Editorial ~ 2008: September

This month we give our opinions on Waiting for Godot, the Credit Crunch and praise Wilfred Heaton.

Waiting for Godot

Now that all the hullabaloo of the Beijing Olympics is finally behind us, the harsh realities of the typically underwhelming British response to the state sponsored Chinese extravaganza will soon become apparent.

At the recent launch of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Lord Coe (a man who knows exactly how to back a losing PR exercise – remember he was the brains behind Tory leader William Hague in his baseball cap) declared that the next four years will see “…a clear and tangible cultural legacy for the whole nation.” 

In the run up to 2012 that will see a Shakespeare Festival, £7 million quid spent on a series of 12 art commissions (that may include anything from a new symphony to public sculpture), short films, street theatre and even something called ‘Stories of the World’. In all £40 million will be spent.

And what of the brass band movement in all of this then?

Well, according to Jude Kelly, Chair of Culture, Ceremonies and Education for the Olympics there will also be something called ‘Sounds’, an initiative that will “celebrate music as a universal language in today’s multicultural and multifaith UK”.

On the face of it that sounds promising enough (there is a national singing day and free music along the Thames), but given the response that was gleaned from the Culture Secretary in the pathetically attended adjournment debate about brass bands a few weeks ago in Parliament, we shouldn’t be holding our breath in the hope that it will include a chunk of dosh to ensure the brass band fraternity are at the forefront of it all (unless breath holding becomes a new Olympic event for 2012).

Labour MPs are now more concerned about their own futures in the next two years to worry about brass bands in the next four – despite what they say, and the Tories simply don’t see our cause as a potential vote winner.

After the laughably kitsch Olympic handover to Britain in Beijing, that featured a pensioner playing the guitar, a transforming London bus, a pop singer three quarters of the world had no idea who she was, and an over hyped footballer who doesn’t even ply his trade in the country, does anyone honestly think Lord Coe and his gang of Londoncentric hangers-on are going to place brass bands anywhere near the cultural, let alone, sporting, spotlight?

No. It will be the same old story. A few moments at events far away from centre stage – and the usual platitudes that we should be grateful for what we have already received.

It reminds you of the Beckett play, ‘Waiting for Godot’, where two tramps wait patiently for Godot, who never turns up. Unless something remarkable happens, the brass band movement will be waiting, waiting and waiting, just like them too.

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

Overcoming the Credit Crunch

After the brief hiatus that was our wet Summer, the equally damp and dreary Autumn sees the contest season back in full swing.  Unfortunately, not only is the weather depressing, but so too the whole economic outlook too.

There are hard times ahead for bands at all levels – and we don’t just mean tricky test pieces and lack of players either.

Getting ‘Jo Public’ and supporters to part with hard earned cash to come and listen to brass bands, buy CDs or give money to help their running costs will become just as important as picking up a few grand for becoming British Open or even National Champions.

With less ‘preference choice income’ as economists call it, available, bands will have to become more realistic about what they can and cannot afford to do, prioritise contests, monitor running costs and look more closely about paying for short term deps.

Meanwhile, contest organisers will have to consider their approach too.

Getting people to pay out hard earned cash to come and listen to a brass band contest may well now have to include a more proactive and imaginative approach to their needs, and not those of just the judges and the competing bands. 

It will be interesting therefore to see whether any of them in the coming months do just that by means of comfort breaks, discounted bandsmen and family tickets or added attractions to supplement the main events. 

When people are forced to make a choice over value for money, the choice they reject is invariably rejected for good – they rarely return to something that they feel no longer appeals.

And no brass band or brass band contest can afford to lose anymore of them, can they now?   

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

In praise of Wilfred Heaton

For a composer so shamelessly treated at times by the banding movement for the vast majority of his compositional lifetime, it seems quite remarkable that Wilfred Heaton has become an almost iconic figure of reverence since his death.

This year sees the British Open and the National Finals pay musical homage to him through the works of Edward Gregson and Kenneth Downie, whilst in the last few years the appreciation of his musical output has found new found popularity, primarily through the long term championing of his eclectic output by the likes of true supporters such as Howard Snell and Paul Hindmarsh.

For the most part others have just jumped on the bandwagon.

Listening to many people who had the opportunity to promote his works years before ‘Contest Music’ finally made its startling impact at the 1982 National Finals is like listening to Labour MPs who now tell us that they knew all along that Gordon Brown would make Neville Chamberlain look like a brilliantly decisive Prime Minister. 

Their memories fail to recall the deplorable way in which the work was shelved in favour of ‘Freedom’ for the 1973 Nationals, and their subsequent lack of protest, even when the work ‘resurfaced’ in 1978 played at the European Championships. No. That was someone else’s fault.

Heaton was a truly unique compositional voice for brass, and someone whose appreciation as such is long overdue.

Just don’t be persuaded by the self proclaimed great and good that everyone knew it all along.       

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

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