An Aberdeen brass band is due to step into the spotlight at London’s Royal Albert Hall in the National Brass Band Championships.
It’s the third time ever that the Bon-Accord Silver Band will take centre stage in the iconic concert hall in the English capital on Saturday – last qualifying for the championships in 2000 and 1983 respectively.
It also marks their first public performance since the coronavirus pandemic.
‘It’s good to be back’
“It is good to be back playing and something like this makes it all the more special,” said Ann Murray, band secretary.
“There’s a bit of adrenaline but that makes for a good performance – you just need that little bit of excitement and we are just delighted to be doing it.”
The band were originally due to play in the hall in October 2020 after qualifying in the Scottish Brass Band Championship just weeks before the pandemic.
The qualifiers saw them take on 10 other Scottish bands, ranking second place in the country.
It has given the musicians the chance to battle it out with 20 bands from across the UK in Saturday’s national championships, which Ms Murray has described as “the equivalent of the Premier League in football”.
It comes as a great achievement for the band, who say they are just “amateur musicians” with normal day jobs ranging between teachers, doctors, and engineers.
Ms Murray said: “It feels great to be back together as a band. We have obviously managed to rehearse during September quite a lot together.
“The last big thing that we did was actually the qualifier for this contest, which was in March 2020.
“We have kept ourselves together on Zoom and we did do a Christmas concert which we live streamed via Zoom recordings.”
Ms Murray added that Saturday’s contest, beginning at 9am, has given members a needed boost to get back to playing.
She said: “It is quite a struggle for a lot of the bands in Scotland to get people back in because for some people, who have obviously not played for over a year, there is still a bit of reluctance because of Covid.
“But also just for getting back into the routine of doing things like going out in the evenings.
‘It’s a great venue – so iconic’
“We have been lucky because this has given everybody a reason to get back and it feels great and so exciting to be playing on the Albert Hall stage.
“It is a great venue, so iconic and obviously we are all just very very excited about it.”
The National Brass Band Championships take place between 9am and 5pm on Saturday, October 2 at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
The Bon-Accord Silver Band will then return to Aberdeen where their next public performance will be at Cowdray Hall on Remembrance Sunday.