Metadata
WORK ID: YFA 5608 (Master Record)
| Title | Year | Date |
| WHERE THERE'S BRASS | 1969 | 1969-01-01 |
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Details
Original Format: 16mm Colour: Black & White Sound: Sound Duration: 45 mins 11 secs Credits: Bands Playing: Black Dyke Mills Band Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band Carlton Main Colliery Brass band Slaithwaite Brass Band Linthwaite Brass Band Hade Edge Brass Band West Riding Fire Service Brass Band Scapegoat Hill Brass Band Researchers: Isobel Norriter, with the assistance of Mrs Evelyn Brey, Chairman of the Council of Brass Band Association and William Sykes, Manager of Frickley and S Elmsall Collieries, Mr Jack Mckenney, Senior Social Welfare Officer of the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation, Mr Ted Buttress, Secretary of the Brass Band Association. Cameraman: Mostafa Hammuri Sound recordists: Frank Minton, Don Warren, Terry Ricketts, Mike Donnelly. Editor: Tim Ritson Producer and Director: Patrick Boyle Executive Producer: Tony Essex Yorkshire Television Production Subject: Working Life Industry |
| Summary This is a Yorkshire Television documentary, written and presented by Michael Parkinson, presenting the culture of brass bands in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The film shows several village bands rehearsing, collecting money and entering a competition at Belle Vue, Manchester, together with interviews with band members and miners at Frickley and South Elmsall Collieries working down the pit. |
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Description
This is a Yorkshire Television documentary, written and presented by Michael Parkinson, presenting the culture of brass bands in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The film shows several village bands rehearsing, collecting money and entering a competition at Belle Vue, Manchester, together with interviews with band members and miners at Frickley and South Elmsall Collieries working down the pit.
Title: Where There's Brass
The film begins with a family sitting in their living room watching...
This is a Yorkshire Television documentary, written and presented by Michael Parkinson, presenting the culture of brass bands in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The film shows several village bands rehearsing, collecting money and entering a competition at Belle Vue, Manchester, together with interviews with band members and miners at Frickley and South Elmsall Collieries working down the pit.
Title: Where There's Brass
The film begins with a family sitting in their living room watching the TV as the FA Cup Final comes to an end, announcing West Bromwich Albion as the winners. It then switches to show a textile mill, possibly in or near Huddersfield, with brief glimpses of brass band players practising at work or at home. A group of children are playing on a hill overlooking a textile town. A brass band player emerges from J Findley, Joiners, Builder and Funeral Directors in Holmfirth. Other band members make their way in the snow and meet up at Scapegoat Hill Working Men’s Club. Here the conductor oversees a practice session. Then we see another brass band practising. One member explains that in manual labour workers get rough fingers, and that this rules out playing an instrument that requires delicate fingering.
The film switches to a colliery, probably Frickley and South Elmsall Collieries, with miners coming off their shift and having a shower. Then the new shift is seen arriving and travelling on the underground rail wagons to the coal face. As they shovel coal onto a conveyor belt there are images of miners playing in a brass band.
Parkinson comments on the changing face of the communities, different from his youth, as mines and factories close. One band member explains how he got his first instrument. We then see the inside of a workshop where brass instrument are being made, and the manager explains the rising costs of these, with a trombone costing £80 5 shillings, and a double bass £327.
A couple of children come running out of E. Green newsagents on the corner of Long Moor Road, and we see various parts of the village of Golcar. A pram stands outside G S Gee butchers. It is stated that Scapegoat Hill Brass Band are in debt, and that they have offered to sell their band room to pay this off. They are then seen in winter playing outside the Working Men’s Club, while supporters go around inside, as patrons are drinking, collecting for the band. A band member is interviewed, and children play in the snow in a school playground. Inside the school children are being taught to play brass instruments. We then see Linthwaite Brass band rehearsing. There is an interview with older members who explain how they first got involved in the brass band. A brass band marches through a village, displaying their trophies.
