The Sound of Solidarity: Why Brass Bands Must Play On

How the Value of Brass Bands Extends Beyond Music

The scene in Brassed Off where the band gathers outside of the hospital, donned in their miner’s headtorches, to perform Danny Boy is one of the most memorable scenes from the iconic film. It’s a moving moment for all, whether you’re a brass bander or not. However, speaking as a brass bander, the reason I end up sobbing uncontrollably is because it is a microcosm of what brass banding truly is. 

The band’s performance isn’t just a mark of respect for their fallen leader. It’s an act of love, not just for Danny, but for Danny’s son Phil, who is the band’s trombone player. They come together, instruments in hand in a show of musical solidarity for each other, Danny and Phil. In a time where they are in the midst of despair, they stand and face it together. Away from the music, the contest results and the uniforms, it is this community spirit, mutual support and steadfast camaraderie that is the true life blood of brass bands. 

Similar to the time Brassed Off is set, we are living in a world of economic strain, political turbulence and worrying headlines. Yet, beyond the eyes of the wider public, the brass band world still offers a place where its musicians can find support, friendship and compassion. As a bander of over 20 years, I wanted to showcase just why brass banding is so vitally important in my life and why I’m determined to ensure they survive to support generations to come. 

A light in the dark

 

If you’ve been a follower of the blog for a while, you will know that I’ve had my struggles with mental health over the years. Throughout those years, one thing has been a constant. Brass bands. Even in my early 20s and struggling with depression that was so severe I had to take a step back from full time banding for a little while, the brass band world never left my side. The close friends I had made through brass bands constantly checked in on me, got me out of the house and eventually supported me back into performing again. In a time where I genuinely couldn’t see a way out, the wonderful people that make up the brass banding world put on their ‘Brassed Off’ headtorches and, step-by-step, led me out into the light. 

Musical Antidote to Loneliness

It’s well-publicised that the world is facing, what the World Health Organisation has called, a ‘loneliness epidemic’. Despite social media and modern technology making us the most connected generation, we are the most lonely. Loneliness isn’t simply a feeling. It poses severe risks to mental and physical health with effects being comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes today. 

A colleague I used to work with once said to me that she was jealous of my banding because I had something in my life that gave me purpose, which meant my entire life wasn’t tied to work and a regular chance to socialise with friends. I think after over 20 years you can start taking those things for granted until someone outside of banding hits the nail on the head like that. Thanks to banding, there has never been a moment where I have felt lonely. 

The camaraderie and support you receive when you’re a bander isn’t contained to the walls of the bandroom. Even in the depths of a depression that made me want to push people away, the people I met in banding were not for being pushed! I know that if something happens and I need someone to turn to, I could pick up the phone and ring someone in my band and they would pick up. Help, a laugh, advice is literally the touch of a button away and when I step into the bandroom, I step into the fold of a musical family that is genuinely there for me. 

It’s why banding should get more credit and support than it does. If more people knew how much more there is to being a bander beyond simply playing an instrument, we might be able to offer an antidote to the loneliness epidemic.

In times of celebration and condolence

When my banding husband and I got married last year, I remember looking out from the ivory tower that is the top table across the room and realised just how much of our guestlist was made up of people we'd met through banding. I walked down the aisle to a band of our friends performing. Pretty much every speech given at the wedding featured brass banding in some capacity. The dance floor was filled with banders singing their part to the Floral Dance - much to the confusion of the DJ and our non-banding guests. When you see a room that’s filled with banders, you realise truly how much this hobby has touched your life.

On the less joyous flip side, you’ll be hard pushed to find a funeral that is filled with as much passion as a bander’s funeral. When I’ve attended the celebration of life for banding friends who have passed along the way. you see how much of an impact being a bander has. From sitting in a band giving one final performance for our friend to the sharing of banding escapades where they feature as the main character - banding stays with you from your first note to your last and even beyond. With banding, your name lives on the lips and in the hearts of those who you played alongside. 

Why Banding Needs to Survive

There’s a famous line in Brassed Off where Danny says, in the midst of the band’s pit being closed, that when faced with World War, The Great Depression and strikes, ‘the band played on every flaming time.’  Today, bands face funding cuts, governmental ignorance, economic strife and a world that seems to have moved on from us - yet we play on. And play on we must. In a time where we couldn’t perform due to Covid, we moved our movement online and still came back despite the hardship the pandemic placed on us. Our resilience is something to behold and something that should be further strengthened to push through whatever the modern world throws at us next. 

As a bander, Brassed Off, isn’t just a film about a brass band or the socio-economic pressures placed upon the country by the dissolution of the mining industry. It’s about the resilience of the banding spirit. This is more than trophies, league tables, debates on whether we need to cut the amount of bands at a contest to ‘retain quality’ or what constitutes a qualified adjudicator. Banding needs to be retained. 

Nobody is coming to save us. There is no white knight holding a bag of money or government support. It’s up to us. We need to remember what banding truly is and find ways to protect it. Through driving change. Through banging on the door of those with influence, demonstrating the value we hold and showing them what their support can do. Through questioning whether what we’re currently doing is going to future-proof the movement. Through honouring where we’ve come from, but looking to evolve to where we need to be. To listening to voices across all of the demographics that make up the banding world. 

To be a bander is something special. We don’t just need it to survive today. We need it to survive forever, so that generations for years to come can walk through the doors of a bandroom and find the same friendship, support network, music and love that we benefit from today. Come rain, shine, snow, sleet, recessions, health crises - the bands must play on. 

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