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England's best brass band wins European title

Danielle HuntGloucestershire
News imageCharlie Chan Approximately fifty people are gathered as a group on a stage in the foreground with theatre seating in the background. The members of Flowers Band are of various ages and are all looking at the camera. Some people have their hands open in the air, some are fist pumping the air, others hold aloft trophies. They are all wearing black polo shirts with the band's logo on except composer Oliver Waespi who is wearing a burgundy button-up shirt with a black blazer, dark short hair and dark rimmed glasses.Charlie Chan
Members of Flowers Band celebrate their win on stage at the Bruckner Haus, Linz, along with Swiss composer Oliver Waespi whose work the band performed on day two of the competition.

A brass band from Gloucestershire is celebrating after winning at the European championships.

Flowers Band competed against 14 other national champions and came out on top of both days of the two-day Brass Band competition in Linz, Austria.

The band's conductor, Paul Holland, said it was "an unbelievable achievement" as it was the band's first time competing at this level. "I'm still on cloud nine," he said. "I don't think this will ever be topped. We won the national championships of Great Britain in 2024, that was a previous highlight, but this takes it to a whole new level."

The last time an English band won the European championships was in 2015.

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Flowers Band came out on top in both of the two days of competition.

On day one, the 15 competing bands all played the same piece and were then ranked.

On day two, bands play a specially-commissioned piece of their own choice, which Flowers Band conductor Holland said is "where you can kind of show off and really have a great deal of fun".

"We won the contest both days which is quite rare," he said.

"We're the first English band to win it in 11 years and certainly the only West of England band in history, so there's a lot of things that go into the history books."

News imageCharlie Chan In the foreground an audience sits in relative darkness. Audience members are clapping. A stage is lit up in the background and a band are seen on their feet all facing the audience. Most of the players are wearing black suits with white shirts. In the background, at the back of the stage, are silver organ pipes of a large organ which takes up much of the backdrop. There is a large TV screen at either side of the stage showing competition branding and sponsor logos.Charlie Chan
Flowers Band on stage during the European Brass Band Championship

Coco Chan, a percussionist of 20 years who has been playing with Flowers Band since 2019, said: "It's decades of work to get to the level of musicianship that means you can compete at this level.

"I wish brass band music had more profile for the quality of it. We're all amateurs, but we play world-class music."

Flowers Band fundraised and prepared for 18 months to be able to travel to the championships.

Chan, 31, added: "It's an enormous amount of money to take a band overseas, upwards of £35,000 to get all the people and instruments to Austria."

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