Eccles Borough Band had an enjoyable day at the North West Area Championships on Sunday 26th February, performing Phillip Sparke’s excellent ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’. This was our second appearance in the 1st section area contest since our promotion from the 2nd section in January 2016. The band finished 6th, with 13 bands competing and we were pleased to further consolidate our position as a competitive 1st section band. The contest was won by Pemberton Old Wigan DW Band, we offer them and 2nd placed band Rainford Band our congratulations and best wishes for the National finals in Cheltenham in September.

The areas followed hot on the heels of our January contest appearance at the Butlins Miners Open National Brass Band Festival in Skegness. The band placed 5th out of 24 bands in the 1st section performing ‘Fantasy for Brass’ by Malcolm Arnold. The band’s performance was complemented by the adjudicators Mark Wilkinson and Derek Southcott. As usual, a lively weekend was had by all.

Eccles next contest outing will be to the Spring Festival which will also be held at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens on 13th May 2017.  The band qualified for the contest following its historic double win at the Wychavon Festival of Brass in October last year when the band won both the first section and the championship section on the same day. This will be the first time that Eccles has appeared in the Spring Festival since 1959 when the band competed in the Grand Shield and qualified for the British Open.  The band will be competing in the Senior Trophy, in which they will be tackling ‘Salute to Youth’ by Gilbert Vinter, one of the pearls of the brass band repertoire.