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- Winter 05/06 -
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Royal Visit 
JEDFOREST INSTRUMENTAL BAND TO WELCOME HRH THE PRINCESS ROYAL FOR THE SECOND TIME IN FIVE YEARS
Having formally inaugurated its new Band Hall in 2001, HRH The Princess Royal is honouring Jedforest Instrumental Band once again. On Wednesday 26th April, HRH will unveil a plaque to formally inaugurate the new Bandstand and Park constructed by the band to commemorate its 150th anniversary. John Young, Jedforest’s President says that “we wanted to create something permanent and for the benefit of our community to mark the band’s central place in local life and to thank local people for their superb support for the band. This project has obviously caught the imagination, and it’s a great honour for HRH to visit us twice in a relatively short space of time”.
The Project Manager has been David Sutherland, principal cornet with the band and a Chartered Surveyor. As well as designing the Bandstand he has supervised the work which will have taken 6 months to complete. He is very pleased with the result. “The Bandstand itself looks superb, and we’ve enclosed a space of about 1 acre surrounding it to create a new park in the centre of the town close to the famous Jedburgh Abbey. Initially fenced, we are also planting a beech hedge to form an attractive boundary in keeping with its surroundings. The great thing about the Bandstand is that it’s not just the band that will be playing in it - many other groups are keen to use it for performances”.
Already, local organisations are donating park benches, and the Community Council has plans to develop a play area adjacent to the park. Said leading dignatory, Provost Len Wyse “The band has kick-started a wonderful development here that will expand to provide more amenities. It will completely transform this area of the town that has remained unused for the past 40 years following the closure of a large factory. We are very lucky to have such a go-ahead organisation as Jedforest Instrumental Band”.
Among those playing for HRH (for the second time) will be David Lightbody, the band’s soprano player, whose great aunt was the Nanny of Princess Anne and Prince Charles.
Both Jedforest Instrumental Band and Abbey Brass Jedforest (its 4th Section ‘junior’ band) conducted respectively by Alan Fernie and Cameron Mabon, will perform short concerts in the Bandstand for HRH The Princess Royal. Musical Director Alan Fernie is looking forward to the occasion “the last time she visited us, to open the new Band Hall, she spoke with many of the players. She even asked me why it was that the horns were in Eb while the rest of the band were in Bb! It stumped me for a moment, but obviously she had taken a great deal of interest in the band. That’s not surprising – as I’ve said before, Jedforest is what brass banding is all about, high musical standards and at the same time friendly, sociable and good fun”.
Fundraising for the project, which has cost £76,000, has been carried out by George Burt, the band’s secretary, who organised the visit by HRH in 2000 to inaugurate the new Band Hall. (He too has a former connection with Princess Anne – up to about 10 years ago he was Chairman of the Scottish Citizens Advice Bureaux, and HRH was its Royal Patron at the same time). He is in no doubt about the value of events such as this, “Brass bands have a great story to tell, both in our musical achievements and in our musical and social development of young people, as well as being very important assets in our communities. The publicity we get from this royal recognition greatly raises our profile and our standing locally. The brass band movement needs to generate much more of this if we are to re-establish our position and to flourish”.
For more information, please contact our Press and Publicity Officer :
John Kirk Tel : 01450 860744
Email : John_Kirk@tiscali.co.uk
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Images of the Millennium 
The JIB prepare for 'The Scottish' 
We are preparing for the Scottish Brass Band Championships to be held in Motherwell on Saturday the 11th of March.
This is a national qualifying and grading excercise most competition bands enter each year. The result will decide which bands are promoted or demoted within the banding divisions. The two bands who are placed 1st and 2nd will go forward to represent Scotland in the national finals later on in the year, whilst also being promoted to a higher division.
The test piece chosen to perform for all competing 2nd section bands is the modern composition 'Images of the Millennium' by Howard Snell.
This piece is a contrast to our last major test 'Rhapsody in Brass' - less regimented and more fluid in style, being very contemporary by comparison, and requiring a more refined approach.
A wonderful soundscape of tonal moods and dynamic impact. From broad solos and folk dances to bitter sweet lurid melancholy it has something for everyone including an impressive powerful end. Although viewed in many quarters as a poor choice of test piece, “not worth the paper it’s printed on”, “rubbish”, or worse, we are 'oddly?' enjoying the rehearsals.
However, many of the problems appear to stem from this particular publication which unfortunately has cast a shadow over the composer of this wonderful and previously highly acclaimed work.
Which is a shame.
Originally written for two bands to perform (one a Championship band, one lower section), this version has been compressed, cut and presented as a second section test piece in its own right. The score was full of mistakes having to be replaced nationally whilst also being poorly laid out. On the whole a very controversial but stunning piece of music !
It has been reported that the composer Howard Snell is not happy that this publication has been used as a test piece. Please register your interest asap if you wish to travel with us to Motherwell. We will have a limited number of seats available on our bus.
follow this link if you are interested. HERE
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151'st.... New Years Day March  The JIB Awakens JED toon
Just after breakfast, day one, 2006 -
Our new bandstand is subjected to its first test drive. To our supprise not only is it waterproof but a very good acoustic to play in, a fantastic start to the year!
