Promenade - Music from a Royal Jubilee

Grimethorpe Colliery UK Coal Band
Conductor: Elgar Howarth
Also featuring: The Band of the Irish Guards, conducted by Major A R Chatburn
Doyen Recordings: CD 151
Total Playing Time: 70.01

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This is a fine reminder of a very peculiar British affair.

We say peculiar, not because of the playing (Grimethorpe and Elgar Howarth are on fine form) but because it confirms everything we know about that particular trait of "Britishness" that occasions such as the Golden Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II showed us.

The British you see are peculiarly brilliant at nostalgia, and anyone who took the time to either go to London or watch the spectacle on the television would agree, that when it comes to looking wistfully back to a time when a quarter of the globe was coloured dark pink, English cricket wasn't a laughing stock and when you could leave your front door open all day safe in the knowledge that your house wouldn't be burgled, the Brits do it better than anyone else.

This wasn't a celebration of who we are and what we have become in the fifty years of Good Queen Bess's reign, but a melancholy yearning for the supposed certainties of 1950's Britain. It was an event to remind us (although that certainly wasn't it's purpose) of how far Britain has fallen from importance in the real world and in a very peculiar way, it made you feel proud that we have actually done so.

This was a celebration of Empire, back to back houses, the first televisions and the 11 plus exam - when England beat Australia to win the Ashes, Gordon Richards won the Derby and rationing was still a way of life. It had nothing to do with the Britain of today - refugees, the cult of celebrity, rubbish train services and house price booms. It was a celebration of a time when Britain was "Great Britain" as Al Murray's pub landord points out. Life was so much simpler and you knew your position in the pecking order of life.

Still - as my old Gran used to say, it made for a good day out.

Take the music performed so splendidly on this CD. Elgar Howarth has used all his great skills to inject life, wit and more than a hint of modern thinking into many of the pieces - right from the cracking "Temple Bar Fanfare" (where the bands of Grimethorpe, BAYV Cory, Whitburn, Strabane and St. Helens Youth were situated on route) to the ubiquitous "Jerusalem". However, it is a selection of music that makes you think that the pieces were chosen by the type of Whitehall Mandarin's whose experience of mixing with real life is confined to the 6.35 am train from Chipping Sodbury.

Elgar (Edward that is) is well represented what with his Pomp and Circumstance's One and Four and his "Salut D'Amour", whilst the perennial favourites of that very English institution that is "The Last Night of the Proms" are featured with Parry's "Jerusalem" (strange, as he was a Welshman), Holst's "Jupiter" from the "Planets", Sullivan's "Pineapple Poll" and the usual stiff upper lip stuff of "Famous British Marches" and "Famous British Airs". See what I mean.

Only a Civil Servant with a double barrelled surname, a father who did service in India and who was educated in a public school could really have thought that the youth of Britain could musically be represented with "Boys and Girls Come Out to Play", or that the Welsh sing "Men of Harlech" at the drop of a rugby ball, or that the poor Irish get around a few pints of Guinness and sing "The Londonderry Air" every whip stitch. As for the Scots and "Bonnets of Dundee", we shall have to wait for our trip to the Lower Section National Finals to find out if that is top of the hit parade north of the border.

I asked my Dad if he could remember at any time if the Welsh actually sung "Men of Harlech" without being members of a Male Voice Choir or being a soldier of the 24th Battalion at Rourke's Drift under Michael Caine. The reply was in the negative, as would I suspect the reply of any "real life" Irishman or Scotsman. Surely no one really thinks the English themselves warble "The Bells of London" - even in deepest East Enders territory.

Still, that's another matter altogether.

The music is therefore great to listen to if you don't want to make the connection with the reason it was put together. Grimethorpe are on excellent form and Elgar Howarth directs them splendidly. The pieces are easy on the ear and as I have said, the arrangements are top notch with a freshness and wit that make them more than palatable. There is also a timely reminder that bands will find "Jupiter" from "The Planets" a harder test than they may think and Grimey deliver it with real panache, clarity and control. Those who go for speed and volume will surely (and hopefully) come a cropper.

There is also a super performance of "Pineapple Poll" with a lovely "Jasper's Dance" and quick step "Finale" and some beautiful understated arrangements (and playing) in the form of "Greensleeves" and "Londonderry Air". The Irish Guards perform with aplomb and there is even an outing for the National Anthem (when was the last time that was included on a CD release?) and which thankfully doesn't mean you have to stand to attention in your front room or car.

All in all then 70 minutes of good old British music delivered by a good old British brass band. It's shamefully nostalgic and perhaps that isn't a bad thing is it? One final thought though. My Gran once told me that the reason why you could leave your front door open all day and not get robbed blind all those years ago was that in the vast majority of houses there wasn't anything in them worth nicking. No televisions, computers, stereos, or even a fridge freezer full of food from all over the world. My Gran didn't even see a banana until 1956. Sometimes it may be better to celebrate how well off we are now. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

Iwan Fox

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