News | Bon-Accord Silver Band

01 January 2015

Scottish First Section
Band Of The Year

Bon-Accord Silver Band have topped off a fantastic 2014 with being announced as the SBBA Scottish 1st Section Band of the Year. This is the first time that the band have been awarded this prestigious award. The band of the year awards are designed to reflect the respective performances of bands in all Scottish contests and also in major national and international contests. The band grossing the most points over the calendar year are awarded the coveted Band of the Year title for their respective section. The Band of the Year award means that 2014 has been the most successful year in Bon-Accord Silver Band's 52-year history. They have collected thirteen awards this year at contests: having been promoted to the Championship section, been crowned Northern Counties Open Contest Champions, Scottish Challenge Shield Champions and now the SBBA Scottish 1st Section Band of the Year, amongst many other awards.

02 December 2014

Bon-Accord Silver Band
Build A Crescendo Through 2014

Photos by Linda Cairns of Personally Yours Photography

On Saturday 29th November, Bon-Accord Silver Band saw off competition from ten other Scottish brass bands, from the first and second sections, to triumph at the event held at Perth Concert Hall. This is the first time the band has competed in this event and they have become the first band from the North East of Scotland to win this prestigious prize. The band of 29 brass and percussion players, conducted by Stephen Malcolm, played Edward Gregson's, "Of Distant Memories (Music in an Olden Style)", which was originally written in 2012 for the British Brass Band Championships National Finals. They were awarded the top prize by three internationally renowned adjudicators who remarked in the critiques of the band that there were "lots of classy sounds" and "excellent solo playing and ensemble work". One adjudicator in particular felt that this was "a tough piece tackled with fine confidence and know how" by a "very capable [and] technically accomplished band". 2014 has been a very successful year for Bon-Accord Silver Band with their conductor Stephen Malcolm at the helm. As well as winning the Scottish Challenge Shield, they gained promotion to the Championship Section in March and then went on to win the Northern Counties Open Contest in May. The band are looking to go from strength to strength with a busy festive schedule and contesting calendar for next year. They hope to bring more silverware to the North East in the coming year as they perform all the round country at various concerts and contests.

20 October 2014

Take A Look At Our Trophy Shelf
- No Space Left!

If you’re wondering what the odd things are below the shelf, those our are home-made acoustic diffusers.

28 September 2014

Fife Charities Contest
Third Place Finish And Best Euphonium

Bon-Accord Silver Band have competed in the Fife Charities Band Association Contest held in Kirkcaldy, Fife. The band achieved an excellent 3rd place amongst thirteen other bands of exceptional quality. They managed to achieve a higher placing than a couple of Championship section bands with their performance and the band’s principal Euphonium, Richard Kidd, picked up the prize for the Best Euphonium. The band also placed 3rd in the hymn tune section of the contest.

25 May 2014

Northern Counties Open Champions

Bon-Accord Silver Band have won the Northern Counties Open contest held in Kinross. Under the baton of Stephen Malcolm, Bon-Accord opened their ‘well judged’ programme, according to adjudicator Anne Crookston, with an exciting rendition of Peter Graham’s ‘Phoenix’. Mark Boyd was the featured trombone soloist in the evocative ‘My Funny Valentine’ - eliciting rich praise from the adjudicator for playing that was, ‘so accomplished and musically phrased’ and ‘sensitively accompanied’. Howard Snell’s exuberant arrangement of ‘Scaramouche Brasileira’ followed, offering a showcase for the band’s award winning ‘Best Percussion’ section - a trophy they have now claimed two years in a row. A fine performance of ‘Zeibekikos’ from Philip Wilby’s ‘Euphonium Concerto’ (complete with plate-smashing finale) took the ‘Best Soloist’ prize for the outstanding Richard Kidd, before the set concluded with a rousing ‘MacArthur Park’. The band took home all but one of the prizes available to them at this contest including: • Winning Band - 1st Place
• Winning Conductor
• Best 1st Section Band
• Best NCBBA Member Band
• Best Percussion
• Best Soprano
• Best Soloist The band are looking forward to their next contest in September of this year at the Fife Charities Contest.

15 March 2014

Bon-Accord Silver Band Promoted To The Championship Section

Coming second at the Scottish Championships has gained Bon-Accord Silver Band promotion back into the Championship section. This means the band are firmly back into the top 10 brass bands in Scotland. The Scottish Championships were held in Perth Concert Hall on Sunday, 9th March 2014. The test piece for this year in the 1st section was Howard Lorriman’s “Cry of the Mountain”. The adjudicators Stan Lippeatt and David Hurst felt that Bon-Accord’s rendition of the piece was “a well managed performance with good technique on show” and had “lots of good playing” on show. The band also took home the prize for the Best Horn section - comprising of Karen Cooper, Lisa Hopkins, Becky Anderson and Craig Beattie. The band now get to compete in the Championship section next year and are looking forward to the challenge of the test piece that awaits them next year.

06 January 2014

Home Sweet Home
First Rehearsal In Our New Band Hall

It has been a long journey the band have been over the past 3 years - we have been on the hunt for a new rehearsal venue for many years and have finally found one. After much deliberation and calculation, we took the plunge and acquired the lease of our new band hall from Aberdeen City Council. We had our rennovation plans passed by the Planning and Infrastructure committee before we finally got to work on making the old Territorial Army hut into a fit-for-purpose brass band rehearsal venue. Over the course of 5 months, we set out to make this building into the heart and soul of a flourishing brass band from the North-East of Scotland. Using metal studwork, 100mm thick sound-proofing and double layered acoustic plasterboard, we created an "room within a room" in order to provide maximal acoustic efficiency and prevent leakage of sound to our close neighbours surrounding the building. We then taped the seams before all hands were on deck from band members and friends to paint the building inside and out and from floor to ceiling. We created homemade acoustic diffusers and acoustic absorption panels to temper the noise within the band hall. The floor was laid, the electrics were fitted and the furniture and percussion was installed before our first rehearsal. This rehearsal meant so much to all of our band members who can now park for free to go to rehearsals, go to the toilet during a rehearsal without crossing the road to the nearest pub and they can hear what is going on on the other side of the band for the first time! We would like to thank a few people without whom this project wouldn't have been possible: Wood Group PSN for very kindly donating the flooring for the band hall, Colin Buchan for his tireless work on the project taking the project from paper to reality and helping negotiate deals with suppliers and the University of Aberdeen for providing us with some of the furniture and music equipment prior to it all being skipped. We would also like to thank Paula Leslie and Steven Mitchelhill for their legal advice and counsel and Craig Beattie for effectively having another full time job at the band hall putting things together and making sure the work was done to the highest quality. Finally, we would like the thank our band members and friends of the band for their support, advice and helping making this project a reality.