£1m for a brass band

[Mode For....]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254802/Real-life-Brassed-Off-Dinnington-Colliery-band-saved-1m-recording-contract.html

Interesting reading. Well done to the band on grabbing a life changing opportunity. With a week where bands have appeared in The Times, Daily Mail and SKY TV and next week the BBC will be good to utilise this as an opporunity to move brass bands forward.

[still learnin]

There was also a recent item on the South East news re Betteshanger Colliery Band in Kent. All positive stuff!

Where's Paddy Flower? What odds would you give against someone finding something negative to say, on this thread, either about Dinnington Colliery Band or the article?

[carbon selector]

From the article:

Despite the Dinnington revival the tradition is dwindling – 35 years ago there were 35,000 registered brass bands playing in the UK, today there are only 700.

Compare that with the recent Times Article, which seems more accurate:

though they struggle on, the bands are disappearing, too. From about 20,000 brass bands at the turn of the 19th century, numbers are down to an estimated 1,000 bands. Anecdotally, bandsmen will tell you of ten bands a year folding. Banding’s grassroots are dying.

[MoominDave]

Originally Posted by The Daily Heil

The band's revival is being hailed as a 'real life Brassed Off'

Funny, I thought that that was Grimethorpe...

[KMJ Recordings]

Originally Posted by still learnin

...someone finding something negative to say, on this thread, either about Dinnington Colliery Band or the article?

Sounds like a challenge

At this point should I clarify that this doesn't mean that the Band have been given £1m?

Hope whatever happens goes well for them!

[Valvespring]

I ask this question - Why is this "Band for Britain" needing to recruit so many players when there are several bands in the locallity doing very thank you well with all the ex players which this band couldn't retain ( I wonder why?),and who wouldn't go back under any circumstances, despite various attempt at coercion by the production company?
Not particularly negative just interesting.

[towse1972]

And the winner is.......

[Esscee]

I play for Maltby, who are a local rival to Dinnington. But if this raises the profile of the brass band movement as a whole, I'm all for it.

[nook1938]

Originally Posted by Valvespring

I ask this question - Why is this "Band for Britain" needing to recruit so many players when there are several bands in the locallity doing very thank you well with all the ex players which this band couldn't retain ( I wonder why?),and who wouldn't go back under any circumstances, despite various attempt at coercion by the production company?
Not particularly negative just interesting.

I for one, do not need to wonder!

[ploughboy]

Originally Posted by Mode For....

Interesting reading. Well done to the band on grabbing a life changing opportunity. With a week where bands have appeared in The Times, Daily Mail and SKY TV and next week the BBC will be good to utilise this as an opporunity to move brass bands forward.

I'm sorry but I watched the Amazon trailer for this CD yesterday! Move forward? we'll be lucky if this doesn't set us back another 30 years or so!

The Track listing! Jerlusalem, Floral Dance, Largo (or the Hovis theme for the young un's!) and so it goes on! A splash of the modern, Prirates of the Carribean & Born Free, although Born Free's only modern if you queue up every Wednesday at the post office!

The Advert - Brass Band featured walked up a cobbled hill, surrounded by stone cottages!

It's not Modern, it's not moving us forward. I really hope the TV series is better thought out than the first CD realise if not we're destined for another 20 years of people assuming all we can do is play hymns and marches. . .

[still learnin]

10 posts and only 3 vitriolic or negative so far but....... it'll gather pace!! Well done Esscee, no malice, jealousy or put downs, just a thumbs up. Could this be the way forward? No, I didn't think so.

Perhaps we need a new thread to harness the combined creative forces of contributors to tMP. Questions to be answered -

• What message should the ideal article, features or documentary on brass bands convey?
• What should the musical content be (if on radio, TV or other media)?
• What should the featured band wear for performances (and walking out!!!)?
• What would make it most attractive to non banders?
• What compromises should be made (against the ideal) to make it commercially viable for the producer or to stimulate attention from the public?

Your time starts now......

[Mark Bowater]

Originally Posted by Mode For....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254802/Real-life-Brassed-Off-Dinnington-Colliery-band-saved-1m-recording-contract.html

Interesting reading. Well done to the band on grabbing a life changing opportunity. With a week where bands have appeared in The Times, Daily Mail and SKY TV and next week the BBC will be good to utilise this as an opporunity to move brass bands forward.

Great to be part of a "Band for Britain" with Dinnington in mass bands at Sheffield City Hall, great set of people....

On the Brass Bands in the media point, Grimethorpe will be appearing again on the Alan Titchmarsh show, Wednesday 10th March....

[Jethro]

Originally Posted by Valvespring

I ask this question - Why is this "Band for Britain" needing to recruit so many players when there are several bands in the locallity doing very thank you well with all the ex players which this band couldn't retain ( I wonder why?),and who wouldn't go back under any circumstances, despite various attempt at coercion by the production company?
Not particularly negative just interesting.

I think you answered this in your own question, (we needed to recruit because we didnt have players) Derrrr!!!

[Jethro]

Originally Posted by Mark Bowater

Great to be part of a "Band for Britain" with Dinnington in mass bands at Sheffield City Hall, great set of people....

On the Brass Bands in the media point, Grimethorpe will be appearing again on the Alan Titchmarsh show, Wednesday 10th March....

Thanks for that Mark and it was a honour and a pleasure to have played with Grimey.
Hope to see ya Sunday for a slurp (providing we can get through the daggers etc,,lol)

[The Wherryman]

Originally Posted by still learnin

10 posts and only 3 vitriolic or negative so far but....... it'll gather pace!! Well done Esscee, no malice, jealousy or put downs, just a thumbs up. Could this be the way forward? No, I didn't think so.

Perhaps we need a new thread to harness the combined creative forces of contributors to tMP. Questions to be answered -

• What message should the ideal article, features or documentary on brass bands convey?
• What should the musical content be (if on radio, TV or other media)?
• What should the featured band wear for performances (and walking out!!!)?
• What would make it most attractive to non banders?
• What compromises should be made (against the ideal) to make it commercially viable for the producer or to stimulate attention from the public?

Your time starts now......

You appear to have forgotten one

• What agenda do you wish to promulgate (or axe to grind, if you prefer)

You have made no particular comment on the original post, other than to try to stir up some sort of controversy. Are you forgetting that this is a discussion forum and people will have differing views about any topic you care to mention?

Before the initial posting about the Dinnington project was made on tMP some time ago, I had never heard of them. Clearly, other tMP members know the band better, and some, apparently, wish they didn't. More information on that point might be interesting for those who enjoy watching dirty linen being washed in public, but I'm not much bothered.

What has happened at Dinnington isn't particulary revolutionary. Go back to the '60s and you'll see The Monkees started out as a 'cobbled together' group and had some measure of success, before fading into obscurity.

This is all very reality TV, a la Big Brother, X-Factor etc and good luck to Dinnington if it puts them on a solid footing for their future. I said 'their future' very deliberately, because I can't see it having much effect on brass bands as a whole.

But then, perhaps I am just too parochial in my outlook. I don't have a mission to make brass bands headline news week after week. For me, banding is a fun, sociable hobby and I thoroughly enjoy making other people happy when they come to listen to our music. My efforts are aimed at trying to ensure that my band has sufficient players and funds to continue year after year.

I hope, when all the hype has died down and the production team that has created it in it's present format moves on to it's next project, that Dinnington is left with something it can call a band. Unless the management committee put right whatever it was that caused it's virtual demise in the first place, I think perhaps not. Time will tell.