Posted by Andy C, Many Words! on July 17, 2002 at 10:09:39:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The Brass Band posted by Anthony on July 17, 2002 at 02:23:37:
This is long!!
The contest thing is slightly different in every country, but the UK system is roughly as follows:
Nationally :- 5 sections (Championship, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th), plus a Youth Section.
These sections are graded as leagues every year from the results at the "Area" contests (Feb-April), which are also the qualifiers for the National Finals for each section (Sept-October). Bands can go up and down sections over the results for the last 3 years.
Locally :- 4 sections usually (Champ+1st combined, 2nd, 3rd 4th) + sometimes youth, graded over the year from results at the local contests in your area. A band can enter as many as they want, or none (but risk the chance of dropping a section!). Therefore a band can change section locally, but not nationally and vice versa! At the moment there are some bands who are 2nd section nationally, but Championship locally! Can be very interesting ;-)
The major contests for the top bands (Black Dyke, Faireys, Fodens, Grimethorpe etc.) are their local Area contest, to hopefully qualify for the Nationals, then Cambridge (All England Masters), The European (If Qualified by winning Nationals), the British Open and then Spennymoor (Brass in Concert) entertainment contest. The top flight won't do any more thanm this in a year.
Local bands will enter their Area Contest (in the hope of qualifying for the national finals) and then several other local contests (between 2-6 a year).
Hardly anyone gets paid in the UK scene, even at the very top flight. Some will get expenses that cover their petrol etc, and a few get a bit of spending money, but we are talking perhaps the top 8-10 bands here, not the other 400! There is still no professional brass band in the UK, and probably never will be in the current climate. Some of the top bands are sponsored (UK Coal Grimethorpe, Sellars International, Faireys etc.) but most aren't anymore. Even bands such as Fodens and Black Dyke aren't sponsored these days, so money is tight!
The standard of musicianship in the good bands is as good, if not better, than in many of the pro orchestras here, yet it is all amateur and generally unpaid.
Many local communities have a couple of brass bands. I live in Preston, Lancashire, and within a 10 mile radius there are probably 15 brass bands, from 4th to championship section. All with 3 or 4 tuba players! We only use BBb and EEb Tubas, almost exclusively 3+1 valves, and usually Besson, Boosey and Hawkes, Courtois or Yamaha. I've never seen a Wilson, Miraphone, B+S etc in my 20 years of banding! The sound of a good Bass section in a brass band is unmatched by any other tuba section I have heard, wether in concert or wind band etc. BBb players usually never play EEb and vice versa over here, which seems to confuse a lot of non UK players! And you'll very rarely see an F or CC. This is why many orchestras use EEb over here!
Most bands will also do a concert every 2- 3 weeks (the top bands do 1-2 a week!), so the playing standard is kept high, and contests only help further this standard.
Sorry if this is too long, but if anyone wants any more info, mail me!
Andy Cattanach, UK