Sjå inn på den linken (http://www.4barsrest.com/articles/2008/art802.asp) her folkens. bilde av han john inge og 2. og 3. plass-folka. Legg merke til den fiffige kommentaren dei har skreve om jakka hass john inge =) "Who will it be in the Fourth Division? In the end it was the bloke with the odd jacket that celebrated the most..." Ditta her e frå ei nettside som kommentera NM-framføringane i 1. div og eliten live på nett mens det vert spelt! Dei fekk tydeligvis med seg festkonserten og premieutdelinga og! Løye. John Inge, du e dritbra!
Det må seiast at John Inge kjøpte jakka på Sparkjøp i Førde på øvingshelga i juni, der vi øvde på Kaleidoskope. Jakka kosta 25 kroner, men John Inge pruta den ned i 20 kroner.Ikkje verst. Og attpåtil så fekk han ein plastpose til å ha den i på kjøpet. No får han internasjonal skryt for den. Konge,
2008 Norwegian National Championships
Retrospective: Fourth Division
Who said getting fat was bad for you? Not here in the Fourth Division where
aan ever expanding field is a true sign of a healthy banding movement.
Who will it be in the Fourth Division? In the end it was the bloke with the
odd jacket that celebrated the most...
The Norwegians are not an obese people – their diet of fish and high
beer prices puts pay to most of that, but things are fattening up in the Fourth
Division where a plump entry of 19 bands took to the stage at the Peer Gynt
auditorium in the Grieghallen.
Not that there were many players who would have fitted snugly into the jackets
of a few top section British bass ends either. Banding here tends to be a bit
of a slim line game.
The Fourth Division now provides Norwegian banding with solid, but still lean
foundation stone on which to build the future of its banding movement. There
is still room for growth of course, but there is fast becoming a point where
a cut off point may have to be made or another Fourth Division set up to accommodate
the ever increasing appetite for banding. Potential brass band obesity never
appeared so healthy.
Rapidly improving
The standard of contesting at this level is also rapidly improving too. A few
years ago the spectacle rather then the musical end product was what this division
was all about, but now it is certainly the other way around.
The winners this year, Torskangerpoll Musikklag were conducted by the fine musician
Eirik Gjerdevik and he drew a performance form his band on their own choice
selection of ‘Kaleidoscope’ by Philip Sparke that even just two
years ago would have challenged for honours in the Third Division and possibly
held its own in the Second.
The rest of the prize-winning competitors were not too far behind too with a
fine performance of 'Gothic Dances' from Fjell Brass directed by Svein Henrik
Giske that certainly made the first repayment of their 1 million Krone investment
in them by their local community. On this form it won’t be too long before
they start making the second down payment too.
Third place also went to a band that once again delivered a fine performance
– Manger Old Stars, the happy go lucky bunch of ex Manger (as well as
other bands) players who come together here to enjoy themselves. They certainly
did that on ‘The Lord is King’ by Ray Steadman-Allen.
Impression
These performances certainly made an impression on Bjorn Sagstad, who adjudicated
the section with Paul Farr, and who thoroughly enjoyed himself listening to
all 19 performances.
He told 4BR that he felt that the overall standard was very good this year and
that the bands and their conductors had for the most part picked pieces they
could do a very good job on. There were one or two that did struggle, but overall
he was very impressed at both what he heard and what he had seen.
The aural and visual combination is one of the real delights here as it allows
the judges to praise young players especially for their efforts, knowing that
they do not have to second guess whether a main solo line etc has been transplanted
to a much more mature and experienced player just for effectiveness.
Percussion efforts
Bjorn was particularly impressed by the efforts of a lone percussionist with
one band who produced an Olympian effort to make sure just about all the percussion
parts were played with his band. The best section award went to the percussion
of Rosendal Musikklag, whilst the Solo Prize went to the euphonium player of
Frei Hornmusikk.
Behind the top three came performances of merit from Frei, Hordvik and Randeberg
to claim the final top six placings, with performances that Bjorn stated had
many positives about them but just needed a touch more work on getting the basics
100% right.
After that there was a bit of a balancing act in the adjudication process with
joint placings or the bands that came 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 15th and 17th.
Sensible
This was a very sensible approach from the two judges – why try and place
the bands in a straight order when the differences between them in terms of
performance were just about negligible?
It meant that performances were therefore rewarded rather than overtly penalised,
with Floro and Nes certainly the best of the rest in coming joint 7th, Skeie
and Stavanger Kommunes coming home on joint 9th and Fla and Rosendal claiming
joint 11th.
Below them came Brummond and Hetlevik in joint 13th, Fagernes and Flora-Bremanger
in joint 15th and finally Hof, Kaland/Lysefjorden and Rudsbygd in joint 17th.
All the bands though deserved a great deal of credit for the way in which they
went about their task on the weekend. The standards did vary of course, but
the sense of ambition and hunger to improve was once more palpable.
That hunger for self improvement may well lead to an even