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A History of the Virtuosi Brass Band of Great Britain -
part 3
Fred Waters presents his final part of his definitive history of
an unique brass band - the 28 of the best players in the land, who
came together to perform on nine LP's and one concert in the heady
days of the 1970's called the Virtuosi Brass Band of Great Britain.
The Band’s only Public Concert
From an early stage in the Band’s existence there was a desire
to perform in public but because almost all the players were key
members of the country’s top bands it proved impossible to
find dates when all players were free of other banding commitments.
Sadly, at the end of 1976, this situation led to a decision that
without live performances the popularity of the Band’s recordings
would decrease to level where further recordings would no longer
be financially viable. As there was nothing that the producers could
do to alter this situation it was reluctantly decided to make no
more records. Nevertheless, the desire to perform publicly still
existed so a decision was made that, providing a sponsor could be
found, efforts would be made to try to organise at least one live
performance of the Band at some time in the future.
Thanks to strenuous efforts on the part of Portsmouth City Band’s
public relations officer (Edgar Dunster), early in 1979 sponsorship
was obtained from Gales Hampshire Brewery, but despite the availability
of funds there was still the seemingly insurmountable problem of
player availability. However, it was established that there was
one point in the calendar when most bands had an annual break and
that was in July. This is not a good time to hold a band concert
‘up North’ but ideal for a holiday resort on the South
coast. And so it was, the Band’s only public appearance was
in the Portsmouth Guildhall on Saturday 14 July 1979. Also, the
BBC contributed to the cost of the concert which they broadcast
on two occasions on BBC Radio 3 later that year.
Even when the venue, sponsors and player availability problems
were resolved, there were still a few difficulties, not least of
which stemmed from the unwillingness of the Salvation Army to permit
our principal euphonium Trevor Groom to take part, as at that time,
he was a member of the Kettering Salvation Army Band. Despite pressure
from Eric Ball, (one of the two conductors at the concert), they
could not be persuaded to change their mind even though it was not
a Sunday event.
In addition to Trevor Groom there were six other players who were
not available and for whom replacements had to be found from the
ranks of players who had not previously played with the Band. These
included Phillip McCann who replaced the Band’s principal
cornet Jim Shepherd. Phillip at that time held the same position
at Black Dyke, so the Virtuosi Band was led by another equally safe
pair of hands.
The final player line-up for the concert was:-
Solo Cornets:-
*Phillip McCann (Principal Cornet) - Black Dyke Mills,
David Read (Assistant Principal),
Ken McDonald - Black Dyke Mills,
Tony Whitaker - Brighouse & Rastrick,
*Jim Davies - Cory.
Soprano Cornet:- Brian Evans - Brighouse &
Rastrick.
*Flugel:- Gordon Dean - Besses o’ th’ Barn.
*Repiano Cornet:- Peter Read - Besses o’ th’ Barn,
2nd Cornets:- David Morris – Rochdale,
Alan Tyler - William Davis Construction.
3rd Cornets:- Peter Roberts – Grimethorpe
Colliery,
Stan Whiteman - CWS (Manchester).
Tenor Horns:- Bryan Smith (Solo) - Grimethorpe
Colliery,
*Kevin Wadsworth (1st) - Black Dyke Mills,
David Williams (2nd) - Stanshawe (Bristol).
Baritones:- John Slinger (1st) - Black Dyke Mills,
*Peter Christian (2nd) - Fodens Motor Works.
Euphoniums:- John Clough (Solo) - Black Dyke Mills,
*Stephen Lord (2nd) - Brighouse & Rastrick.
Trombones:- Stan Priestley (Solo) - Grimethorpe
Colliery,
Terry Hext (2nd) – ex GUS,
Ian Copland (Bass) - Black Dyke Mills.
Eb Basses:- Colin Aspinall - James Shepherd Versatile
Brass,
Derek Horsfall - Stanshawe (Bristol).
Bb Basses:- Derek Jackson - Black Dyke Mills,
Les Beevers - Brighouse & Rastrick.
