Others, like the old Bletchley Brass Band or the Newport Pagnell Town Band, had not survived but still left their traces in personal memories and in the music stamped with their name now used by other local bands. Inherited band resources like instruments inscribed with earlier players’ names or the music library, as well as memories of glorious exploits in competition or of contacts with leading local families, also brought home the length of tradition. Some bands had documentary records going back fifty years or more, with newspaper cuttings recording their festivities and successes; these often documented the strong family tradition characteristic of brass bands, fathers being followed over the generations by sons, grandsons and nephews. No other named local musical groups (with the possible exception of a few church choirs) had as long a continuous existence, so that though there had been both demises and new foundings, brass band members were in fact correct to see their tradition as a long-established and vigorous one.
Awareness of their proud history thus played a part in local activities, and to some extent this continuity was striking. The tradition of informal learning was also still influential, and there were still many family links and loyalties within the bands. The competition world was sometimes another continuing context for performances and aspirations, while the tradition of service to ‘the community’ and appearances at local events remained a valued one, and at least some players still spoke of the ideal of bands as essentially made up of ‘ordinary working lads’.
This traditional image of the ‘brass band movement’ was thus of real relevance, influencing repertoire, mode of training, self-image and family and community links. However, as even some players themselves admitted, the picture was also changing, and local brass band practice often did not fit with the traditional image.
For one thing the playing of brass instruments was becoming more assimilated to the ‘classical’ music model, and the modes of learning and performance were changing. Brass instruments were energetically taught in the schools by peripatetic teachers on the same basis as other classical instruments, supplementing the bands’ own youth training schemes and informal teaching. Partly as a result, more girls were learning. Milton Keynes brass bands included female players, and in some of the younger bands girls were actually in the majority – very different from the past. New groups were founded which, unlike the older bands, drew their models not just from inherited tradition but from televised performances and classical instrumentalists.
Brass bands were also part of the high-profile cultural developments promoted by the MKDC. One of the first ensembles off the ground in the show-piece Stantonbury Education Campus was Stantonbury Brass, a youth band run by the Stantonbury Music Centre – an effective choice given the shorter lead time for training up a viable brass than string group. This successful young band was invited to perform at MKDC and BMK-sponsored events and to represent Milton Keynes abroad. Again, the Milton Keynes brass band festival, though building on established local bands, was directly encouraged by the new city’s administration (which happened to include some influential brass enthusiasts). For many, therefore, brass bands were not a separate world of lower-class or ‘popular’ as against ‘high’ culture, but a recognised part of official cultural events in the city. The links with classical music were also increasingly accepted by players and audiences generally, not just because of school brass teaching but through the widely watched BBC ‘Young Musician of the Year’ competition, in which brass instrumentalists always formed one section. One recent winner was claimed as a ‘local boy’ (he came from Bedford and had played as soloist with local brass bands); this added new prestige to brass band playing, and the number of children (or rather parents) interested in brass lessons immediately jumped. There was thus contact between brass band and the classical music worlds, with some overlapping membership between brass bands and classical ensembles (like the Woburn Sands Band and the Sherwood Sinfonia).2
Another way the older image no longer really applied was in band membership. The ‘working-class’ picture may have influenced people’s perceptions, but by the 1980s hardly fitted the Milton Keynes bands. The new bands (the Bletchley Band and the Stantonbury Brass) were mostly young people of very mixed backgrounds, many still at school, and had girl players as well as boys; and even the older bands included a fair mix. This, furthermore, was how at least some bands in practice saw themselves, even if they also relished the nostalgic flavour of the earlier image. One long-established band, I was told by its secretary, included political commitments ‘across the whole spectrum’ and a cross-section typical of local brass bands generally: postmen, teachers, telephone engineers, a motor mechanic, personnel manager, master butcher, university teacher, train driver, and schoolchildren from state and independent schools. Another band (partially overlapping in membership with the first) was less varied, with a larger proportion of jobs like clerk, labourer, storeman, or shopworker, but also including computer engineers, a building inspector, a midwife and several schoolchildren; as their musical director summed it up, ‘the old cloth cap and horny hand image is dying out’.
The bands also contained players who had learnt their craft in several different modes. Some had indeed learnt in the traditional way from brass players within their own families or bands, then perfecting their skill through actual band playing. Others had been taught in the formal classical mode which stressed reading music and being able to play in classical music ensembles. Others had combined the two. This mixed experience did not seem to undermine the communal loyalty of the bands, and was indeed exploited by the bands, who used a variety of methods in their own youth sections. But it was yet another way in which the model of one homogeneous brass band tradition was being modified in the light of actual practice.
The day-to-day commitment of players to their band was apparently as strong as ever. The common pattern was of one or, more often, two weekly practices of several hours-two weekday evenings or one plus a weekend meeting. Some bands ran training sections on yet another evening, when experienced players joined in teaching the younger members.
Despite the strong family and personal link in local brass bands, the organisation was quite formal, on the ‘voluntary association’ pattern so common in English society. Bands were formally constituted, had the same kind of committee structure as choirs and orchestras, functioned on the basis of membership fees and audited accounts, and held an Annual General Meeting with formally conducted proceedings. They were also hierarchically organised under a permanent conductor (sometimes with assistant) who directed the practices and the public performances, assisted by a committee. Unlike some earlier brass bands they were not sponsored (apart from the launch money for the new Broseley Brass) and with the partial exception of the Wolverton Town and British Rail Band, who still held meetings in the British Rail Engineering canteen, they were not attached to particular works, but supported themselves as independent bands from their own contributions.
A great deal of authority lay with the conductor (sometimes entitled musical director), backed up by the committee. The Bradwell Band constitution, redrawn in 1978, stated that the conductor or his deputy had full control of band personnel during engagements with the right to report any irregularity to the committee, who would ‘deal with the offending playing member’. Similarly he was to report any playing member frequently absent from practices or performances without his permission (a more stringent rule than for many other types of local musical group), and in general ‘when in uniform, playing members must uphold the dignity of the Band at all times, and engage in no activity that would bring the Band, Trustees and Patrons into disrepute. The conductor shall refer to the committee any breach of this rule by any member.’ The actual conduct of affairs is of course often less formalised than constitutions suggest, and an atmosphere of camaraderie and enjoyment was one noticeable characteristic of local brass bands. Nevertheless there was also a definite air of authority at band events, and practices were hierarchically directed sessions when people worked at the conductor’s bidding in a highly disciplined setting which players felt strongly obligated to attend.
In addition to routine practices, the bands all took on performing commitments, especially in the summer and at Christmas (see below). Some also competed, and new local and regional competitions had been developing which several local bands entered. The Woburn
