Grimethorpe Colliery Band

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Grimethorpe Colliery Band

The Grimethorpe Colliery Band is a brass band

Brass band

A brass band is a musical group generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles which include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert bands, wind bands or wind ensembles....
, based in Grimethorpe

Grimethorpe

Grimethorpe is a large village which is part of the Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It has a population of around 1900.It is located to the east of Barnsley and the south of Hemsworth; until the local government reorganisation of 1974, it was part of both the Hemsworth Hemsworth Rural District and Hemsworth ....
, South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of List of ceremonial counties of England by population....
, England

England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. It was formed in 1917, as a leisure activity for the workers at the colliery, by members of the disbanded Cudworth Colliery Band. The band has 28 players.

year after the band's formation saw it enter its first competition at Belle Vue in Manchester. Its first radio broadcast was in 1932 and from 1941 to 1951 was on UK national radio every month.

George Thompson was musical director from the early 1950s until 1972 during which time the band won the British Open Contest for the first time.

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Encyclopedia

The Grimethorpe Colliery Band is a brass band

Brass band

Grimethorpe

South Yorkshire

South Yorkshire is a metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It has a population of List of ceremonial counties of England by population....
, England

England

History

The year after the band's formation saw it enter its first competition at Belle Vue in Manchester. Its first radio broadcast was in 1932 and from 1941 to 1951 was on UK national radio every month.

George Thompson was musical director from the early 1950s until 1972 during which time the band won the British Open Contest for the first time. Thompson was followed by Elgar Howarth as Professional Conductor and Musical Director. 1974 saw the band, with Black Dyke Mills Band become the first to perform at The Proms

The Proms

The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral european classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington, London....
.

The band continued through the industial troubles of the 1980s and the closure of Grimethorpe Colliery on 13 October 1992. However the Band gained first place with 99 out of 100 on 17 October 1992 in the National Brass Band Championship at the Royal Albert Hall.

Since the closure of the Grimethorpe Colliery, the Band was initially sponsored by RJB Mining (later UK Coal plc) and then by Powerfuel.

Premieres

The Grimethorpe Colliery Band has premiered some of the most important brass music of the twentieth century, including Sir Harrison Birtwistle

Harrison Birtwistle

Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle Order of the Companions of Honour is a United Kingdom contemporary composer....
's Grimethorpe Aria, written for the band, Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze

Hans Werner Henze is a German composing well known for his left-wing political convictions. He left Germany for Italy in 1953 because of a perceived intolerance towards his politics and homosexuality....
's Ragtimes and Habaneras as well as several pieces by Sir Malcolm Arnold

Malcolm Arnold

Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold, Order of the British Empire was an England composer and Symphony.Malcolm Arnold began his career playing trumpet professionally, by age thirty his life was devoted to composition....
.

In films

International fame came with the film Brassed Off
Brassed Off

Brassed Off is a 1996 in film black comedy Cinema of the United Kingdom written and directed by Mark Herman. This film is about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of their pit....
, the plot of which was based on Grimethorpe's struggles against pit closures, and whose soundtrack was recorded by the band. The band also performed Ron Goodwin

Ron Goodwin

Ronald Alfred Goodwin was a United Kingdom composer and Conducting known for his film scores....
's film score

Film score

A film score is a broad term referring to the music in a film, which is generally categorically separated from songs used within a film. The term Soundtrack is often confused with film score, though a soundtrack may also include songs featured in the film as well as previously released music by other artists, while the score does...
for the 1976 Disney film Escape from the Dark (also called the Littlest Horse Thieves), with the composer conducting.

Honours

National Brass Band Championships - Winners 1970, 1992, 2006 and 2007.
English National Brass Band Championships - Winners 2007, 2008.
Yorkshire Champions - 1963, 1967, 1973, 1983, 1991, 1995, 2005, 2006.
Brass in Concert Champions - 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2001 to 2005.
Mineworkerse Champions - 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973 to 1980, 1983, 1985 to 2002.
British Open Champions - 1969, 1984, 1991.
Granada Band of the Year - 1972, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1985.

