The news that former Labour Party leader Michael Foot has died at the age of 96, has brought a host of heart felt tributes, although amid the eulogies from the likes of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown it should not be forgotten that he was a great lover and supporter of brass bands.

Musical welcome

Visitors to his home Hampstead were invariably met with music – and brass band music at that.

Just a couple of years ago, he wrote to Black Dyke MD Dr Nicholas Childs to politely ask if he could purchase some CDs of the band after being given their ‘Elgar’ recording as a present from an admirer.

Fan

The letter also revealed that the former MP for Ebbw Vale had been a fan of the Welshman ever since he saw him in action at one of his first rehearsals with Tredegar Band in the mid 1990s.

The former leader of the Labour Party was later delighted to find a package sent back to him with a whole host of Dyke recordings, whilst Nick Childs was amazed that he had acquired such an admirer.

...he wrote to Black Dyke MD Dr Nicholas Childs to politely ask if he could purchase some CDs of the band after being given their ‘Elgar’ recording as a present from an admirer4BR

Principles

The Black Dyke MD told 4BR: "Michael Foot was a man of stature and heart felt principles. When my father moved from South Wales I remember a letter that he sent wishing him continued success even though he leaving Tredegar.

"Then on one of my first rehearsals with them some years later I was amazed to see him sat listening and smiling as I nervously made my way through a test piece, and even more surprised when he came and supported Tredegar and sat and listened to all the bands at the European Championships in London in 1997."

Thanks

Nick added: "More recently he wrote to ask if he could buy some Black Dyke CDs and it was an honour to send them as a gift from the band back to him. He wrote back to thank and compliment us on the quality of the music that he said was now played to welcome visitors to his home."

Supporter

4BR Editor Iwan Fox remembers his support well. "When Tredegar Junior Band won the Butlins Youth Championshps of Great Britain in 1974 he came and welcomed us back home. From that date he was an avid supporter and was always keen to listen to the band.

"He spent a whole day engrossed in the European competition at the Barbican and later helped to commission a major choral and brass work from Welsh composer Meryn Burtch called ‘Revolt in the Valleys’ which retold the story, with him as the narrator, of the Chartists in Wales."