3rd February 2014 was an historic day for Michelmersh Silver Band as it was the day we took to the contest stage as a Championship Section band for the first time in our 127 year history.
After a very eventful morning that involved forgotten music, a lot of photocopying, 3 sets of forgotten uniform and an emergency trip to Tesco we took to the stage odds on favourites to come bottom of a list of exceptional and experienced top section bands.
But, the band were to beat the odds as we put on what was later described by the brass band journalists as an "outstanding performance" and came an almost unbelievable 4th place.
This has resulted in a bit of interest from the brass band world as can be seen in the following report from 4barsrest.com...
Happy Michelmersh
There was no happier band on the contest day though than Michelmersh Silver, based 10 miles from Southampton, who on their Championship Section contesting debuts under the direction of Melvin White, produced an outstanding performance to end fourth.
Their spokesperson told 4BR that it also represented the finest result in their 127 year history.
"In 1996 we were still in the Fourth Section, so to come here on our debuts and claim fourth place is an amazing achievement.
Melvin White has done a brilliant job developing the band since 2004 and doing it by retaining so many players who were playing in the Fourth Section all those years ago.”
Proud
They added: "There were at least 10 of those players on stage on the day, so you can understand just how proud they felt when we were announced in fourth place. Melvin’s programme really captured the imagination. Now it’s ‘St Magnus’ - so we will have a bit of a celebration before we knuckle down to the hard work again."