- Outline for a BFBB Strategic Plan - presents a number of ideas to go forward towards a 3 year Development Plan the BFBB is being recommended by its National Officer to publish and adopt. At the present time the National Officer is busy exploring the feasibility of the items in this plan.
The National Officer of the BFBB is Nigel Morgan. He is a professional composer, former 'composer in the community' and music animateur for the Eastern Arts Association, and now attached to Liverpool University's Institute of Popular Music as a research fellow investigating the influence of music on the lives of young children. He is currently working for the BFBB on a part-time basis (about one day a week) concentrating mostly on development issues. Although very keen to hear from anyone in the band world there are obviously restrictions on the amount of help and advice, particularly on matters of fundraising and sponsorship, he is able to give at the present time. However, he is hoping that as more and more brass band people get on the Internet it will be possible to use this as a means of networking throughout the whole movement . . and he's currently developing a database to enable this to happen. In a forthcoming article for Brass Band World Nigel writes:
I'd like the BFBB to find out exactly what it should be doing for its Association bands and their individual members and look for the best way of serving the immediate needs of all sections of the brass band movement. And by sections I mean from the top Championship corporate-sponsored band contesting and performing nationally to the village or small community band that may not even be registered to contest or indeed belong to the Federation.
A lot of what I reckon comes under immediate needs is information and advice; on a whole range of issues from sponsorship to legal matters, Lottery applications to professional fees and contracts for music directors. We have the experience, the models, the good practice, the sources of information . . but scattered about and unco-ordinated. We need to set up or plug into a proper information directory and network.
. . . perhaps we can start to make this happen.
Somewhere near you . . .
. . you can be pretty sure to find a brass band. Practising two or three nights a week, giving occasional concerts and 'spots' at local events, taking part in regional and even national contests with other bands, involving teenagers and pensioners, fitters and financial analysts, all sharing the same enthusiasm and commitment to make music . . .
Although brass bands have a national presence they have lacked a national organisation properly able to represent their many and varied interests to those holding the public purse strings; Local Authorities, Regional Arts Associations, the Arts Councils of Great Britain and Central Government Agencies.
The mechanism of contesting has become integral to understanding what the Brass Band Movement is about. Bands belong to sections that represent their playing ability and ambitions, and just like a football team must 'qualify' to move through the sections. Also, as in amateur football or athletics, players must register to contest.
For some years the international music publishers Boosey & Hawkes plc have owned and run a national registry for contesting bands generating income that supports the Boosey & Hawkes National Brass Band Championships held annually at the Royal Albert Hall and Wembley Conference Centres. A National Contesting Council representing all the regional areas of the UK now manages this event for Boosey & Hawkes.
*To discover more about the Brass Band Movement take a closer look at four of its key elements: Championship Bands, Community Bands, Education and Training, and the BFBB *
Companies who sponsor bands have long recognized the value such investment can bring to their corporate image, reflecting a commitment to the community that surrounds the work-place. However, members of these bands are no longer solely made up of company employees. Greater mobility has enabled bands to recruit more widely to find the best and most appropriate players they can.
Increasingly, young professional brass players are attracted towards involvement in these bands; bands who are able to offer a rich and challenging programme of playing opportunities plus a 'chair' fee and generous expenses.
Many conductors of Championship bands are also top-flight professional musicians receiving professional fees. An effective conductor not only wins contests but attracts the best players! And, many bands are able to make use of a sponsor's corporate management and administrative expertise: to engage in concert promotion, recording and media work.
Despite this professional input the ethos of the Championship band does, at the present, remain strictly amateur. Even though some of the top bands have busy concert and recording schedules, players simply receive expenses. Like most top amateur sportsmen and women, brass band players do have day jobs , usually with sympathetic employers able to accommodate time off for an individual's touring and recording activities.
At a musical level a Championship band's artistry will rival standards set by many a professional chamber orchestra. And in the future some bands may indeed take steps towards operating in a similar way. If this happens it will be important for the Federation to act positively and decisively, and be in a position to advocate the kind of grant-support currently available to professional ensembles.
Some 500 bands will be registered for contesting as First, Second, Third or Fourth Section bands. As with the Championship bands, many of these 500 do represent a corporate name or association and benefit from sponsorship. Many employ professional music directors;
Community bands are largely self-financing, operating solely on the enthusiasm and good offices of individual members, many of whom give time and money to management, promotion, fundraising, training and day-to-day organisation;
Currently few organisations concerned with the Brass Band Movement are represented on any of the national bodies concerned with amateur arts. Thus, apart from a few isolated instances, little central or local government funding ever finds its way to community bands;
No amateur music making activity has such a wide range of repertoire - from popular music of marches, folk tunes and hymns to arrangements of the classics, and most significantly contemporary music regularly commissioned for contesting;
Unlike wind bands or amateur orchestras, brass bands tend to own their own instruments allowing young players access to the activity without the cost of providing an instrument: a BBb bass can cost in the region of 5000 pounds! And to equip a full percussion section . . .
Brass bands have traditionally provided informal teaching for their younger members but benefited enormously from the development in the last 30 years of free instrumental teaching in schools. Now, as the instrumental teaching services nationally are being reorganised, requiring schools and parents to assist in covering the tuition costs, the need for bands to be providers of tuition has once again arisen. To retain high standards new initiatives urgently need developing including certification for 'training the trainers'.
There is an active youth band presence in the UK, with its own National Championships and a National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain. But, there is currently no national body co-ordinating its development. The youth band movement needs a network and national support for developing new teaching and learning initiatives to secure the players for tomorrow.
It is currently involved in:
The BFBB want to be the national organisation able to 'represent all sections of the Brass Band Movement'; this means speaking up for the interests of their members, to other members and to those outside the Federation.
