Fairlop Brass has been reflecting on a highly encouraging year — with the hope of more successful ventures to come.

In March they took part in the Redbridge Music Service Choral Festival at a packed Royal Albert Hall in London, joining players from Redbridge Brass and around 150 young brass players from their Area Music Service.

Qualifiers

That though was the prelude to their performance under the baton of MD, Kevin Jordan at the London & Southern Counties Regional Championships in Stevenage where they qualified for the Cheltenham Third Section National Final off the dreaded number 1 draw. In addition, the result gained them promotion to the Second Section in 2024.

Keeping busy, they then took the opportunity of the Coronation to host a concert that raised over £600 for the local church in which they rehearse, before heading north to make their debuts at the Whit Friday contests.

Whit Friday

Speaking about that trip, Kevin told 4BR: "The boost to our confidence that came by qualifying for the National Finals ensured we headed to Whit Friday to have a great time.

We had only marched once in the entire 55 year history of the band so we were grateful to a former Army Guardsmen for spending an hour with us to show us the ropes!"

With a 'rehearsal' in a Travelodge Car Park on the day the band headed to the contest circuit where they enjoyed themselves at seven contest venues.

The boost to our confidence that came by qualifying for the National Finals ensured we headed to Whit Friday to have a great timeMD, Kevin Jordan.

Great time

Kevin added: "We had a great time. The weather was fantastic and so was the welcome — even if most people didn't quite know where we were from!

We managed to compete at seven contests and at 11.15pm played at Denshaw which was a great way to round things off before we got back on the coach. Now we are looking forward to a very different contest experience at Cheltenham on what is our first National Final appearance since 2009."