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Colne festival is hardly what it was, I reflected at the start of the final classes on Saturday evening. With only one seat in ten occupied at the Municipal Hall and the Mayor of Pendle and the adjudicators commenting on the lack of public support, we certainly seemed in for a bleak hour or two.
But as the evening wore on and the hall filled up a little more I realised that although there were empty seats and conspicuous gaps in the programme, especially in the choral classes, the Luther Greenwood Memorial Festival is still very much what it was years ago, when the hall was thronged with people for the closing session and there was scarcely an empty seat to be found.
Standards are still high, a point on which the adjudicators particularly remarked. The excitement is still there, never more tense and tingling than when two premier local choirs are singing for trophies and prize money. And for sheer varied entertainment, provided by a selection of the north's best amateur singers, there is nothing to equal it.
Nobody could leave that hall at the end of the evening without conceding that all had enjoyed some superb music-making. It is this, rather than the number of seats empty or filled. by which the festival should be judges.
When it came to local winners in the solo classes, then it was very much Lindon Amison's day. The Brierfield, newsagent with a formidable reputation for collecting silverware from festivals throughout the area was placed in practically every class he entered and was strongly fancied to win the rose bowl class, competed for by the soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor and bass/baritone with the highest marks from earlier in the day.
Adjudicator James H. Klrkwood spoke of Mr Amison's interpretation of "Sea Fever" painting a picture of a wide expanse of sea, the singer always being aware of the changing moods of the song. But in the end, the warm voice and impeccable diction of contralto Judith Barker, from Crosby singing "Spring Sorrow," won the class and the trophy, and Mr Amison had to settle for second place.
Success came Mr Amison's way in the final of the light opera/musical class, his "One Alone" from "The Desert Song" being described by adjudicator Dr James Murray Brown as "a performance which really was a very lovely piece of singing." Competition was close, however. Mr Amison's 176 marks totalled only one more than those of Linda Milner, of Leyburn, placed second, only two more than those of Alan Watkinson, of Southport.
The same three soloists were quickly back on the platform to compete for Ernest Allen Memorial Challenge Trophy, thanks to the earlier success in the operatic, oratorio, and British composers classes during the afternoon. On this occasion however, it was the sublime singing by Linda Milner of Bax's "A Christmas Carol", which won the trophy. Mr Kirkwood referred to the range of expression and colour in her singing, although he was not without praise, either, for Mr Amison's "The Trumpet Shall Sound", mentioning the steady tone of his singing, its dignity and its majesty. The evening's excitement was focused on the class for male voice choirs, since this was a Nelson versus Colne encounter, with added inducement for Colne Orpheus to out-sing the Excelsior Glee Union, because it was the Colne choir's last public performance under conductor Clifford Crewe, who is leaving the area later this month.
And what a tense 20 minutes it was! Both choirs sung Roberton's "The Cloud Capped Tower" plus an own choice and Mr Kirkwood was clearly marking to very high standards.
There were gasps from the audience when the result was announced: 87 marks to each choir for the own choice piece, 83 to Colne for the Roberton and 84 to Nelson. And though no one would deny the Excelsior its 171 marks, there was still disappointment that the Orpheus should have failed by so small a margin on its home territory.
The final session of the festival was opened by Coun. John Helm, Mayor of Pendle, who was introduced by festival president Mrs Doris Leyland.