PEMBROKESHIRE music lovers are celebrating a major victory this week after the Goodwick Brass Band was invited to perform at one of the UK’s most prestigious brass festivals in Blackpool.

This May the 28-piece band will be travelling to the Winter Gardens to compete in the highly selective Spring Brass Festival on May 10. There they will be competing alongside some of the leading brass bands in the UK.

“This means that Goodwick Brass Band is now up there in the championship section,” explained the band’s delighted chairman, Tony Evans.

“In February our senior band took part in the Welsh Open Brass Band championship, where we competed against 13 other bands. We came second overall but we also had the best instrumentalist award, the best soprano player award and the best tenor horn section. As a result, we’ve now had the invitation to perform in Blackpool.”

The invitation is a huge accolade for each of  the 28 players who will be performing on May 10, and who give a huge chunk of their spare time to attend band rehearsals and section improvement.  The performers, who range in age from 14 to 66, rehearse twice a week, but in the run-up to serious competitions such as the Blackpool Spring Brass Festival, they will be rehearsing for three evenings a week as well as sectional rehearsals every Saturday.

“It’s a huge commitment, particularly when you remember that a lot of our players are still in school, juggling their GCSEs, their A levels and all the other extra-curricular things that the young people do,” explained Tony.

“But the opportunity for them to play in a band such as this is fantastic, as it teaches them the skills required not just to play well, as they do with their solo work, but how to perform collectively as a band.  This is when they realise that it’s the conductor who is in sole charge and who has to be followed so carefully.”

The Blackpool festival will put Goodwick up against some of the UK’s leading brass bands, who will each be performing Malcolm Arnold’s  challenging 12-minute set piece entitled ‘Fantasy for Brass Bands’.

“Yes, we’ve got our work cut out as it’s quite an intense piece, but our conductor Joshua Ruck is starting to put us through our paces, and we know that come the festival, Goodwick Brass Band will be ready to perform to the very best of its ability.

“Many of our younger instrumentalists get just 10 or 15 minutes of tuition in school, and this is why our band rehearsals are so important.”

The Goodwick Junor band is open to youngsters between the age of nine to 16, while the community band includes youngsters as well as the older generation who just want to play for fun. 

“And at the end of the day that’s what music is all about,” added Tony.

Some of the Goodwick band members have gone on to great and mighty things including trumpeter Carys Wood who was this year accepted to study at the Royal Academy of Music London, and past members Gemma Taylor who studied tenor horn at the Royal College of Music and Gareth Trott who was solo euphonium player with the Household Division’s Band of the Irish Guards.

Meanwhile, Goodwick Brass Band is currently trying to secure sufficient funding to take part in the Blackpool Festival.  The band will be travelling up on Friday evening, May 9, competing throughout Saturday afternoon and heading back to Pembrokeshire on Sunday morning.

“The trip is going to cost us around £3,500 so we’re currently trying to get as much funding together as possible,” explained Tony.

“The bus alone is going to cost us  £1,600, so if anyone is in a position to give the Goodwick Brass Band some financial support to help us on our way, that would be a huge help.”

Any donations can be made by contacting the chairman, Tony Evans on 07971 945464 or by visiting the band’s website on www.goodwickbrass.org.uk