Grand Shield 2019 - Down but not out!

On the 18th May 2019 the band travelled to Blackpool to compete at the British Open Grand Shield competition. 

The band thoroughly enjoyed preparing Thierry Deleruyelle's dark and evocative test-piece Fraternity and were drawn to perform number 5 out of 20.

While the performance contained moments of brilliance and some very fine individual playing from soloists, not everything came off as planned on stage - as is the nature of live music performance at times.

The band did however attract some favourable comments from the online pundits.  4barsrest.com stated "A performance painted in bold and often darkly majestic tones by Filton. Not without blemishes but portrayed with abundant emotion", while Brass Band World Magazine opined "Plenty to enjoy from Filton on Fraternity. It wasn't without fragilities at times but the music was portrayed with bold drama and tones of darkly hued majesty". Unfortunately the performance on this occasion did not find favour with the adjudicators and the band was placed 17th, which means relegation to the Senior Cup in 2020. 

This is not all bad news however, as we have fond memories of the Senior Cup, which the band won on it's first attempt in 2017. We shall look forward to attempted to repeat this feat next year! 

Thank you for all the positive comments from pundits and audience members alike, to the players for all their weeks of hard work, and to our wonderful MD Tom Davoren.