On Saturday 10 th September Foden's travelled to the Symphony Hall, Birmingham to compete at the British Open Contest against seventeen of the UK's leading bands as well as the Paris Brass Band. The contest is regarded as one of the World's leading brass band events (along with the National Finals) due to the quality of bands and all 2300 tickets were sold within two days. As well as ticket sales, this year saw the contest streamed across the World to a large audience.
The test piece that each band performed was composed by Edward Gregson and was entitled 'The World Rejoicing.' Despite being a 17 minute work, the music is extremely listenable and proved highly popular with the large audience.
Foden's received a fantastic response to their performance and the large majority of audience members and critics were predicting a top two position. Following the results the band were placed 2 nd with the Soprano player Richard Poole winning the award for the best Soprano.
The band now look forward to defending their National Title at the Royal Albert Hall in October
Full results
1. Brighouse & Rastrick (Prof David King)
2. Foden's (Russell Gray)
3. Aldbourne (Ivan Meylmans)
4. Cory (Philip Harper)
5. Tredegar (Ian Porthouse)
6. Grimethorpe Colliery (Michael Bach)
7. the cooperation band (Glenn Van Looy)
8. Black Dyke (Prof Nicholas J. Childs)
9. Northop Silver (Gareth Brindle)
10. Hammonds (Morgan Griffiths)
11. Leyland (Thomas Wyss)
12. Flowers (Paul Holland)
13. NASUWT Riverside (Dr Ray Farr)
14. Paris Brass Band (Laurent Douvre)
15. WFEL Fairey (Arsene Duc)
16. Carlton Main Frickley Colliery (Allan Withington)
17. Desford Colliery (LMTF) (Michael Fowles)
18. Rothwell Temperance (David Roberts)