2008 Australasian Open - Retrospective

To quote Charles Dickens - "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times"....

The new Australasian Open Festival was by any criteria a resounding success. The venue and location at Twin Towns Clubs and Resorts, Coolangatta was superb and there was almost universal approval by the competitors.

The Federation of Australasian Brass Band (FABB) team of Owen Melhuish, Peter Younghusband, Allan Lonergan, led by Chairman, Rick Casagrande deserve the highest praise for having the courage and vision to develop the concept of a true Australasian contest to a reality. It was the best of times without a doubt.

The electronic registration and bar code scanning of ID cards made the sign-on procedure swift and efficient.

The three adjudicator system seemed to work well, with Steve Bastable, Barrie Gott and Ken Young, teaming together in the collaboration process.

On to the bands – the weekend was all about New Zealanders, Woolston Brass. The band celebrated well into the evening (and morning) before flying home with excess baggage comprising heavy silverware and a wallet containing $10,000 Aussie dollars.  Bank it quick guys before the exchange rate goes south!

The Yamaha Australasian Open Championship

Woolston Brass led by Graham Hickman, displayed technical prowess and rhythmic vigour. Clearly hungry for success the band also had some fine soloists on display, notably David Bremner on trombone and Colin Clark on Soprano.  

The drive and technical clarity across the whole band in the first and third movements were extremely strong, with only a few minor lapses in consistency.  Although, the band may prefer to forget some moments in the second movement when players were clearly not fully at ease.

Brisbane Excelsior (Howard Taylor) performed with control, detail, emotion and dynamic contrast – with the second movement being its strongest, almost ethereal. The emotional rendering of the wonderful euphonium solo by Ashley Gittins was a special moment for all.

Although the performance from XCLR was technically solid on the whole, the rhythmic drive and sub-division was not always consistent and true across the whole band.

Both performances, with strengths in different places, were clearly in front of the other bands.

St. Mary’s Band Club (Paul Terracini) were awarded third place and Warringah Concert Brass (John Saunders) fourth, with the comment made by adjudicators that 3^rd and 4^th places were extremely close.

There is no doubt that Paul Terracini is a fine musician and he certainly has all of the ‘moves’.  The performance by St Mary’s had some special musical moments which we didn’t hear from other bands, and the steady tempo in the third movement certainly helped the band to play with security and confidence. 

Warringah were perhaps a little more technically tidy than St Mary’s, and the second movement eupho solo from Thom Humphrey was simply gorgeous.  The band is steadily gaining in strength with each outing.

Only the first four placings were announced, which left Brisbane Brass (Greg Aitken), Footscray-Yarraville City Band (Phillipa Edwards), and The “Trusts” Waitakere Brass (Steven Booth), to share fifth place.

The York Australasian Entertainment Championship

Most of us were relieved and somewhat shocked to find the Twin Towns Club showroom actually full of people enjoying themselves during the afternoon's entertainment - what a marvellous achievement this was.

All sarcasm aside, Woolston Brass again led the way producing a top class show in both quality of music and presentation, and deservedly took the title (even if it was overtime).  Compere and vocalist Laura Bunting was outstanding and gave the Woolston ‘look’ a real boost. Laura is soon to tour Australia with the cast of Buddy Holly – an indication of her quality talent.

But that was not all, the band played extremely well, presented themselves professionally and were clearly more comfortable with the stage and surroundings than the previous day. 

Most of us were gob-smacked when David Bremner played Blue Bells of Scotland – his sound, style and technique are world class.  And Colin Clarke – what incredible sound and musicality in the slow melody, Flowerdale.

Warringah were awarded second place and this, in retrospect, came as no real surprise. The program flowed seamlessly, was played well, and included (mostly) quality repertoire.

The dying swan act in The Swan was a risky one, but one they possibly just got away with, depending on who you talk to. Scott Frankcombe in Flashdance had us scared for a while, but in the end impersonated the dancer in the beer ad better than the real thing. Soul Bossa Nova with Austin Powers was cleverly choreographed and characterised, and Anthony Brahe, the non-brass soloist prize winner, was impressive but not too serious on marimba.

In third place were Brisbane Excelsior who offered a neat show, played well.  Missing the great Dean Morley, the tubas simply played louder, with Tom Allely quite noticeably so.  The use of visually projected images was effective and well timed.  The choreography in Puttin’ on the Ritz didn’t quite come off for us, but the overall quality of the music carried the band over the 3^rd place line...just. They are certainly capable of better things on the entertainment front.

Footscray-Yarraville obviously put an enormous amount of time into its production, with a deliberate (sometimes forceful) injection of moderness into the usual brass band set.  At times though, the quality of playing was not always at its best.

Not too sure if the band got away with “Spice Brass” –  the images of the boys from the band dressed up as the Spice Girls will haunt us for many years to come!

Knight of Cydonia from Muse arranged by Andrew Batterham, was a highlight of the program – very intense,  powerful, and well crafted. The use of electric piano and amplified guitar worked well.

More efficient, less ‘cluttered’ transitions between numbers may have made a big difference to the final result for Footscray.

Again, only 1^st to 4^th placings were announced with  Brisbane Brass, St Mary's and Waitakere sharing 5^th place.

'Cringe' factor

Most bands put a lot of thought into their programmes and thankfully clumsy attempts at humour, and the dreaded 'cringe' factor were not common. However, some of the home grown musical arrangements were a somewhat risky choice, given the competency in compositional techniques and appreciation of the three adjudicators.

Theme and Concept

The effort and ability required in developing a meaningful theme and concept within the program was probably one of the most challenging for some bands, which few bands as a consequence really achieved.

For us, Waitakere were one of the strongest here with its program themed ‘Aeteoroa’, and the stunning opening of the Haka. There were other issues within this particular presentation though, the adjudicators did not find convincing.

The Future

FABB chairman, Rick Casagrande said in his closing address, “What we have heard here today, is where I consider to be the future of community brass bands.  Too often, we (brass bands) perform only to ourselves, and we need to focus more on what people want to see and hear in order for us to sustain our own future.”

We heard many discussions later in the day, generally along the lines of ‘what is entertainment’? A common denominator seemed to be that if there is quality of music – then the entertainment value will automatically follow. 

..and the worst

And  so, to reflect back to the opening quote from Charles Dickens, on to the “worst of times”... 

In terms of the quality of the music, and solely looking at the test piece performances, the sad fact is that only two bands really had the ability to come close to being able to handle the technical demands of the test piece, Music for Battle Creek by Philip Sparke, and to do this wonderful work justice.

After the top two placed bands, the rest of the field simply were outclassed. Although there were some fine moments in all performances the consistency was lacking.

This leads to the consideration that some serious questions need to be asked about the overall standard of brass bands in Australasia. There are a handful of top combinations, some who weren’t at the Australasian Open this year, but after these few, the standard is questionable.

FABB will be hopeful that those invited bands who were unable to attend this year, will be there in 2009.

The auditorium configuration didn’t really lend itself to audience intimacy.  This is something the organisers are aware of and will re-assess for next year.

There were mixed reports from players about the stage acoustic.  Some felt the stage was quite ‘dry’ with an inability to hear other sections in the band, whilst others were at ease and comfortable with the sounds.

No band contest is complete without some controversy.  The 2-minute onstage warm up prior to the test piece gave us some!  Some bands opted to use this time, and some didn’t.  Some used it seriously, and some didn’t.  Some used it to their advantage, and some didn’t.  Some played arrangements by particular composers (!), and some didn’t. Organisers will be giving this component some serious thought before next year’s event.

Fresh, professional and intelligent

In many ways, this contest was a brave step forward and the FABB Directors and Board members deserve the brass band movement's deepest gratitude. Gone are the restrictive rules and petty regulations that seem to sour other contests. The approach is fresh, professional and intelligent.

It is now up to all the Bands who want to experience this new contest to re-evaluate their own thinking. In a fast moving, complex world the choice may be adapt or perish. Who is prepared to accept the challenge?

(4BRDU thanks Mark Ford for his assistance with the coverage of the Australasian Open Festival over the course of the weekend.)