There is an interview with someone regarding brass band competitions and the four divisions structure of brass bands, and also with Ted Buttress, Secretary of the Brass Band Association, who explains the nature of the competitions as we see the line-up for contest for 1968 and 1969. Several bands are shown in rehearsal. Next we see Scapegoat Hill Brass band getting onto a coach and driving through Yorkshire to a competition, overtaking two other coaches carrying brass bands as they do so. They arrive at Belle Vue Manchester. The Brass Band Registrar is interviewed, stating that there are 600 registered brass bands, and showing the card index for every single brass band member. The adjudicator arrives at the hall early, and is escorted inside where he takes his place in the adjudicator’s box. Here he pours himself tea from his flask ready for 6 hours of listening to 12 bands playing the same tune. It is explained that his identity is kept secret so that he isn’t nobbled. It is also shown how every band member has his identity thoroughly checked to avoid cheating. The first band arrives and plays, and the next waits in the wings. The small audience claps and the next one comes on.
At the end the adjudicator leaves his box and is revealed, Frank Wright M.B.E., member of the Corporation of Trinity College of Music. Then the winners are announced, with the winners receiving £30. One of the band leaders complains about the practice of poaching band members.
The film moves on to show the Black Dyke Band playing Rossin’s William Tell Overture at a concert. There is a view over Queensbury and J. Foster’s Mill. There is an interview with one of the members of the Black Dyke Band. Then Michael Parkinson interviews two members of the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. They are then seen in a recording studio, playing North County Fantasy. An lp is seen on a turntable, and many brass band lps are seen in a record shop.
A brass band marches through a village playing Colonel Bogey March, followed by a group of children, and collecting money from house to house. This is followed by various band members explaining the appeal of being in a brass band. The film finishes with a lone tuba player playing in a deserted rehearsal room.
Bands Playing:
Black Dyke Mills Band
Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band
Carlton Main Colliery Brass band
Slaithwaite Brass Band
Linthwaite Brass Band
Hade Edge Brass Band
West Riding Fire Service Brass Band
Scapegoat Hill Brass Band
Researchers: Isobel Norriter, with the assistance of Mrs Evelyn Brey, Chairman of the Council of Brass Band Association and William Sykes, Manager of Frickley and S Elmsall Collieries, Mr Jack Mckenney, Senior Social Welfare Officer of the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation, Mr Ted Buttress, Secretary of the Brass Band Association.
Cameraman: Mostafa Hammuri
Sound recordists: Frank Minton, Don Warren, Terry Ricketts, Mike Donnelly.
Editor: Tim Ritson
Producer and Director: Patrick Boyle
Executive Producer: Tony Essex
Yorkshire Television Production
Context
Where There’s Brass is a 1969 documentary about the culture of brass bands within working-class communities in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, presented by Michael Parkinson and produced by Yorkshire Television. Broadcasting for the first time on the 29th July 1968 from Leeds and showing a Test cricket match between England and Australia as its first program, Yorkshire Television would be merged with Tyne Tees Television in 1970 to form a part of Trident Television Limited. They were ordered to...
Where There’s Brass is a 1969 documentary about the culture of brass bands within working-class communities in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, presented by Michael Parkinson and produced by Yorkshire Television. Broadcasting for the first time on the 29th July 1968 from Leeds and showing a Test cricket match between England and Australia as its first program, Yorkshire Television would be merged with Tyne Tees Television in 1970 to form a part of Trident Television Limited. They were ordered to separate again in 1981, but would remerge in 1992 as Yorkshire-Tyne Tees Television plc. Yorkshire Television had a turbulent relationship with broadcasting unions, resulting in a number of outages or on-air protests. Eventually, Yorkshire Television was bought by ITV (then Granada), changing its name to ITV1 Yorkshire in 2002, before ceasing trading in 2007 and being absorbed entirely into ITV Studios.
