Featuring: Cory Band; Grimethorpe Colliery; Brighouse & Rastrick; Ransome, Hoffman & Pollard; Carlton Main Frickey Colliery; City of Coventry
Conductors: Major Arthur Kenney; George Thompson; Walter Hargeaves; Dennis Masters; Robert Oughton
Granada Television: Stereo GTVSP 101

With the Brass in Concert Championships recently announcing proposals to amend their judging system to reward “musical excellence, communication, creativity and presentation”, this LP release from the first Granada Band of the Year contest in 1971, gives an intriguing indicator of just how far we have, or have not come in entertainment contesting in the past half a century and more.

New system

Created by Bram Gay and television producer Arthur Taylor with the intention of bands showing that they were “capable of offering to the public through the medium of television a valuable and entertaining musical experience”, the Granada contest also instigated a new marking system.

It saw Alex Mortimer and Eric Bravington (enclosed in the ‘brass band’ box) “dispose of”  100 points for ‘technical excellence’, with the duo of John Lanchberry and Harold Nash (the ‘orchestral’ box) with 100 points for ‘musicianship displayed and the aptitude of the music for its purpose’.

Arthur Taylor, whose task he later said, was to “keep my eyes and ears open and to try and think how I would react as a television viewer”,  had 25 points for ‘visual effect’ and 25 for ‘variety of interest of the music’ at his disposal. 

Success

The first event, won by Cory, who took home £500 and an Olds Super Cornet, was a success (although 14 bands were invited and only 8 eventually took part),  with Bram Gay stating on his LP sleeve notes that, “the audience hardly stirred from their seats – a turnaround from the routine situation at contests, where the bars are busy and seats frequently empty. The day passed quickly and even the adjudicators seem to have enjoyed it...”

Bram Gay stating on his LP sleeve notes that, “the audience hardly stirred from their seats – a turnaround from the routine situation at contests, where the bars are busy and seats frequently empty. The day passed quickly and even the adjudicators seem to have enjoyed it...”

Images in the centrefold of the double LP certainly show the famous King’s Hall at Belle Vue to be full, (as is The Glasshouse International Centre for Music in Gateshead it must be said), although how many MDs would now conduct in orchestral tails, as the great Major Kenney did, complete with white carnation in his left lapel.  

Thankfully, the increasing use of the contents of the fancy dress box were still a few years away, although the music had a touch of the music hall about it is style and presentation.

Best characteristics

Even the “best characteristic”  of the winners was described rather acerbically by Bram Gay as “enthusiasm”.   That said, their rendition of ‘Men of Harlech’ to close was taken at a breakneck speed modern bands would find hard to top.

And arguably, that remains the same today, as both the organisers and the bands themselves try to respond to or even anticipate changes in musical taste, popularity and substance – some more enthusiastically than others.

Perhaps he was right (as can be heard), as in these prototype days no-one quite knew what the formula for success would turn out to be. 

And arguably, that remains the same today, as both the organisers and the bands themselves try to respond to, or even anticipate changes in musical taste, popularity and substance – some more enthusiastically than others.

In that case, looking back may not be a bad thing either.

Iwan Fox 

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Tracks:

Side 1:
Brighouse & Rastrick 

1. Can-Can from Orpheus in the Underworld (Offenbach)
2. Limelight (Chaplin)
3. The Tops (Powell)
4. Nimrod from Enigma Variations (Elgar)
5. Finale from Symphony of Marches (Vinter)

Side 2:
Carlton Main Frickley Colliery

1. Finale from Overture to William Tell (Rossini)
2. Two movements from Rhapsody in Brass (Goffin)
3. Solemn Melody (Davies)
4. Border Bridge from Three Impressions (Butterworth)

Side 3:
Grimethorpe Colliery

1. The Headless Horseman (Goodwin)
2. Cornet Carillon (Binge)
3. El Pico (Ramirez)
4. Seventy Six Trombones (Wilson)

Ransome Hoffman & Pollard 

5. Radetzky March (Strauss)
6. Summer Night (Carter)
7. That’s a Plenty (Pollack)

Side 4:
City of Coventry

1. Londonderry Air (Trad)
2. Victorian Rhapsody (Jacob)
3. Moon River (Mancini)

Cory Band

4. Relaxation from Salute to Youth (Vinter)
5. Polly Wolly Doodling (Bryce)
6. March from Men of Harlech from the Welsh Rhapsody (German)