1989 - Euro success leaves the eagle's feathers ruffled!

An American In Paris	Russian Dressing	Feelings
Finlandia

This year the band was to return to Kerkrade, Holland, in July, attempting to retain our World Championship title. Much of the year was spent fundraising and included numerous weekend trips to Weston-super-Mare sea front where we put on marching displays and concerts.

On Saturday 10th June we entered our first regional competition of the year at Eastleigh and won the title for the eighth consecutive year. Unfortunately we weren't so successful at the Hove Championship where we were beaten into second place by the Midsomer Norton Marching Brass with only half a point separating the two of us. To this day, past members of Midsomer Norton Marching Brass talk of this victory and hail it as a highlight of their existence. We had travelled up to Reading the night before, and once again were honoured to take part in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineer's Open Day.

On the evening of the 14th June the band was invited to play at the Colston Hall in a concert presented by The Band of Her Majesty's Grenadier Guards. Our local press reported the next day "The Band of the Grenadier Guards, though in rousing form, is likely to remember the evening for being upstaged by the Bristol Unicorns."

Preparations for the World Showband Championships were well underway and many of our evening rehearsals were taken up outdoors, which included three consecutive evenings just prior to leaving for Kerkrade.

On Friday 21st July the band assembled at the Bristol Polytechnic car park and travelled to the Folkestone ferry terminal for the crossing to Boulogne. We journeyed through France and Belgium before eventually arriving in Kerkrade late on the Friday evening. The supporters were taken to various hotels around Valkenburg and Kerkrade while the band was taken to a school some fifteen minutes drive from the stadium.
The following day was free to take in the sights of Kerkrade, and for those of us who were fortunate to go on the trip to Canada the previous year, it was a great opportunity to meet up with our old friends from the Calgary Stampede Band who put on a display in the market square. The evening was left free, although we were instructed to stay within the school grounds! Although the start to the evening was boring, we soon made our own entertainment, and were kept busy by the apparent "madman" patrolling the school who had supposedly written "Bristol" in red nail varnish on the school playground! It was during the course of the night that we learned the Midsomer Norton Marching Brass had a gained 82 points in the day's competition. This was half a point lower than the Senators of Eastleigh who had performed in the previous week.
There was a heavy thunderstorm overnight, and coupled with the heat inside the accommodation, it was a restless night for most of us. We were all up early the next day and had a quick rehearsal before leaving for the stadium. The band travelled by coach to the arena, and got a glimpse of some of the 25,000 spectators inside of the stadium as we drove past it.
After a brief warm-up we paraded around the athletics track, just as we had done four years previously, playing The Standard of St. George and Aces High.

A little over an hour later we were back on the arena ready for the championship routine. As defending champions, we were the final competing band, and just as Charlotte Brownlee, the field commander, raised her hands to begin the show it poured down with rain. This soon turned to thunder and lightening! The judges decided that it would be impossible to hear the band in these conditions and there were obvious concerns for the band's safety with the lightening, so we were instructed to leave the arena and all hustled into a small room to dry off. These were anxious moments as we waited for the weather to improve. Over half an hour had passed before we entered the arena once more and when we eventually did, we were treated to a rapturous welcome by the spectators who themselves had to wait patiently in the pouring rain for the restart. The display itself went extremely well and we all came off satisfied that it couldn't have gone any better. The bow and arrow, which had been the cause of so many arguments in the months leading up to the competition, was faultless, and the woodwind who had been at the end of a few harsh words from Dave for loss of timing during the Hymn section in Finlandia, were at last congratulated for their efforts! Dave stood at the side of the arena as we marched off, and applauded us as we left (with perhaps even a tear in his eye?!). The reaction of the crowd as we left the arena was fantastic, with thousands of spectators on their feet as we passed.

Fifteen minutes went by and all the bands were called onto the arena for the final results, which fortunately this year were announced in Dutch and English. After once again being awarded a silver medal for the march past competition we soon learned that our record of 92 points in the field competition was beaten by a military styled Dutch band, who had scored 94. The Calgary Stampede Band were awarded 90 whilst we were announced as having attained a score of 88.
Clearly we were all disappointed with the result, especially after so many months of hard work, but took satisfaction in the knowledge that there was no way we could have performed the show any better. Had we been able to, then we could have possibly come up with a few excuses or felt a little hard done by, but neither was the case. We had done ourselves extremely proud by overcoming the conditions, and even more so by being able to return to Kerkrade to defend our title. Our supporters, who shared our disappointment, were an absolute credit to us over the weekend. They never lost their moral and were extremely vocal throughout the weekend! We were the highest scoring British Band in the competition, beating Midsomer Norton by a huge 6 points which was the equivalent 60 BYBA points. Strangely, this winning margin over them doesn't get a mention when they talk of their great win a few weeks before!

