Black Dyke Band

150th Anniversary Concert
Soloist: James Morrison
Bridgewater Hall
Manchester
Friday 10th June

This really was a night to remember. The Bridgewater Hall was packed to the rafters (all 2100 seats were sold for only the third time in three years here), Black Dyke were on fine form giving a world premiere from Philip Wilby and a British premiere of their recent European winning piece, and to top it all, there was one James Morrison Esquire, who quite literally, brought the house down.

Black Dyke had taken the very welcome, and generous decision to couple their major 150th anniversary celebration concert with the ‘Raising Brass for Kirsty' Appeal, which hopes to raise £5.5 million to keep Francis House, the Manchester Children's Hospice running fully staffed and operational for the foreseeable future.

With that in mind, the occasion had a more personal resonance about it than just a top line brass band concert, and even though it was a night of celebration for Black Dyke, it was also a night of heartfelt generosity not only from the performers, but also members of the audience, whose purchase of the tickets, and later, items from the special auction raised thousands of pounds for the appeal.

The concert itself started off with William Roache, better known as the half pint drinking, multiple marrying former school teacher Ken Barlow on Coronation Street giving a neat and polished introduction to the evening's entertainment. With Ken out of the way quicker than he got rid of his first wife with a hairdryer and a hot running bath, Dyke sprung into life with a cracking account of ‘Queensbury' that featured some facile cornet playing from Roger Webster and a ‘both feet on the brakes' rallentando before the final section that allowed the MD to wind the pace up for the final bars as if driving a formula 1 racing car. 

It was a cracking start (which a few unlucky souls missed by coming late – but who were reminded of by compere John Maines, much to the delight of the rest of the hall), which set the tone for what was to follow.

With a celebratory concert such as this, it would have been very easy for Black Dyke to delve into the lollipop bag and allow the whole event to become immersed in sentimentality and saccharin coated memories from the good old days. Nicholas Childs though took the forward looking step of ensuring that the history of the famous band was not forgotten although it was never allowed to swamp what was first and foremost perhaps the highest profile brass band concert of the year.

The event itself was recorded in its entirety for World of Brass and will be released on DVD later this year, whilst there had been both television and radio coverage from national and local media as well as from specialist jazz and brass publications.

Having a great history is one thing – ensuring you have a great future is quite another, and this was a point that James Morrison himself touched upon when this reviewer was lucky enough to interview him for both 4BR and the British Bandsman.   

The hardy souls who did crib that the event should have been held in Bradford or anywhere in Yorkshire for that matter and griped somewhat about the programme that had been laid before them for the night, completely missed the point of the event: this was Black Dyke as our leading high profile concert band, showing that there is a appetite in the concert going public for high quality entertainment featuring a brass band.

Dyke will return to celebrate their birthday in Yorkshire again this year, whilst also providing their many fans around the country the chance to hear them at different venues; the Bridgewater concert was something completely different.

After the march came ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth' by Peter Graham, which on a second extended hearing became an even more impressive and detailed work than we first got the impression of in Groningen.

This is an accessible and atmospheric score, with the effects never swamping the intricate technical detail and the lovely flowing musical lines. The bubbling bass motif which returned time and again was enhanced by some excellent percussion work from the Dyke team and by the time it came to a thunderous end, it revealed itself as a work of real substance.  Just like the books of Jules Verne, this will become a popular and readily accessible work for the top class of banding in years to come.

The collective sound of jaws dropping to the floor occurred about half way through James Morrison's opening number, ‘Sweet Georgia Brown'.  The musical magician played with a fluidity of technique and brilliance of tone on the trombone that left the audience with the type of fixed grins of satisfaction that only mind blowing sex or coming back from 3 –0 down in a European Cup Final bring once in a lifetime.

He followed it up with a scorching ripper of the old James Bond theme, ‘Nobody does it better', (and nobody does – believe me) which burst the eardrums of anyone over the age of 80 with some high decibel high note wizardry on trumpet, after starting on trombone and left the audience as stunned as a cow hit with a cattle prod. We were hearing a genius at work – all be it, absolutely freakish, bonkers genius who looked like a small Welsh prop forward, with a round face, engaging smile, waspish humour and a lip made out of titanium armour plating.

To finish his first stint he let go with three note (yes, three note) multiphonics on the trombone on ‘Thing's ‘ain't what they used to be' before he swapped between instruments (one in each hand) and very nearly took the paint off the walls with his brilliance. It was simply mind numbingly awesome and he left the stage with the audience in a state of apoplectic shock.

Black Dyke finished the first half with ‘Northern Lights' a world premiere of Philip Wilby's very interesting set of Dance Variations that featured the musicians and soloists of the band, four dancers of the Ludus Dance Company, some subtle light work and even a recording of the Balck Dyke Band of 1938 playing ‘Deep Harmony'.

It proved to be an inspired choice, showcasing the talents of the bands solo players linked intricately to motifs and ideas taken from ‘Deep Harmomy' played out in what was a form of brass band ballet. The subtle use of lighting enhanced the differencing textures, with the silhouettes of the dancers against the side walls almost cipher like shadows of the memories the piece successfully evoked from the music.

The ghostly sound of the old Black Dyke band was almost chilling in its simplicity and beauty and rounded off a wonderful experiment that showed the audience that there are still huge fields of unexplored musical territory that brass bands have yet to conquer. 

After the interval (which was spent by most people catching their breath and explaining their amazement at Mr Morrison) the second half opened with a slightly untidy ‘Intrada – Ein Fest Berg' from the band before they produced their one written ‘lollipop' of the programme with ‘Cossack Fire Dance' from ‘Call of the Cossacks' which showcased the bands main soloists (including the excellent Anne Armstrong on the xylophone) but also featured some of the worse ‘in time' audience clapping of all time! The band did well to keep things on track as the audience accompaniment was at times two beats out by the end of the eight bar introductions!

That was just the aperitif though for James Morrison, who returned once more to produce three corkers on ‘What a wonderful World' on trumpet, before he nicked John French's euphonium for a sublimely bonkers bit of bebop euph playing on ‘The Flintstones'.  To round things off he returned to his signature tune, ‘The Old Rugged Cross' which was belted out in such red hot fashion that it left scorch marks on the stage.

Words fail you sometimes – and this was one such occasion, although a special mention must be made to his three man rhythm section that included Black Dyke's Lee Skipsey on drums who was quite outstanding – a real jazz performer with an innate sense of style and character. His contribution was every bit as good as the star man in the middle.  

The final part of the concert saw Black Dyke showcase Edward Gregson's ‘An Age of Kings' which was given a fine run through with additional help from the robust (but flat to start with Halifax Choral Society and the Honley Male Voice Choir) and a mezzo soprano dressed in a black dress the size Billy Smart's Circus big top and who had a vibrato that unfortunately smothered her Welsh enunciation. 

It rounded off dramatically a superb event – although the encore, ‘Lucerne Song' wasn't really needed at all.

It also showed why Black Dyke has been, and will continue to be our leading brass band perhaps for another 150 years. It was a night to remember all right. 

Iwan Fox.

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