, playing at the area for them both was an achievement no less than climbing a mountain, Hannah at 16 playing at her first EVER area contest, and Emily at 20 playing her first contest on bass. They both give us plenty of laughs during rehearsals and the sound they make together is simply amazing!

The band all had a brilliant night, big thanks to Blidworth Miners Welfare for the room!

From there we’ve been a very busy bunch, getting ready for our summer concerts, meeting and singing new players and celebrating birthdays and everything in between!

In April, our previous mentioned “Mr Unorganised” Corey took part in the Edinburgh Beating Retreat which the Army Cadets, a brilliant achievement!

(Corey pictured below with his very proud Gran)

We then welcomed our brilliant trombone player David to team Blidworth! David recently moved to the area and we were delighted to have him join us on 2nd trombone!

On the 11th May the band then took off to Newark Showground for the wonderful Nottinghamshire County Show! The sun was shining and everyone had a brilliant day. We feel lucky every year to perform at this amazing event and this year was certainly no different!

The band then had a little uniform treat and ordered ourselves some fantastic hoodies from the amazing A1 logos LTD. We cannot thank them enough for their incredible customer service!

At the end of May the band then had some incredibly exciting news, that our conductor Gary had reached the semi finals of the Brass Band Conductors’ Association Conducting Competition! Gary was successful in reaching the semi finals alongside 9 other contestants after successfully made it through the initial “video” round.

The semi final was due to take place on 15th June in Eccles Town Hall, where the semi finalists would rehearse with the Hammonds Band on either 'Resurgam' (Eric Ball) or 'Rhythm of Light' (Liz Lane). At the semi finals Adjudicators Sarah Groarke-Booth and Morgan Griffiths would then select five conductors to go through to the evening Gala Concert final where they would each conduct the Eccles Borough Band.

On the 15th June, Gary headed to Manchester for the semi final. Gary was selected to work on Eric Ball’s Resurgam, and from here he was one of 5 selected to go through to the final and conduct Eccles Borough Band in the evening Gala Concert. Gary was given “Barn Dance and Cowboy Hymn” as his chosen piece.

At the end of evening, Gary was awarded 2nd place overall and the highest place UK entrant!

The band are incredibly proud of Gary, his hard work and commitment is truly unmatched. We are so very lucky to have such a hardworking, talented, enthusiastic and passionate MD at the helm!

After Gary’s success there was no rest for him however as 2 weeks later we were back out, this time playing at the wonderful Worksop Armed Forces Day hosted by the royal British legion - Worksop branch. This event is a fantastic weekend with two full days of amazing displays and events. We are honoured to take part in this event every year and had a brilliant day as always!

The full band played on the Saturday, and on the Sunday two of our players were back for the second day events! Sarah, our rep player, who is an honorary member of the Royal British Legion played the last post on behalf on the band, and Dave, our 2nd baritone player, who was at the event as part of the Seaforth Highlanders.

At the beginning of July we then had a very special and memorable day, playing at a private event to celebrate the amazing Thelma’s 100th birthday. Our 10 piece had a brilliant day out with cake, drinks and thoroughly enjoyed meeting all Thelma’s family and of course Daisy the Dog! What an incredible day that we were truly honoured to be part of 🩷

Of course alongside all of this, the behind the scenes team (or the committee as they’re commonly known) have been very busy bees as always, making sure the band is organised (ish) and running smoothly, sorting out concerts, entering contests, organising music, sorting out deps and players, arranging the band social, planning fundraising, sorting uniforms, collecting prizes for raffles, running stalls and so much more.

A huge shout out to all our committee, Martin, Lucy, Sarah, Karen, Emily, Sandra and Janice for all their hard work. A lot of it goes unnoticed but the band wouldn’t run without it!!

And of course once again a huge thank you goes to our MD Gary, for his hard work and commitment to the band!

Finally of course is a massive thank you to you, our wonderful followers and supporters. We appreciate every single one of you!

We now look forward to our busy summer period, starting with our much anticipated return to Newark Castle and their summer brass band events!!

Keep your eyes peeled for more information, exciting news and announcements on our Facebook and Instagram pages!

Thank you ❤️