Editorial ~ 2007: December

This month we give our opinion on a Prescription entertainment, Standing room only and in Praise of prize money.

Prescription entertainment

There was little doubt that Brighouse & Rastrick under Richard Evans fully deserved to win the Brass in Concert Championship at The Sage this year. Not only was the band on top form, but Richard Evans was in a class of his own.  

The strange thing though, was that we have seen and heard it all before – almost for the whole 31 years of the Gateshead contest, and before that at Granada Band of the Year.

It’s called prescription programming: Flashy starter, solo spot, something jazzy, comedy item, something quiet, big finisher. 

It’s been the tried and tested formula in British banding in particular ever since major entertainment contests took place almost 40 years ago. Go to any entertainment contest the length and breadth of the country and it is served up time and time again.

It is a distilled version of the traditional brass band concert programme – so traditional in fact that a quick glance through the history books shows that bands well over 100 years ago were doing it.

There have been occasions when some MDs have tried to bring something completely new and ground breaking into the genre, but despite the odd memorable occasion, it has been pretty much the same diet year in year out.  We are now even hearing repeats of repeats, or variations on repeats of repeats as was shown at The Sage this year.

That in itself isn’t a bad thing, but it does beg the question of whether or not there is anything new left to bring to an audience who has seen, heard it and enjoyed it all before?

Hopefully there is, whilst thankfully, there are a few bands out there that are brave enough to try it too. If not, the brass band entertainment contest could well become a musical version of Groundhog Day.   

What do you think?
Send an email to: comments@4barsrest.com    

Standing room only?

There are certain bug bears in brass banding life that although not immediately apparent and obvious, still have the ability to get under the skin every now and then.

Take ‘directional playing’ for instance.

For a number of years now the fashion to get players to stand, either from the position where they usually sit within the band, or by walking to a selected position decided by the MD to play a small solo in a test piece has become de-rigeur. At times at the recent Scottish Open Championship it was like watching a brass band version of the Hokey- Cokey.

Then there is the continued trend for players to either scrunch up into a little ball, turn their backs to the audience or even walk to the side of the stage to play parts that are usually marked just piano.

Who brought these ideas to the brass band we wonder and on what basis did they think that it made any appreciable difference?

It may look impressive when a whole cornet section turns on mass to blast out something at the end of a test piece, or turn in to play something quieter, but in reality it only highlights the inability to actually play what is written in a manner that befits the music.

Do you ever see Andre Previn get his violin section to turn their backs on the audience to play a section of a major orchestral work ‘a bit quieter’ or Maurice Murphy turn himself into a ball of sweat and anxiety to sound pianissimo? If they did they would be laughed out of their profession. They just play quieter – period.

The simple answers are usually the right answers – perhaps a few of our leading MDs should take note and not try and kid us with a cheap visual trick even Paul Daniels would be embarrassed to fool us with. 

What do you think?
Send an email to: comments@4barsrest.com    

In Praise of Prize Money 

In the past couple of years the 4BR Money List has shown not only which bands have been the most successful in winning prize money at various contests throughout the world, but also, just how much money there is actually to be won in our contesting environment.

This year the top 30 bands won close to £150,000 between them – not a mind boggling amount given that Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor recently picked up £80,000 for throwing three darts at a board in what amounts to nothing more than a pub game, but still an indication that there is money being put into the brass band movement by organisers and promoters.

It was also encouraging to see that although the top championship bands took the lion’s share of the cash on offer, a significant number of lower section bands were also rewarded for their success to throughout the year.

The flip side of course is that in proportion to the amount of money it actually takes to run a brass band year in year out, even if a Championship band had an phenomenally successful year they would probably only break even given their ongoing running costs.

Fodens Richardson just about did that this year results wise, and picked up over £15,000 in prize money, but you can bet that was soon spent on hotel accommodation, travel costs, entry fees and expenses.

Some contests are now putting their money were their bands are so to speak, and at certain events the honour and prestige of winning a title comes with a nice fat cheque to keep the bank manager happy too. 

It may be a rather side thing to say, but in this day and age, most bands would rather the money than a big silver cup any day of the week.  Prestige is one thing, cash in the bank, quite another. Let’s hope the balance sheets of many more bands continue to prosper in 2008.

What do you think?
Send an email to: comments@4barsrest.com   

^back to top