THEY are heading for London to defend their hard-earned musical title.

And musicians from the Brighouse and Rastrick Band are also hoping to chalk up a stunning hat-trick for Britain’s brass bands and become “The Best of British”.

The band will travel to the Royal Albert Hall in London today in order to defend their title as national champions which they have held for the last two years.

The National Brass Band Finals tomorrow are the most prestigious contest in the banding calendar and certainly the most competitive, with around 20 of the top brass bands in the UK competing for the title.

Brighouse and Rastrick will again be conducted by their professional conductor, Professor David King, one of the most successful conductors in the world.

He has led them to the title in the past two years and they will be looking to achieve a historic “hat trick”.

The band have so far won the title nine times in their 131-year history and are one of the most successful and most consistent bands in the world.

The competition has been going for more than a century, ever since it was first won in 1900 by Denton Original Band.

Other big-name winners since then include Black Dyke Mills, Fairey, Grimethorpe Colliery and Cory.

All the competing bands will play the highly-challenging test piece Daphnis and Chloe (second suite) by Maurice Ravel.

Paul Beaumont, Brighouse and Rastrick president, said: “It is a piece which is ridiculous technically but also very musical and rather pleasant to listen to”.

The band have just returned from a gruelling weekend playing two concerts in Italy and Austria and have an extremely busy period when they return from London and running up to Christmas.

They have just released their latest CD entitled War of the Worlds which features the music of Peter Graham.

The album has been hailed by critics as one of the most musical and entertaining brass band recordings of the last five years.

Patrons and supporters will have the opportunity to see the band in action at Huddersfield Town Hall on Saturday, October 27, when they will share the stage with their guests the Rothwell Temperance Band from Leeds in a concert entitled Britain Celebrates which will be conducted by Garry Cutt. Tickets are available from Kirklees Ticket Outlets at Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Holmfirth, Batley, Cleckheaton and the Lawrence Batley Theatre.