Michael Parkinson was born on the 28th March, 1935 in Cudworth, West Yorkshire. Beginning his media career writing for local newspapers, and then the Manchester Guardian and Daily Express, he moved into television during the 1960s. He worked on current affairs programs for the BBC and ITV Granada throughout the 60s, but he is probably most remembered during this period for 1969’s ‘Cinema’, a film review show. He is best known, however, for ‘Parkinson’, his self-titled chat show that ran intermittently from 1971 until 2007. Parkinson is frequently voted as one of Britain’s best-loved TV personalities, and his omnipresence within the British cultural landscape continues to this day as he makes television appearances and represents advertisement campaigns. Where There’s Brass is a documentary made to inform the audience about the tradition of brass bands within working-class communities, and it does this through the representation of true events. Michael Parkinson interviews individuals related to the subject, and they give honest answers. Some parts of the documentary seem as if they may have been directed: namely, a young girl imitating her father playing a brass instrument, and a conversation between two band members on a bus. Nonetheless, we can safely assume that Where There’s Brass is a generally truthful film. Other factual representations of brass bands in the archive include 1965-66’s A Year with Brighouse and Rastrick Band and 1991’s Bands and Banners. Documentary films have had a long history arising out of the earliest films which relied on the novelty of showing actual events, earning the name ‘actuality films’; other films documented events such as sporting matches or surgical operations. Even in the early days, film makers were split as to how documentaries should be made; some, such as Robert J. Flaherty, introduced elements of romanticism into their films, trying to depict life as it might have been in the years before. Others, such as Dziga Vertov, argued that documentaries should present life exactly as it is, catching its subject unawares in their affectless, everyday existence; Vertov’s 1928 film Man with a Movie Camera represents a landmark entry for the genre, and is still lauded as one of the greatest films ever made by critics today. The use of documentary has not been uncontroversial, though, with titles such as Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 Triumph of the Will and Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 Battleship Potemkin representing the most famous examples of the propaganda film for the Nazi and Soviet regimes respectively. Both of these films were incredibly innovative in their content and presentation, though critics frequently debate the extent to which one can appropriately laud the former film for lionising Adolf Hitler. Brass bands still play a part in Yorkshire life. Indeed, most of the bands that play in Where There’s Brass are winning competitions today: only Scapegoat Hill Brass Band has disbanded, although West Riding Fire Service Brass Band no longer competes. The Black Dyke band would reach higher heights of success when, in 1985, they became the first band to win the regional Yorkshire, European, British Open and National Championship contests in the same year. One of the first brass bands to be put to record in 1905, they have since created over 350 recordings and worked with artists such as The Beautiful South, Tori Amos, and Peter Gabriel. Around the time of Where There’s Brass they recorded a song penned by Lennon-McCartney, ‘Thingumybob’, for a Yorkshire sitcom, and later worked on a late 70s Wings album. Brass bands in the British tradition are still popular throughout the world, from Norway to Mexico, and contests within the United Kingdom and the wide world are still highly competitive. One of the themes iterated throughout Where There’s Brass is brass bands’ popularity in working-class communities, and the role that they play in bringing people together. One of the men interviewed explains that because of the demands of the band members’ industrial jobs, they can’t play any instrument that requires delicate or precise finger work, as their hands are too rough for labour. The Black Dyke Mill has since closed, though plans exist to renovate it for a community space. Many of the industries from which brass bands sought membership, for example textiles and coal mining, have seen years of decline in Britain; as such, bands now have to seek members elsewhere. As of Friday 18th December 2015 coal mining had grinded to a halt in Yorkshire, although most collieries had ceased to exist within the 80s. This mirrored the experience of much of the country, notably Wales, as coal mining slid into major decline under the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher. The 1996 comedy directed by Mark Herman Brassed Off, starring Ewan McGregor and Tara Fitzgerald, follows a colliery brass band after the closing of their pit and highlights the rise in suicide rates amongst unemployed men following industry closure. Parkinson also refers to brass bands as an aspect of the Northern stereotype, alongside a career in industry, bitter drinking, wife beating and greyhound breeding. It could be said that in direct response to the prevailing image of the average Northern man, brass bands represented a form of expression and escapism for overworked and underpaid labourers who were otherwise totally removed from the southern-based, predominantly middle-class media establishment. The representation of Yorkshire, and the North as a whole, tends to veer from Ken Loach-style gritty social realism to comedies in which the stereotypes are played for comic effect. Parkinson says that these images seem alien compared to his own memories of his childhood in Yorkshire, and Where There’s Brass feels like a personal attempt to highlight the realities of the community that Parkinson was raised in. Further Reading Black Dyke Band Brighouse and Rastrick Band Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band Slaithwaite Band Linthwaite Brass Band Hade Edge Band Brass band results How Queensbury's Black Dyke Mill may reclaim its former glory, Telegraph and Argus |
