Welcome to Sparkly Land

*7/8/03* Ever Ready Band

www.btinternet.com/%7Eer.band/ The NE Regional Champions 2003 have a simple site- not many graphics and photos. It contains alot of good information and some interesting player profiles. There is a very clear results table but no information prior to 1990. The layout could be improved- half a picture showing on the homepage in a frame doesn't make a great first impression!

Contains the basis of a good site and with a little work on the graphics and layout could be much improved- come on guys you have shown your worths on the contest scene make your site sparkle too!

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*7/8/03* Dungarvan Brass Band
www.dungarvanbrassband.org/ Dungarvan Brass Band is from County Waterford, Ireland. They are current Intermediate champions for their region and have a great site and what a lovely bandroom too!! - officially opened on September 12th 1999. The Dungarvan Brass Band teaches and trains anyone who wants to learn and this is reflected in their site. There is something for everyone and lots of photos of it's members. Some very nice touches like the instrument guide and a very interesting calender.Technically it's brilliant and it looks smart too- full marks!

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*7/8/03* Silk Brass Astrazenica

www.silkbrass.co.uk Another one of the lower section bands that have recently made a name for themselves. Took 2nd place at the 2002 National Brass Band Champions in the 3rd Section earning themselves a promotion to the 2nd Section in 2003. Unfortunately the site seems to have gone down! *oops* lets hope they fix the problem soon and I'll leave this space waiting! :

The Jewels of the south have a simple website. It is reasonably up to date and has CD sales through Just Brass. There is a nice highlight section listing the big events from the recent past. Another one of the successful championship bands that, although perform to top standard on the contest stage, haven't quite made on the world wide web.

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*22/7/03* British Bandsman www.britishbandsman.com

Probably the most comprehensive free guide to what is on in the brass band world avaliable online. Still used well by bands at all levels. Hosts a classified section and some very arty photos!

This site is being heavily rivalled by 4barsrest.com at the moment. How long can britishbandsman.com keep it up?

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*22/7/03* Chichester City Band www.chicityband.co.uk

Another carefully crafted site beautifully planned. Regularly updated and hosts yearly reviews back to 1897! Some exceptionally impressive archives of concert programs and results.Anything you could possibly want to know about Chichester Band is on the website.

A superb site.

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*22/7/03* 4barsrest.com www.4barsrest.com

A site that brought the banding world into the 21st century just over 2 years ago. I have to rate the CD services and the boys from 4bars have now captured every marketing angle avaliable- classified, players wanted, cds- you name it 4bars do it! The contest reports and results archive are second to none and recently 4bars have made a big move towards reporting of the lower sections. Well done!

As the name says it is THE ONLINE BANDING MAGAZINE

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*21/7/03* Deinolen Band www.deiniolenband.org.uk

A very impressive site. Excellent navigation and stacks of information. The best results archive I have seen showing the bands achievements from the 1940's. Every section is carefully archived and you can listen to samples from the bands cd online.

Exceptionally well written probably one of the best Brass Band sites I have seen... superb! well done!

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Once again another Dundee qualifier (4th section, Midlands) hosts an good site. It contains information on the finals fundraising events. It's nice to let the public know what you are doing, we all know how difficult this is. An informative page about the Band Club and some nice photos. User friendly navigation and effects.

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Some 'interesting' photos. Nice to see full remarks and results from many contests and a topical use of the website 'vote for the player of the month online'. Would be nice to see some photos from those very impressive entertainments programs and maybe a link to theMouthPiece.com

argh transitions! other than that I like it! :)

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The 1st section NW champions website is a host to much information. It contains an up-to-date gigs list, news, photogallery sections and even a members only area. Some nice touches for example 'a poem about the band'. Site is lacking a 'contest records' area and for a band who has done so well recently I would have thought they would have been polishing those trophies!

An interesting site... a major improvement could perhaps be a change to the main page layout to make it more viewer friendly.

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For a site of one of the 'big boys' I wasn't particulary impressed. Stacks of info but a pretty poor layout and some of the pictures don't even work! On the positive side though an comprehensive tour and meet the band section and a separate page for band history.

Lots of information but badly delivered!

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The Shirley Band are another band off to sunny Dundee being Midlands Champions 2003 for the 2nd Section. First impressions are good: a simple but effective layout with user-friendly navigation. I like the band diary it has a clear indication of the next engagement.

Removing the background image would clean up the band members area but generally a nice site.

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Homepage of the All England Masters Champions 2003. First impressions are very good. I really like the next engagements listing on the homepage. The photogallery is very extensive, and well archived,as is the news section. There is an excellent history section including contest records- a nice touch which I haven't seen on my websites. Any one improvement I could suggest would be the idea of online purchasing for the recordings section to bring the site inline with the homepages of many other 'big bands'.

On the whole an excellent, informative and well written site which is kept up to date- I like it!

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Matlock Band is a 4th section band based in the Derbyshire Dales. Again well updated and archived although I am not sure about the spinning title on the homepage- it makes me dizzy! Rogue's Gallery- just brilliant- those registration cards have to come to some use don't they? Site contains alot of interesting information including selected reviews on band events. Much work obviously went into the designing and updating of this site and the result is a credit to the band.

To sum up: another up to date and informative site. The personal touches are what makes this site slightly different to the rest- you just cannot beat the rogues gallery! Well done :)

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TheMouthPiece.com is a new brass band discussion forum. It has been online approx 9 months and currently has over over 875 members! I might be slightly biased as I am involved in running this site but it truely is the biggest new thing in the banding community. Views on contests, banding gossip, free advertising for bands and band suppliers, anything to do with brass banding and more is discussed on this friendly forum.