National finalist Whitburn has issued a press statement to clarify their position in regard to the recent article by Frank Renton published in the British Bandsman magazine.

The article, which has caused a considerable amount of controversy in Scotland in particular, was entitled 'A Week (and a bit) in the Life of an Itinerant Musician' and highlighted the conductor's week or so build up to the British Open Championship in Birmigham where he conducted the band.

We would like to point out that these are the views of Frank Renton written in his capacity as a contributor to the British Bandsman publication, and are not those of Whitburn BandWhitburn Band

Statement:

The players and management of Whitburn Band would like to make a statement following the article written by Frank Renton (A Week in the Life of an Itinerant Musician) published in the British Bandsman (Issue 5632) last week.

In the article, Frank blogged his nine days with the band leading up to the British Open contest which included Whitburn’s performance at the Land O' Burns contest in Troon.

Within it, he was typically forthright in his opinions and specific mention was given to the the results at the aforementioned contests.

We would like to point out that these are the views of Frank Renton written in his capacity as a contributor to the British Bandsman publication, and are not those of Whitburn Band.

Since the article was published a number of parties have expressed disappointment with the band, however, we would like to make clear that Whitburn Band did not have any input to this article, nor were we aware of its content.

Unfortunately, the band was also involved in a similar issue when Steven Mead released a piece on his personal website with specific regard to the adjudication system in banding.

Once again, these were Steven's own thoughts and not published in conjunction with Whitburn Band.

The band have enjoyed a long and happy association with both the British Open and Land O' Burns contests along with the bands we have competed against at these events.

We will continue to pride ourselves on our professionalism and post-contest dignity, but we realise our reputation in these areas has been damaged over the last twelve months.

For any offence caused during this time, the Whitburn Band would like to apologise. Whilst the band has been proud of all of our performances in recent months, we're experienced enough to know that results don't always go your way.

Like any band, we have tried to learn from all our results and move on and we'd hope that anyone who has had personal dealings with the band's members would agree that this is the case.

Whilst inevitably disappointed with our own results, we were delighted for both Tredegar and Johnstone and their recent victories.

Hopefully with this statement, we can draw a line under the issue and bring the matter to a close.

Whitburn Band