The cornerstone of brass banding is playing for enjoyment with like-minded people. It is about doing something well, from learning the music to putting it to the test in performance. And to keep that experience happening over and over there is so much organisation involved. Some of this is in the hands of players themselves, much of it belongs to a whole community of supporters. This is the essence of these interests; all those things that enable us to do what we enjoy but with security - so we can keep on doing it - and a sense of direction - to progress rather than stagnate.
Every organisation carries certain and special responsibilities. In amateur Sport and the Arts there is now a will to act responsibly through development programmes. For example, to offer confident, and if possible accredited, training programmes both to the experienced and to the beginner.
Above all, it is important to maintain a healthy balance between what goes on now and what will go on in the future. The BFBB carries a very special responsibility to see that maintenance and progression go hand in hand and to communicate effectively with those holding the public and private purse strings.
Bands need clear information and advice; on a whole range of matters from sponsorship to legal matters, Lottery applications to the issue of professional fees and contracts for music directors. We have the experience to deal with these matters . . . but it is scattered and uncoordinated. We need to set up or plug into a proper information directory and network.
In doing so the BFBB must be concerned about the professional development of those graduating from many brass band centred courses in higher education. There must be clear career opportunities and a structure for these skilled and committed people to key into. As its contribution to this process the BFBB is looking to develop a pilot scheme with Local Authorities to provide for Brass Band Development Workers.
We must tackle the demise of Local Authority instrumental music services which is putting many bands back into the position of being training providers for their players. Discussions have already begun with the Open College of the Arts about the feasibility of a 'Brass Band Trainers' course carrying accreditation from the Open College network and Thames Valley University.
The BFBB should seek a means of association for youth bands and band workshops, and develop a network of support to share good ideas and good practice. The BFBB could be the channel for devising, targeting and then funding a wide range of educational programmes and projects.
The Federation support the idea of the BBHT and could be actively involved with the feasibility and development stage of the BBHT. It could provide the BFBB with a location for its National Office and getting education and training projects going under the BBHT's charitable status.
This has been made possible by the initiative of Dean Clough's owner and developer, Sir Ernest Hall, who has since 1982 been turning this magnificent complex of nineteenth century mills, originally one of the world's largest carpet factories, into a unique centre for business, arts design and education. Well known as a dedicated musician, both a composer and pianist, Sir Ernest is particularly active in national arts policy and affairs. He has been the chair of the UK's largest regional arts board, Yorkshire & Humberside Arts, since its foundation in 1991, and a member of the Arts Council since 1991. He is a currently an adviser to the Minister of State at the Department of National Heritage on new directions for National Lottery funding, something of particular importance to Brass Bands nationally who have been one of the major benefactors of Lottery awards to date.
Announcing the National Brass Band Centre project on BBC National Radio last Tuesday Sir Ernest said: I have a tremendous interest in brass bands. . . I've always thought of the brass band as a marvellous way into music. What I set out to do with Dean Clough was to build a practical utopia . . . How could utopia be complete without the brass band! The Lottery is empowering tremendous numbers of brass bands by replacing their instruments, but what I am concerned about as a member of the Arts Council is how we manage to find a way of raising aspirations and improving quality. I think this whole Renaissance that is taking place in brass bands must lead to a tremendous increasing awarness of what we can achieve by raising the sights of bands up and down the country.
The sudden prominence of brass bands in the media by the National Lottery awards is one of main reasons behind the National Brass Band Centre initiative. Bands all over the country are re-equipping themselves with new instruments and rehearsal facilities. But, there is no national organisation yet able to coordinate professionally the artistic, educational and administrative development brass band music making urgently needs to fulfil its Lottery awards requirements and opportunities.
In the past few months two national organisations committed to the development of brass bands have collaborated to set up a National Centre:
The British Federation of Brass Bands is already the national voice of what is often termed the Brass Band Movement representing over 900 bands through a network of regional associations. It now manages the British Brass Band Registry, an essential part of the contest phenomenon in which bands compete against one another for the best performances of 'test' pieces, often newly commissioned music. Under its president Major Peter Parkes the Federation are currently working hard to get Arts Council recognition and funding, nationally and regionally, to enable it to carry out a 3 year National Development Plan. This Plan it is hoped will put aside the traditional cloth cap and beer image of brass band music making and establish it as one of the nation's jewels of amateur enterprise in the Arts.
The Brass Band Heritage Trust is by contrast a new charity established to advance the interests of youth brass bands and the brass band movement as a whole. It aims to set up a National Information Centre and Archive, run an education programme and be a network centre for the many hundreds of youth bands throughout the UK. Its president is international conductor Andrew Davis and its trustees include many of brass band music's most committed supporters from the mainstream world of classical music; conductor Elgar Howarth, the new Principal of the Royal Northern College of Music Professor Edward Gregson and Head of BBC Music in Manchester, Trevor Green.
Dean Clough's unique mix of business and the arts could not be a more appropriate place for a National Brass Band Centre. Halifax is close to where the Brass Band Movement has its historical roots, and some of the world's finest bands are based in and around this area of West Yorkshire. More significant perhaps is the connection with commerce and industry. Commercial sponsorship, so important now to the Arts, began in brass band music making and continues to be its life blood at the highest level. Bands still take the name of their sponsors, although the traditional associations with heavy industry and coal mining are changing. Earlier this month the European Championships held in Norway were won by the Yorkshire Building Society Band.
NB. This page was first posted in 1996 and reflects the situation then. For the current situation, check out the federations own website.
This page was last updated in June 1998.
Return to the Freckleton Band Home
Page.