My Experience - Brassed Off Live, Royal Albert Hall and National Finals Brass Band Championships 2026, Grimethorpe.
It only seems like yesterday that I wrote the 'My Experience' post for the 2026 British Open. This has been a similar weekend but with our Brassed Off Live performance on the day before the contest this time.
I've performed at the National Finals five times. Twice with the Staffordshire Band, once with the GUS Band, once with the Fairey Band and now with Grimethorpe. Getting there with Grimethorpe is not easy, because the Yorkshire Regional Contest is notoriously difficult with so many amazing bands. To see how we qualified, have a read of this post.
Sparke Test Piece
The test piece for the National Finals 2026 was a Philip Sparke work, called A Road Less Travelled By and initially, months ago when taking my first looks at the piece, I actually thought it wasn't all that difficult. With the British Open only a few weeks ago, it meant that time was tight to prepare this test piece. I did most of my basic practice months ago by playing the piece slowly and just learning it in no rush.
As the contest got closer, I started feeling that the test piece was getting harder and harder. I've really enjoyed practising the piece at home because it needed lots of slow careful practice which I always enjoy, but it certainly was not as simple as I first thought.
The piece had plenty of exposed, very quiet parts, and for this I felt that I needed to work harder on my soft playing. I found myself using the Clarke Technical Studies a lot, just playing slowly and as quiet as possible.
I think the biggest challenge in this test piece was having to play as loud as possible but then straight away needing to play music marked 'ppp'.
Massive instrumental control was needed and this only comes from loads of very effective practice. It is the same with anything though, just keep working on it, and providing you are doing it correctly, without tension or stress, with mental belief, then improvements will come quickly.
Usually in the week before a contest I don't do much practice at home, because I have a rehearsal every night but for this test piece, I felt that I needed to use every spare minute doing practice.
Even on the morning of the contest and in the backstage area before going on, I felt that I needed to play lots of running chromatic scales as softly as I could. Just so that I could have complete control on the stage right from the first note.
Brassed Off Live
Playing Brassed Off Live on the Friday night was an absolute blessing for the contest. We had a long rehearsal on Friday for Brassed Off and this meant I felt very comfortable on the Royal Albert Hall stage. Usually I feel that it is a difficult stage to play on, you feel very lonely and quiet dynamics feel very exposed, especially when under contest pressure but having time on there really helped.
Performing to a sell-out hall was amazing but definitely a little scary. This performance of Brassed Off Live featured a string section and some of the more soloistic bits for euphonium and flugel were accompanied by just the strings. On that stage while playing those bits, I couldn't hear anything but myself and just had to rely on the brilliant conducting from Ben Palmer.
The concert was easily the biggest concert I have ever been a part of in my life and I feel so lucky to have such opportunities with Grimethorpe. The standing ovation and audience reaction throughout the performance was incredibly emotional and it was made even more special that my family were there as well.
The Contest
I told myself before the weekend that I was not going to get annoyed over the draw or the result. At the British Open, I was grumpy all day and I didn't want the same feeling.
Unfortunately, we did have another early draw, number 5, but it didn't feel too bad because it gave us a bit more time in the morning than we had at The Open and meant that we could have a long day of socialising after playing which is always nice.
When we arrived back at the hall on the Saturday morning it was such a familiar feeling having been there most of the Friday. We were in the same dressing room backstage and it didn't really feel like we were about to give a contest performance. I was feeling totally relaxed.
The last time when I played in this contest but with the Fairey Band, I did not sleep a wink the night before and was incredibly nervous in the week before. Mainly just because I had a habit of being hard on myself and worrying about people thinking that I was not good enough.
Time and positivity are the best medicines for this and I am the proof. If you ever suffer from performance anxiety or even just general anxiety that negatively impacts your music-making, then I fully understand how you feel but you must never give in to it!
We were sitting differently for the contest compared to Brassed Off Live which did make a difference but the performance went very well. We gave an accurate and exciting account of the test piece. With exceptional rhythmic precision and dynamic contrasts but perhaps some tempos were too fast and the slow playing lacked some freedom.
I had an awkward moment on stage where I couldn't turn my music page because it kept getting stuck in the edge of the music stand. The stands were basic fold up stands and not the sturdy Royal Albert Hall stage stands from the day before. It was a bit of a stressful moment but I kept calm. As always, I am very proud of my euphonium and baritone section who performed with class.
