attended the competition held in Brisbane, our capital city, over the Easter long weekend. Jane-Frances and I flew down on Wednesday after work, while most of the band left at that time on the bus. The thought of a 20 hr bus journey didn't appeal, hence the flight.

Both the A grade and D grade band stayed in a motel  just 10 minutes from Brisbane City Hall, where the competition was held. What a marvelous venue is City Hall! An historical sandstone building with at least 6 performance spaces and a main auditorium of such grandeur, with its massive pipe organ and domed ceiling.

We had a rehearsal on Thursday afternoon on the stage upon which we would perform the next day. Quite good acoustics. Friday we all arrived early and had to wait for what seemed an eternity before ascending the 2 flights of stairs to the stage and performing the Hymn "Deep Harmony", arranged by our own A grade conductor, Craig Millar, and the test piece "Caledonian Journey" by Allan Fernie. We felt we played OK. Allan Lonergan, our conductor, seemed content about it .

Friday afternoon was another rehearsal, this time in a local band hall, quite tiny, which was kindly given over for the weekend to visiting groups.

Saturday morning we had an early start as we had to be in the city ready for the march competition by 7:45am. Led by our esteemed drum major, Pricey, we marched about 500mtrs while performing "Slaidburn" by W. Rimmer. The result... We came first in the march music, and second in the march overall.

At 11am that day we were back in the hall performing our own choice selection "Ross Roy" by Jacob de Hann, and the stage march "Wharton" by J.A.Greenwood. The totally packed hall then had to wait for over an hour before the overall results ... We came equal sixth out of an original 12 competing bands ... quite a satisfactory result.