Comments on: The Worlds: Draw Me a Picture

By: mike

mike — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:11:45 +0000

Well, everyone has a point of view. Cheers, Robert.

PS. Loved your last album:

http://www.musicinscotland.com/acatalog/Robert_Wilson_The_Voice_of_Scotland_Volume_One_CD.html

By: Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 01:04:03 +0000

It’s quite simple. It’s not the bands that are being qualified, its the judges! And once they’re qualified they get to judge the finals. Unless they’re from outside Scotland…

By: mike

mike — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:49:13 +0000

Iain Machiavelli! M.

By: iainmacd

iainmacd — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:58:22 +0000

I sometimes wonder if “looking out for their members” means ensuring that the Worlds ISN’T a level playing field. What else could explain the pre-qualifying rules?

By: mike

mike — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 22:53:14 +0000

Iain: the argument might be made – but makes no sense if, first and foremost, the organization is looking out for their member bands (forget the likes of non-Scots for a second) and trying to make the most fair conditions possible for a competition.

Kevin – sorry to hear of your experience. I am not a fan of the MAP thing, fwiw. M.

By: KevinAuld

KevinAuld — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:08:00 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. I took a Novice Juvenile band over for the Worlds last year and had to suffer through the MAP tunes qualifier. It can be argued that in Novice the MAP qualifier may be useful, but it’s still a bother. In Grade 1? I hardly think it’s useful. Top grade bands raising tens of thousands of dollars to travel across the world to play an MSR? Yes, I’d like to see a good explanation of it as well.

By: iainmacd

iainmacd — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:22:39 +0000

On the surface, the RSPBA would likely argue that the Grade 1 Worlds is two performances, whereas other grades are one performance, with shorter time frames. However, their approach to other aspects of the contest [number of judges, international judges, conflict of interest, allocation of bus passes, recording and performing rights to the music] would lead one to believe that maybe the qualifying system is geared toward keeping more Scottish bands in the final? All the bands are there anyway, it would not be hard to run the MSRs in the morning, and the medleys in the afternoon, or to run them at the same time, and let the BBC and the punters decide which to watch.