Grimethorpe falls in the gap that we're all afraid to admit. It may be impossible ( don't know until its tried) but basically they're almost a professional band. Would be good to finally go the whole hog and make it official. There's no reason why it should be an absolute rule that a brass band has to be amateur. A band like grimethorpe is the face of banding to the public. Why not be a full professional band...
"Grimethorpe Colliery Band in danger of folding" ?
- Thread starter iancwilx
- Start date
Bob Sherunkle
Active Member
Just listened to this.
Bob's verdict........
Fairey 1
Grimethorpe ("the people's band") 0
Nigel Dixon -1
mikey.smithy
Member
Couldn't agree more Bob, what a shambolic event. Overall the Fairey guys and girls did very well - the playing was plenty good enough and they conducted themselves with grace. Grimethorpe however......
The big news today was supposed to be Kevin Crockford's return. How they can turn a 330k turnover brass band into a public appeal for poverty is beyond me.
mikey.smithy
Member
Point 1 - ours probably would.
Point 2 - nothing wrong with it, if you can afford it, sustain it, and more importantly have a plan B if you can't afford it anymore.
Point 2 - nothing wrong with it, if you can afford it, sustain it, and more importantly have a plan B if you can't afford it anymore.
Just wondered if every band refused to pay their conductor a dime would there be no conductors or would they conduct for nothing
Btw.....what is wrong with paying world class players ?
I'm afraid its the one size fits all mentality again. That's all. Completely agree with you.
mikey.smithy
Member
Sonorous... Girmethorpe are nothing like a professional band (other than performance standard). Grimethorpe turns over around 250 - 350k dependent upon which accounts you look at over recent years. That won't pay for 10 players let alone 28, excluding any costs to running the band entirely.
BigBlaster
New Member
Just having listened and watched on Web cam, that did us all no favours at all! We don't use spitoons and (hopefully ) play better pieces than clog dance these days when promoting ourselves! I kind of get the feeling that Faireys had to go along with it! I just wish the media these days would give us a proper chance to really show our full potential as a movement /hobby.
totally agreed. Sometimes we only have ourselves to blame though for not encouraging diversity and professionalism.
BigBlaster
New Member
Are you suggesting that Faireys should have chosen better pieces? There are plenty around I believe.
BigBlaster
New Member
Plus I believe most bands have some sort of uniform to wear wherever they represent themselves or the movement!
no, just that we're sometimes victims of our own obsession with 'amateur'
mikey.smithy
Member
Taking you at face value, they are not the very best. Neither have they been criticised for being next best.
mikey.smithy
Member
Yes, you are quite right. You have yourself to blame.
tubaloopy
Member
Hang on a minute....
We received a call from the producers at 3.30pm this afternoon asking if there was any way we could get a band together for tonight. No mention of why.
We made a few calls and managed to sort a 14/15 piece band out that had to be at media city for 9.00pm.
What were you expecting us to play? Odin? Benvenuto Cellini?
We knew that they had a pre recorded interview about the Grimey thing but had not heard it.
The whole thing was off the cuff and no pre planning was done.
30 minutes on National radio to an unsuspecting non brass band orientated audience and still the knives are out.......
mikey.smithy
Member
JD, the knives aren't out from proper folk.Fairey did a top job tonight and gained more publicity than Grimethorpe could have hoped for. I also know you guys did it for free, why wouldn't you, and I for one hope you get many bookings from it. Top job!
tubaloopy
Member
Thank you mikey. It was a good do actually, although everyone was kacking it when we realised he was going to talk to us!
Glad he didn't ask me about the fact Grimey need another 30-90k on top of their 300k concert income just to survive....
mikey.smithy
Member
Quite right JD, I mean, we can all accommodate expenses here and there - but 90k on retainers is a bit much when pleading poverty, even if you have just started a youth band sponsored by someone else.....
It was obviously a very last minute thing, but come on, you're Faireys not the Dunny-on-the-Wold 'B' Band. I thought Black Magic Woman was an excellent choice, but Clog Dance and Radetzky. Really?
I realise you're between a rock and a hard place, as the BBC will want you to play something 'accessible' and Vienna Nights hardly fits the bill, but I'm sure you must have something in your pads that doesn't reinforce the stereotype. Was Floral Dance to be the encore?
I don't want sound overly harsh, and the playing was more than good enough all things considered, but it did seem to lack a bit of imagination from the band that brought us Acid Brass. That said, you still came across way better than Grimey.