The Best Free Show on Earth #2

Part 2: The Whit Friday Brass Band Contest

2008 sees the 125th year of this great institution, the Whit Friday Brass Band Contest.  The first Whit Friday contest began in Stalybridge a good 125 years ago.  This came about after bands who led the churches decided to host a contest in the Cheshire town.

125 years on, Stalybridge remains an important venue for the Whit Friday contest.  This year saw two contests, with one at Bower Fold (home of Stalybridge Celtic), and the town centre one at the Labour Club near Cheetham’s Park.  Whereas Mossley and the Saddleworth villages are the best places to watch the Yorkshire bands, Stalybridge’s contest is probably the best one for bands from Cheshire, Lancashire, and the Midlands.

This year’s contest at the Stalybridge Labour Club had a venue record of 53 bands, some 3 short of the town’s record of 56 bands (achieved at the now demolished SIDS arena).  Represented at the 2008 contest was a band from Switzerland, bands from East London, Oxfordshire and the Midlands, as well as Lancashire and Cheshire (which make the bulk of the contest’s entrants).

A Whit Friday band contest includes prizes for the best bands within a local area (usually a radius of 10 miles), a ‘Best Open’ prize (any entrant) and prizes for ‘Best Deportment’, youth bands and instrument based prizes (i.e best solo cornet, euphonium).  Some contests award sectional prizes, according to which section the band is in.  Points are allocated on how well each band plays the piece by an adjudicator.

Like the Football League and the FA Premier League, brass bands are divided into sections.  The Championship section is the highest one, with world famous bands such as Black Dyke, Brighouse and Rastrick, and Foden’s Richardson among its members.  There is also a further four sections and a youth section.

On arrival, the band ’s runner registers the band’s details (i.e. band [Black Dyke] then march piece [Knight Templar]) and pays its entry fee.  The adjudicator checks note for note each piece, awarding marks on how well it is played.  He or she is unaware of the band, as each band is referred to by number till the results are announced.  Once finished, the band moves onto their next contest.

Since 1989, Tameside MBC has also added a competition for the best band in the borough.  These are comprised of the results from each contest.  The first winners of this was Black Dyke Mills band.

For anyone wishing to delve further into the history of the Whit Friday Brass Band contest, I fully recommend Alec Greenhalgh’s excellent book ‘Hail Smiling Morn’.  Though published and (to the best of my knowledge) not updated since 1991, this is the definitive reference of the competition. 

In chronological order, all contest venues past and present have been stated, with details of the winners in the Best Local and Best Open sections.  For each year, there is also details of the weather conditions.

The book is available for sale at Oldham Tourist Information Centre (inside Gallery Oldham, Union Street) and in Uppermill Tourist Information Centre at Saddleworth Museum.

S.V., 17 May 2008.

Tags: music, entertainment, brass bands, Whit Friday, Tameside, Oldham, Saddleworth

The Best Free Show on Earth #1

Part 1: The Absolute Beginners’ Guide to Whit Friday

East of the M60 has been around in cyberspace for nearly two years, yet in this period it has still to cover Whit Friday.

Until now.

For those of you unsure about Whit Friday, Whit Friday falls after Whit Sunday and is two days before Pentecost.  There is no fixed date, with the date determined by the month when Easter falls on.

A traditional Whit Friday involves the Procession of Witness in the morning.  Churches from, for example Uppermill meet at a central point in the village or town centre and assemble for a short service.  Before and after the service, each church leads with the church’s banner at the front (carried by two strong persons, augmented by a small number of children holding onto its ribbons).

As well as adult members of the congregation, each church is represented by members of its school, Cub/Beaver/Scout/Rainbow/Brownie/Guide groups or other bodies such as mother and toddlers or the local Mothers’ Union.

Behind the banner is a local brass band which leads out fellow walkers.  Some of which carry smaller banners, or other religious artifacts such as a cuddly lamb (symbolising the ‘Lamb of God’).  After the service, each church returns ‘home’ with the full congregation for raspberry buns and a brew.

After the parade (as if the younger members did enough walking), the afternoon’s proceedings would include a sports day, with traditional activities like ‘The Egg and Spoon race’, ‘Three Legged Race’ and an obstacle race featuring.

By night came the centrepiece of Whit Friday, a tradition upheld by villages within the Saddleworth area and the Tameside area – the Whit Friday brass band contests.  From 1883, the first recorded contests took place in Stalybridge, Uppermill and Mossley.  Bands travelled far and wide (within 20 miles from the venue). 

Stalybridge, as well as being home to the world’s oldest brass band is also home to the first  Whit Friday contest.  Its roots stem from the bands trying to prove which church had the best band.  125 years on, it is now possible to see bands from Switzerland as well as Friezland competing – thanks to motorways and the Channel Tunnel.

Whit Friday is the traditional day for this procession, though the late 1980s saw, mainly in the Tameside area the walks switching to Sunday before Whit Friday.  Since 1883, the number of Whit Friday contests had increased to 23 at any one time.  The late 1980s also saw great expansion of the Whit Friday contest, with Denton, Ashton-under-Lyne and Droylsden alongside the traditional three (Stalybridge, Uppermill and Mossley).

As well as an increase in the number of contests, the modern day epidemic of congestion has made it impossible for any band to do all the contests, a far cry from 1884 when Stalybridge Borough won the first Stalybridge contest.

S.V., 17 May 2008

Tags: music, entertainment, brass bands, religion, Whit Friday, Tameside, Oldham, Saddleworth, local history

The Not So Perfect 10: Hitting the High Notes

In praise of the falsetto vocalist

Greetings Pop Pickers, I have chosen a most unusual subject for this installment of ‘The Not So Perfect 10.

Everybody of a musical persuasion or intense knowledge of popular culture may list the 10 Best Beatles songs or