Scottish CO-OP Band wins Scottish Open Championship

On Saturday, 29th November, 2008, the Scottish Co-op Brass Band, one of Scotland's top bands, won the Scottish Open Brass Band Championship in the Perth Concert Hall in this, its 90th anniversary year.

Competing on Saturday, 29th November, 2008 against 13 other top bands from both Scotland and England, the Glasgow-based band headed the field after a performance of the test-piece "St. Magnus" (written by the Glasgow-born composer Kenneth Downie) which the adjudicators described as "commanding". The band was conducted by Michael Fowles.

The band was formed in 1918 by workers in the CWS factories in Shieldhall, Glasgow and, in terms of the number of competitions won it is, arguably, Scotland's most successful brass band, having been Scottish champion band 28 times. In 1990 and, again, in 1996, the band won the National Brass Band Championship of Great Britain at the Royal Albert Hall in London and, to this day, it remains the only Scottish band ever to win this prestigious title. In addition, the band has been runner-up in the European Championship twice, in 1988 and 1997 and has been placed third in the British Open Championship twice, in 1992 and 1997.

 The band's victory on Saturday gave them the Scottish Open title for the second time. They won the inaugural competition in 2003 and since that time have been second on three occasions.

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