All the very quiet bits felt easy on stage and it was clearly a solid performance from the band. We had lots of positive comments about the performance, with some suggesting we were deserving of a top 6 place but again, I couldn't help think that from such an early draw, we would probably struggle to get up there.
Spending time in a local student bar for most of the afternoon after the performance meant I got to chat to some people who I had not seen for a while and that was really nice. After quite an early wake up that morning and busy weekend, I ended up having an early night and made the decision that I could wait until the morning to find out the results, I was certain that we wouldn't win.
The Result and Reflection
We came 9th and I was really disappointed. Congratulations to the Cory Band for winning. I didn't listen to any bands on the day but will try and listen to some performances over the next few weeks.
I wish the organisers would try some new ideas for tickets. The fact that players cannot go in and watch / support other bands is a bit of an insult to the whole brass band movement. You want to inspire the next generation of brass banders, then do something that allows banders to go and watch the best.
I think a simple one-band ticket would also be a good idea. My wife for example, if she only wanted to watch Grimethorpe and no one else, then make that possible at a cheap rate. Clearly there are many seats free at the very high levels and during Brassed Off Live, I couldn't believe all the people standing up in the Gallery. Yes there are logistics, but it's 2026!
Maybe some sort of Day-Pass would work better? Sit anywhere in a certain zone. Or, what about a prize for the band that brings the most audience members, each paying guest selects one of the band names at the time of booking. Then bands have an incentive to invite their fans or communities.
Wrong Note Horror
On the coach trip back home on Sunday morning I had a read of the adjudicators' written comments and was horrified to read comments referring to a wrong euphonium note. I was very confused and quickly searched my part for the bar that was mentioned.
For test pieces or concert pieces, sometimes it makes sense to rewrite parts of the music. Lots of bands do this and lots of musicians do this in all sorts of different pieces. It might be for a whole host of genuine musical reasons and we used a rewrite of the second movement of Sparke's piece for the contest. Upon inspection, the note mentioned was in fact not exactly as per the original part, meaning, yes, I had played a wrong note! 😥
That bit in the performance sounded lovely, it was one of my favourite bits in the piece and it is very unlikely that unless you knew the music inside out you would ever spot it, the note was part of the chord and it didn't impact the music at all, but it clearly didn't go unnoticed by the people who were judging.
I felt really bad because I should have noticed this a long time ago. No-one else from the band noticed either but I couldn't help think whether the adjudicators just thought it was a mis-pitched note and possibly penalised us for it. A lesson learnt I think about using rewritten parts in contests but I didn't let it get me down for long.
As usual there were the many comments from listeners giving their opinions and some even referred to other bands with noticeable wrong or different notes. Also keen-eyed audience members watching out for bands using mutes when they shouldn't.
I said I wouldn't be grumpy about the draw but I still feel that there has to be a better system for brass band contests nowadays with a way to help adjudicators better manage such a difficult job and relieve the frustration for bands who get unlucky and draw very early multiple times in a row.
Weekend Highlights
Obviously the sell-out concert was a highlight but another was seeing my daughters face when she realised that the actor Jim Carter was also in the recent Willy Wonka movie and she would get to meet him! All the Brassed Off cast who attended were so lovely and friendly.
What is next for me?
I have some conducting invitations (always happy to get more), just helping brass bands in one-off rehearsals. My next big event is the WMBBA Solo, Duet and Quartet Contest where I am the adjudicator. I am really looking forward to this and there is still time to get your entry in.
We have lots of concerts over the next few months, including Christmas shows with Grimethorpe, grab your tickets because they will all sell-out. I need to get thinking about which Christmas euphonium solo I will be playing!
I have also been doing some writing for an upcoming ITEA Journal and should have some new blog collaborations in the pipeline that will be diving into some new music tech and sound production products.
I can also confirm that I will be attending the 2027 US Army Band Tuba and Euphonium Workshop in Washington DC. I will be leading a warm up class, judging the competition and performing a solo recital. Thanks to Sterling for their support towards this trip. I cannot wait!
Thanks for reading! ❤
Mark Glover
06/10/26
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