The work undertaken by Pontardulais Band was featured on the BBC news report
A recent feature on the main BBC Wales television news shone a spotlight on the desperate need for Welsh banding to take a proactive role in both protecting as well as developing its grass roots foundations.
It offered an illuminating snapshot of the visible decline in entries seen at the Welsh Regional Championships in recent years but was also a follow up from a news report from April 2022 that examined the fears that Wales could lose a sustainable brass band tradition following Covid-19.
Welsh Area numbers
Both reports used the example of the number of bands attending the Fourth Section Area contest in Swansea: from 5 competitors in 2022 and just 3 in 2024.
It follows a decline that has seen numbers in the past decade fall from 12 in 2014.
There has been a decline in numbers in the Fourth Section at the Welsh Regional Championships
Direct link
My direct link to this comes from my professional career.
Having been appointed a brass peripatetic teacher with what is now called the Gwent Music Service in 1978, I stayed there until retiring as Head of Service in 2014.
I left at a time of great change within the education sector – not all for the good as it transpired.
I was fortunate to enjoy a wide remit - teaching, coordinating and managing in the education sector, as well as linking with community bands throughout the region. This involved organising both an annual youth band course and competition, as well as overseas tours and participation in high profile events.
I left at a time of great change within the education sector – not all for the good as it transpired.
What had been built over past generations was being re-evaluated and re-financed, despite the well-publicised and respected results of years of good practice and achievement.
Partnerships
That came from a partnership between the music service, schools and community bands that provided a well-funded and supportive backdrop (free tuition and instruments in schools with local tutors from bands paid by local authorities) that generated a supply of youthful talent that refreshed the ranks of community bands.
The RWCM&D has offered an acclaimed brass band course for a number of years
The approach was mirrored (with some regional differences etc) throughout Wales – the outcomes seen not just in the number of bands taking part in the lower sections of the Area championships, but in youth and cultural events and through the work and input of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and the National Youth Band of Wales.
Funding cuts
This in part though is now a mere memory - the demise brought about at first by incremental funding cuts, and then those that slashed to the very bone as austerity and a lack of vision undermined 50 years or more of work.
Having also worked within the community banding sector, I have witnessed the results and the approaches now being employed (as shown in the news report) to combat this decline.
This in part though is now a mere memory - the demise brought about at first by incremental funding cuts, and then those that slashed to the very bone as austerity and a lack of vision undermined 50 years or more of work.
I have enjoyed links to Abergavenny, Abertillery and presently, Blaenavon Town Band - the latter of which could well have folded but for a few people, who because of its history kept it going with a few loyal players turning up each week.
Now with a renewed vigour and outlook the core membership is now around 21 and increasing each month, with a training band and a junior/beginners section now forming part of a pyramid structure that reflects immediate needs and future ambitions.
Beaumaris sent a band to the European Championships in Palanga this year
Excellent examples
Elsewhere in Wales (north, south, east and west – from Pontardulais to Beaumaris, Goodwick to Rogerstone) there are also excellent examples of banding organisations taking long term steps to rejuvenate themselves as musical organisations in the heart of their communities.
They (and others) are however facing huge challenges – and ones that are exacerbated by an inherent lack of connectivity and joined up thinking between the education, arts and community band sectors.
It is obvious that the drastic cuts in music education, including music services has had a hugely detrimental effect.
Wales has produced great young talent from Goodwick to Beaumaris for many years
Necessity for all
As one correspondent in a Welsh newspaper stated: “The arts should be a necessity for all pupils and not just the preserve of independent schools and the erosion and devaluation of the arts in state schools must be addressed as a priority by the next government.”
That referred to the Welsh government, as it is they who control education policy and funding.
“The arts should be a necessity for all pupils and not just the preserve of independent schools and the erosion and devaluation of the arts in state schools must be addressed as a priority by the next government.”
In my recent experiences there is little brass tuition in our local primary schools and very little in the secondary schools.
The pbuzz instruments are built in Wales (image: Matt Horwood)
Although the recent news report stated that the Welsh Government had introduced a new national music service to the tune of £13million, very little visible progress has been seen in boosting community band numbers.
Giving a pupil a plastic instrument to play on is one thing (and hundreds of children are being taught this way in the classroom now) – but providing them with an ongoing pathway with a brass instrument, free tuition and a link to a community band, to maintain that initial passion and fun of playing, quite another.
This is where we now seem to find ourselves between a rock and a hard place.
Giving a pupil a plastic instrument to play on is one thing (and hundreds of children are being taught this way in the classroom now) – but providing them with an ongoing pathway with a brass instrument, free tuition and a link to a community band, to maintain that initial passion and fun of playing, quite another.
A way forward?
So what is a potential way forward?
Ideally all bands in Wales should start their own beginner group/training band under an experienced tutor. If in doubt, ask advice from others – the likes of Abergavenny, Pontardulais, Beaumaris, Goodwick or City of Cardiff for example (and I acknowledge others) have all shown ways to succeed.
Keep promoting these sessions within your local community at every opportunity. Use flyers and posters and make direct contact with schools and the local music service and keep pestering them until you get a positive response. Find out who is providing the music tuition in your local schools and make contact.
I’m sure they will be delighted to know their hard working efforts are being appreciated and acted upon.
Contact the contest promoters and ask if you can take part in events – suggesting a performance opportunity to inspire rather than a contest performance beset by antiquated rules of exclusion rather than inclusion.
Funding
One major problem though is that Welsh banding currently has no real national organisation such as Brass Bands England funded by Arts Council grants.
It has been in existence for several years now as a voluntary organisation, but surely now is the time for it to come up with a comprehensive plan of action to gain at least some sort of ‘seed corn’ funding.
If we can finally rid ourselves of the former and embrace the latter hopefully the next BBC Wales news report concerning brass bands in Wales will be of an even more positive nature.
As always in Wales we are bedevilled by bureaucracy, tribal distrust and a lack of leadership – and banding is no different.
However, we are also blessed with amazing musical talent, indefatigable volunteers and an unbreakable resolve to succeed despite the challenges that we face.
If we can finally rid ourselves of the former and embrace the latter hopefully the next BBC Wales news report concerning brass bands in Wales will be of an even more positive nature.
Alun F Williams
The author:
Alun’s playing career started with the Cwm Town Band and attended his first course with the then Monmouthshire Youth Band (later Gwent) was in 1970.
He was also a member of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain and the National Youth Orchestra of Wales.
He was appointed as a brass peripatetic teacher in 1978, and during his career was Head of Brass, Deputy Head and Head of Gwent Music Service. As the administrative head of Gwent Youth Brass Band for over 25 years, he organised visits and tours including to the National and European Youth Brass Band Championships, and tours to America (2001) and Australia and New Zealand (2004).
He has also conducted many community bands, including winning the National Youth Brass Band Championship title in 1994 with the Gwent County Youth Brass Band.
He was appointed Chairman of the National Youth Brass Band of Wales in 2012 and in 2019 was appointed Interim Administrator of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain for one year, during their transition period.
He has received several awards for services to music, including the Brian Hicks Memorial Award, Torfaen Education Authority Award of Achievement and The Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Mortimer Medal in 2005.