We returned to the school, and there were a few speeches at our evening meal, mostly centred round thanking various people for their support and hard work over the months leading up to the competition. The final accolade of the evening was obviously given to Dave for his continuous commitment and dedication us, the members of the band.

On returning to the UK the band only had two more engagements before the four week August break, a display at St Ursula's and a day of fund-raising at Weymouth.

OBITUARY

During September we were all saddened by the news that Derek Perry one of the band instructors had passed away after a long illness. Derek was a great asset to the band and his work will forever be remembered.

On Sunday 15th October we held our 10th anniversary concert at the Colston Hall. With such a varied range of music being played this was reported to have been the finest concert the band had ever put on, proving once more that the Bristol Unicorns were not just a band that concentrated their whole year on a fifteen minute marching display.
For the first time since 1980 it was decided that the band would not take part in the British Championships. Instead we travelled to the Royal Albert Hall to perform a fifteen minute show at a concert given by the American Air Force Band. The following day they performed at the Colston Hall and we were once again invited to attend and play during the second half.

Our rehearsals were now spent concentrating on the forthcoming European Championships to be held at the Birmingham NEC on Sunday October 29th. We planned to stay away over the weekend as the band was also taking part in the European Parade Competition through the streets of Birmingham on the Saturday. We changed en route at a service station and arrived in time for the start of the procession. This included fifteen other bands, mostly from the UK and Eire. The parade took us through some narrow and secluded streets before we marched past the City Hall and in front of the Mayor of Birmingham. On completion of the parade the band were taken to the NEC to take part in rehearsals for the evening tattoo with the massed bands of the American Air Force Band, the Czechoslovakian Army Band, Swedish Naval Band and the Grenadiers. It had been an extremely busy day and on completion of the tattoo we were taken to the local YMCA for a well earned rest albeit in very cramped sardine like conditions!
The next morning the band was up early and at the NEC for midday. We had been told we were to perform at around 3pm, leaving plenty of time for a warm up and tuning of the instruments. The Basildon Blue Eagles Drum and Bugle Corps were fresh from their victory at the Drum Corps UK Finals and were the current British Champions after winning at Wembley a few weeks earlier. Their style and influence was very much adopted from shows performed by the Cadets of Bergen County Drum and Bugle Corps based in the USA. This year they had chosen to emulate the Gershwin Theme. There was a very tense atmosphere around the arena, as this was to be the first time the two bands had met all season. The Blue Eagles left the arena to a great ovation after proving they were more than capable of performing indoors a show designed primarily for the outdoors.
We marched onto the dimly lit arena and received a fantastic welcome from the majority of the spectators present. The performance went very well and the weeks dedicated to rehearsing the minor problem areas in the show had clearly paid off.
Nearly an hour passed before all the participating bands were called back onto the arena for the final results. The first placing to be announced were those from the previous day's parade contest. The Bristol Unicorns were announced as gold medalists and overall winners in the competition. Then came the results of the day's marching championships. The individual caption trophies were more-or-less distributed evenly between ourselves and the Blue Eagles. We were awarded Overall General Musical Effect, Wind section, Drill and Deportment and Field Commander whilst the Blue Eagles took away trophies for best Percussion, Display and Showmanship and Colour Guard. The final scores and placing were then read out in reverse order from fifteenth place. It was clear that the top two placings would be between the Blue Eagles and us so when the Senators of Eastleigh were announced in third place, a stunned silence filled the auditorium. With a final score of 833.5 and runners-up to the European Champions, the Basildon Blue Eagles were announced, with the Bristol Unicorns being proclaimed the new European Marching Band Champions with a score of 843.5!
Some of the members from the Blue Eagles expressed their disgust at the final outcome by holding a ceremonial burning of the result sheets (How sad?!). Clearly they were unable to contain their frustration at being placed behind us yet again, despite the years of trying! Meanwhile we were left to celebrate a truly remarkable victory, sipping champagne from the championship trophy and partying well into the night!
This had turned into a highly successful weekend, especially as we had come away with both of the European titles.

On a cold November 12th morning the band once again led the parade through the Bristol City Centre, onto the Cenotaph for the Remembrance Day Service. On its completion we were honoured to receive a warm round of applause from the veterans for our recent European successes.

Our Christmas Concert was held at Patchway High School on Sunday 17th October, and it was here that once again many of our more experienced members decided leave the band, some of whom had been with the Unicorns since its formation. It was sad to see so many people leave, especially as we were now left with a much younger and inexperienced band for the following year.