Book Review - Beyond the Box

David Read
A social history of brass bands over the last 60 years as seen through the eyes of one of the world's foremost adjudicators
Jagrins Publications
Price: £11.99

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It is the events in life that mould and shape us into the fully grown and complicated individuals we become: great, good, bad, funny, tragic – they all seep into the subconscious of our being and produce the telling and lasting features of our personalities.  They make us who we are.

David Read has experienced many events during his lifetime – many joyous, many funny, many as good as he could have wished for; but he has also experienced tragedy as well. It has made him into warm and generous man, thoughtful, intelligent and kind, passionate about his loves and forceful and eloquent about his beliefs. The brass band movement has been lucky to have him.

This book serves both him and the movement well. It is, as he suggests, not really an autobiography, more of a discourse into a life inextricably bound into the brass band world and its culture, from the time that he took up playing with the Askern Silver Prize Band (why aren't bands still called ‘Silver Prize' anymore?) to the time just a month or so ago he adjudicated for the National Finals at the Royal Albert Hall for the 10th time in a row.

Throughout, he has given back more than he has ever taken out – his working life seems to have had more regard to the well being of his young family than any ambitions he had as a top class cornet player, whilst his passion to better himself was never undertaken selfishly – his move into teaching stemmed of a desire to better the lot of his pupils rather than his bank balance at a time when education policy in respect to music provision was under great threat by the Tory Government.   

His early years were happy indeed, and like many young man who hailed from a working class mining background (he was born in Senghenydd in South Wales – the scene of one of the most tragic coal mining disasters in history) his entry into working life was down the mineshaft of the pit. Here he recalls his experiences of working with hard, honest men – men who knew the dangers of what they did yet enjoyed themselves in the process.

One of those enjoyments was of course the Colliery Band and David recounts his time as a player with a fond eye – but one that never loses focus on the fact that he was a very lucky man because of his talent on the cornet to get out of many of the horrible tasks that his friends and workmates who didn't play still had to endure. He was a player in an age when patronage from working bosses (be it at Nationalised industries or private firms) meant that a talented musician could make a living for himself away from the traditional confines of their social and economic standing in life – and he tells it as it was, with no romanticised rose tinted pair of spectacles to look through.    

His recollections of the greats of the banding movement at the time are clear and concise. Boddington, Mortimer, Atherton and especially Gilbert Vinter all made huge impressions on him and his experiences of them certainly moulded his thoughts towards the way in which he later taught and developed musical education in the Cambridgeshire area. His views on both education and especially the distrust of the "educated elite" who inhabit the world of the media and broadcasting are both trenchant and welcoming to the ear.

Many of those views may surprise many people, but reading the book and understanding about the events that shaped his life, they shouldn't at all. David Read has become our finest brass band adjudicator because he has used all those experiences, both personal and musical to give him a broad and liberal view of life and music making.

Just about every player on the banding world has at some time been adjudicated by him, and even though players and conductors may have disagreed at some time that he didn't put them into the winners enclosure at the contests he has been in the box, only the inherently stupid and crass would ever question his integrity and abilities to have made his decisions the way he has done so well over the years. There are very, very few occasions when he gets it wrong in the box, and it says something when the most cynical of all voters - the bands themselves – continue (when given the opportunity) to overwhelmingly vote for him to be in the box at the major contests. He has earned their respect and confidence, because he knows what he is talking about and knows what to look for in a brass band score, whilst he has also gained a reputation for rewarding those who have taken a risk or two in trying to produce the music rather than the sheer technique that modern top level test pieces now demand.

A few years ago, 4BR had the pleasure of sitting next to David Read at a Regionals venue for a lower section contest where he wasn't judging and was just enjoying the music played. We listened to all the bands and for an unofficial experiment we choose our top six prior to the results. David had looked closely at the score and knew what he was looking for, whilst we had also looked at the score and didn't. The result was that he got five out the top six right in the right order and we got just two and in the wrong places at that. It was a salutary lesson, but one that was given with a warm and wry smile on his face.

Enjoy this book for what it is – a fine account of a life that has given so much to the brass band movement. Long may he continue.

Iwan Fox

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