We then progress along the epic, (some may say torturous) new years day march around the hills of Jedburgh. The kind people of Jed supporting us throughout the marathon ordeal offering refreshments in fine olympic spirit.
At first 26 players, our numbers increasing as the march progressed to its climax.
This, the 151'st new years day march round Jed toon was no different to any other, the march is by now well supported not only within the town itself but nationaly as players from all over the country are welcome to join this historic new years day celibration.
After the descent back to the highstreet the band supplied some joy to the local shops and businesses on its way home to mission hall.
Toot's mon, there's a bugler loose aboot this hoose !
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The JIB have the Xmas Factor Super Event
Despite stiff competition from the other main events held on the night of 17th December, The JIB were delighted to perform to a capacity crowd at the Jedburgh town hall.The 'X-factor' and 'Strictly come dancing' finals were also staged live on Television at exactly the same time as the JIB annual Christmas concert.
A sure sign that Brass
Band music is still alive and well in Scotland. Due to the numbers we are also assured that those who attended extended well beyond friends and family of the band.The program cosisted of exciting Christmas medoly's, beautiful festive solo's with powerful brass arrangements to lift the roof.Scotlands National Youth Champions played a set in the middle of the concert, our very own Abbey Brass just after our fresh training band had performed on stage for the very fist time. (It was only a matter of months ago these youngsters were playing on home made devices with a provided mouthpiece. Until we recently resolved the instrument issue.This was one of the most successful events ever staged by the JIB within the most successful year in the bands history, having won two major 2nd section events and an entertainment title in our first ever year as a second section band. More info to come shortly. Visit out Forum Here
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Mixed fortune for the JIBSweet and Sour at the Scottish Championships
At the Scottish Open and Scottish Youth Brass Band Championships held on Sunday 27th November at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall The JIB bands came first and last within their sections.The results :-
The senior contest 'Scottish Challenge Cup'
(own choice test piece) 1. Dalkeith and Monktonhall Colliery
2. Tullis Russell Mills
3. Dunfermline Town
10. (last) Jedforest Instrumental Band.
Scottish Youth Championships Development sectionJedforest Juniors, Gold (1st)
Loanhead Brass Roots, Gold (2nd)
Campbeltown Junior Brass, SilverTo congratulate our junior band in the JIB forums click Here
Everyone is ecstatic that the junior band were once again awarded with a youth championship crown having rewarded the audience with a superb performance. The adjudicators commended the junior performances as a sure sign that the future is secure for Scottish Brass bands. The result for the senior band is upsetting, but we’ll just have to try harder.
One of the adjudicators for our section said on stage that he thought it best for lower section bands to only play test pieces that were well within their capabilities. However, one of the adjudicators in the 1st Section Challenge Shield (Richard Evans), said that he preferred bands to pick a test piece that stretched them. We played a challenging piece for the new 'challenge cup', so that decision obviously did not please our adjudicator.Playing 'Rhapsody in Brass' has really tested the band, exposing our strengths and weaknesses (more so than last years regional test piece 'Variations for Brass' which is widely considered to be beyond the 2nd section). The band has thoroughly enjoyed rehearsing it over the past 2 weeks and we are sure the band is stronger for the experience, preparing us for the forthcoming Scottish Championships in March. Overall we feel we did well with the piece and it was reckoned to be the most difficult one played in the contest. We made some mistakes and slips, as did many of the bands.The message clearly sent out by these adjudicators -
(Richard Evans the exception - who wanted bands to stretch themselves)
- to all bands thinking of entering this competition in the future was to keep it safe.Many thanks to our 2 guest players, especially Diane Cannon, who stepped in at the last moment in an emergency and played superbly with just one practice the night before.To congratulate our junior band in the JIB forums click Here
Visit our ongoing Rhapsody in Brass discussion Here
Full results will be published shortly Here
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The JIB first for emotion Essential Forum Emotions
The JIB now offer a basic range of 'one click' interactive notation from within its emotion toolbox.Clickable Smilies or 'emotions' are a very popular form of expression throughout internet forums wordwide.
As far as we are aware the JIB are the first to offer musical notation within an interactive forum interface, ideal for a music related forum !These NEW musical emotions are the ideal way to aid musical discussion and we are sure they will be very popular.More notation emotions are under consideration and may be included into the JIB forum interface over the comming weeks.Visit out Forum Here
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The JIB gear up for the Scottish Challenge CupGlasgow Royal Concert Hall
The JIB and Jedforest Juniors are preparing for the Scottish Open and Scottish Youth Brass Band Championships to be held on Sunday 27th November at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
The SBBA has chosen to make the the senior contest 'Scottish Challenge Cup' an own choice test piece.Fresh from a busy series of concerts and a successful Borders Entertainment contest the JIB has resumed rehersal of the test piece, finally free to give it our full attention. | |
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