Percussion:- Harvey Whiteley - Yorkshire Imperial
Metals, Philip Gee - Black Dyke Mills.
* New players
The two musical directors for the concert were the Band’s
founding conductor Eric Ball and Stanley Boddington – the
conductor of the Band’s final recording session.
With a quarter of the Band being new players it was essential that
a full rehearsal be held on the afternoon of the day of the concert
and accordingly, under the watchful eye of Les Beevers, the band
coach set off from Yorkshire/Lancashire in good time to arrive in
Portsmouth by lunchtime.
The organising committee and the BBC were all waiting at the Guildhall
for the Band’s midday arrival but as time passed there was
no sign of the band coach. Unfortunately, this was before the days
of mobile telephones so it was not possible to establish the cause
of the delay or when they would eventually appear. Finally, at 3.30pm
the coach did arrive and the cause of the late arrival became known:
the coach had been stuck in a two hour traffic jam passing through
Silverstone village. Nobody had realised that 14 July 1979 was also
the date of the British Formula 1 Grand Prix!
The planned three hour rehearsal therefore became a quick 1½
hour run-through, plus one or two programme changes, before preparing
for the evening concert. With such a short rehearsal time and with
so many new players, it was only thanks to the consummate skill
and professionalism of the musical directors and players that the
concert was nevertheless a resounding success. The performance of
“Journey into Freedom” conducted by the composer
was without doubt the highlight of the event.
Although there was a feeling of great sadness as the final sounds
of the “Pomp & Circumstance” march died
away, it was clear that organising further concerts was not a realistic
possibility and so the Virtuosi Brass Band of Great Britain®
was no more.
Why the Seven CD Collection has been Released
At a chance meeting between Fred Waters and Les Beevers in 1995,
Les suggested that, as an historical record of the best in brass
band playing and recording in the 1970s, consideration should be
given to re-releasing the original nine LPs on CDs, and also to
include the additional items that were recorded but were never released
due to timing and other technical constraints imposed by vinyl LPs.
Luckily all the master tapes had been preserved and were in good
condition so re-release was possible. Furthermore, such a re-release
would also provide the opportunity to issue a selection of items
from the Band’s live concert at Portsmouth in 1979, which
fortunately had been recorded by Fred. Because a number of items
featured on the Band’s nine LPs were included in the concert
it was not thought reasonable to release a separate CD of the whole
concert. Ten items that had not been previously recorded by the
Band were therefore selected, including the only known recording
of Eric Ball conducting his “Journey into Freedom”.
Releasing a set of CDs featuring all of the Band’s recorded
material presented a slight programming problem. To ensure that
each CD contained a balanced programme of band music it proved impossible
to fit all of the Band’s recorded material onto six CDs. In
whichever order items were arranged there was always approximately
twelve minutes of recorded material that could not be accommodated.
To overcome this a seventh CD was produced containing the symphonic
prelude “Blackfriars” which the Band recorded
at their March 1976 recording session, followed by the ten new items
selected from the public concert. It was further decided to add
a preliminary track on which James Scott, the only surviving musical
director of the Band, explains the reasons for the unusual layout
of this final CD.
Finding a suitable person with the right expertise, brass band
experience and enthusiasm was essential if the Band’s set
of seven CDs were to be made as widely available as possible. It
is ironic that the right person was found in Brighouse where all
the Band’s recordings were made. This was David Horsfield
(Kirklees Music), whose cornet playing career spanned such prestigious
bands as Brighouse & Rastrick and Black Dyke Mills as well as
the James Shepherd Versatile Brass ensemble.
Whatever current and future opinions are of the musical style,
content and pioneering recording techniques featured in the Band’s
recordings, this set of seven CDs places on record for posterity
some of the best of 1970s brass band playing. Coupled with this
documented history of the Band, both John Berryman and Fred Waters
feel proud and privileged to have been able to create this permanent
musical archive covering a small part of the brass band movement’s
one hundred and fifty year history.
Fred Waters
(February 2004)
The copyright of this document subsists with the author and must
not be reproduced complete or in part in any form without prior
written permission
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