Other events

The band represented England

England

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
in May 2008 and came second behind the Cory Band

Cory Band

The Cory Band, formerly the Buy As You View Band, is one of the oldest and best known brass bands in the world.History & Origins ...
, both on 194 points. In June 2008 Grimethorpe gained its second successive victory at the English National Brass Band Championships, thus qualifying to represent England once again at the European Championships in Ostende, Belgium, in 2009.

Notable members

Arfon Owen - Solo Horn
Horn (instrument)

The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. It is descended from the natural horn and is informally known as the French horn....
Michael Dodd - Solo Euphonium
Euphonium

The euphonium Bore , tenor-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek language word euphonos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced" ....
Sean Crowther - E-flat Tuba
Tuba

The tuba is the largest and lowest pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped Mouthpiece ....

Partial Discography

Year	Album	Conductor
1976	Grimethorpe Special	Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth is an English conducting and composer.Howarth was educated in the 1950s at Manchester University and the Royal Manchester College of Music , where his fellow students included the composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, and the pianist John Ogdon....
2001	Eric Ball - The Undaunted	Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth is an English conducting and composer.Howarth was educated in the 1950s at Manchester University and the Royal Manchester College of Music , where his fellow students included the composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, and the pianist John Ogdon....
2002	Grimethorpe in Concert	Garry Cutt
2004	Grimethorpe in Concert Volume II	Richard Evans
2004	The History of Brass Band Music - The Golden Era	Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth is an English conducting and composer.Howarth was educated in the 1950s at Manchester University and the Royal Manchester College of Music , where his fellow students included the composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, and the pianist John Ogdon....
2004	The History of Brass Band Music - The Salvation Army Connection	Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth is an English conducting and composer.Howarth was educated in the 1950s at Manchester University and the Royal Manchester College of Music , where his fellow students included the composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, and the pianist John Ogdon....
2005	The History of Brass Band Music - The Early Years	Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth is an English conducting and composer.Howarth was educated in the 1950s at Manchester University and the Royal Manchester College of Music , where his fellow students included the composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, and the pianist John Ogdon....
2006	The History of Brass Band Music - The Modern Era	Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth is an English conducting and composer.Howarth was educated in the 1950s at Manchester University and the Royal Manchester College of Music , where his fellow students included the composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, and the pianist John Ogdon....
2007	Grimethorpe in Concert Volume III	Richard Evans & Philip Harper
2007	The History of Brass Band Music - Classical Arrangements	Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth is an English conducting and composer.Howarth was educated in the 1950s at Manchester University and the Royal Manchester College of Music , where his fellow students included the composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, and the pianist John Ogdon....
2008	The History of Brass Band Music - New Adventures	Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth Elgar Howarth is an English conducting and composer.Howarth was educated in the 1950s at Manchester University and the Royal Manchester College of Music , where his fellow students included the composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies, and the pianist John Ogdon....
2008	Hymns	Phillip McCann

External links

Video clips

by Robert Browne Hall, played at Uppermill Civic Hall in Saddleworth
Saddleworth

Saddleworth is a civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham in Greater Manchester, England. It comprises several villages and Hamlet amongst the Saddleworth Moor of the Pennines: Uppermill, Greenfield, Greater Manchester, Delph, Diggle, Greater Manchester and others....

Audio clips

- famous piece
Concierto de Aranjuez

The Concierto de Aranjuez is a musical composition for classical guitar and orchestra by the spanish people composer Joaqu?n Rodrigo. Written in 1939 in music, it is probably Rodrigo's best-known work, and its success established his reputation as one of the most significant Spanish composers of the twentieth century....
by Joaquín Rodrigo
Joaquín Rodrigo

Joaqu?n Rodrigo Vidre was a composer of european classical music and a virtuoso pianist. Despite being blind from an early age, he achieved great success....
- famous piece
Sleigh Ride

File:Brush for the lead2.jpgSleigh Ride is a popular light orchestral piece, composed by Leroy Anderson. The composer had the original idea for the piece during a heat wave in July, 1946; he finished the work in February, 1948....
by Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson

Leroy Anderson was an United States composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler....
- famous piece
Preludes (Debussy)

Claude Debussy's Pr?ludes are two sets of pieces for solo piano. They are divided into two separate livres, or books, of twelve prelude each....
by Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy

Achille-Claude Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he is considered one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions....