Besses O’Th’ Barn Brass Band: Sunday Night at the Boarshurst Band Club, 04 June 2023

Uplifting concert rounds off Whit Week in great style

Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday night were Music Nights in our City Region/corner of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Apart from The Greatest Free Show on Earth, there was the small matter of Elton John, Coldplay and the Arctic Monkeys having concerts in Manchester. By Sunday, Glastonbury was probably nothing on Greenfield; instead of Monsters of Rock, the greatest agglomeration of heavy metal musicians were based in Saddleworth and Tameside.

Trimdon Brass: Sunday Brass at the Boarshurst Band Club (21 May 2023)

First rate performance with enjoyable programme

With only twelve days to go till Whit Friday, Trimdon Brass gave us all an enjoyable concert that got us in the mood for The Greatest Free Show on Earth. It was a most entertaining programme with a nice variety of popular music and concert classics. Like last year’s concert, there was four fabulous solo performances. 

Mossley Band: Sunday Brass at the Boarshurst Band Club (14 May 2023)

Byers and Co dazzle in most impressive concert

There is one thing you can be sure about with Mossley Band. They are a band that never do half measures. This is understandable as the competition is intense, whether vying for Best Open on Whit Friday, or rich pickings on the concert circuit. With the Saddleworth villages being a short drive or walk away, there is competition for players.

Thornton-Cleveleys Brass Band, 30 April 2023: Sunday Brass at the Boarshurst Band Club

Lively concert with enjoyable programme makes for box office hit with audience

It is fair to say that lying in the shadows of Britain’s most popular seaside resort means having to go the extra mile to entertain your paying public. That applies to anybody or any group that sets up home on the Fylde peninsula, from speciality acts to comedians and brass banding types.

Blackpool has a proud tradition of brass banding. The Winter Gardens and Opera House host the British Open Spring Festival and the North West Regional Finals of the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain. There are numerous brass bands on the Fylde peninsula, and the best known one by far is Thornton-Cleveleys.

Greater Manchester’s Railway Stations: Less Accessible Than Those in the Scottish Highlands

Twice as many potential passengers lacking step free access at local stations

Greater Manchester seems to have had a rough deal with its railways over the last five years. Over the last five decades, it has more than its fair share of broken promises, from the cancellation of The Picc-Vic Project to today’s meddling with the HS2 project. In the 1990s, we were promised Regional Eurostar trains but we thought the market wasn’t there in the late 1990s thanks to easyJet, Ryanair and Friends. In more recent times, sleepers and international services are having a bit of a revival in mainland Europe.

Today, a simple train trip from Ashton-under-Lyne to Mossley can be an ordeal. Since 2018, you have had to change at Stalybridge (and the connections are pretty tight). Even Stalybridge to Mossley can be an ordeal if you have restricted mobility or a wheelchair. You have to change at Huddersfield due to stepped access on the Yorkshire platform!

Greenalls Band: Sunday Brass at Boarshurst Band Club, 6th November 2022

Box office thrills make for exciting movie themed concert (and why not?)

The music of John Williams, John Barry, Ron Goodwin and Hans Zimmer seem to have one thing in common. Apart from being penned by legendary composers, a lot of their music seems to have been written with brass bands in mind. Though we wish that is the case, their music transcribes well for brass bands – hence the popularity of movie themed brass band concerts.

Revealed: Northern England’s Slowest Inter-City Train Route

The North of England’s slowest inter-city train route may surprise you

Once upon a time, 33 years ago, a famous female singer made a real comeback with the song If I Can Turn Back Time. Though 1987’s I Found Someone marked her return to the singles charts, it was the former song that made a greater impact. By 1991, thanks to the film Mermaids, her cover of The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss), she reached the top spot.

During Cher’s rise up the singles chart, Britain’s railways was in a state of transition. British Rail swapped Robert Reid for Robert Reid (in other words, Robert Basil Reid for Bob Reid). The InterCity sector started operated without a subsidy from HM Treasury. Regional Railways became a swish new identity for BR’s Provincial Sector. Locally, Stalybridge station’s buffet bar was under threat of closure with rumours of it becoming a florist; the Stockport to Stalybridge service was cut to three return journeys a day – still an improvement on the Saturdays Only return journey we see today.

Milnrow Band: Sunday Brass at the Boarshurst Band Club, 23rd October 2022

Magnificent Milnrow amaze audience in tightly produced concert

With UK inflation rates at double figures again, it is harder to get a proper bargain these days. For top bands at rock bottom prices, you could have looked no further than last night’s concert with The Mighty Rams of Harmony Street. Courtesy of Milnrow Band, both live and streamed audiences were treated to a great concert.

Phoenix Brass Ensemble: Sunday Brass at the Boarshurst Band Club (2nd October 2022)

Classy ensemble kicks off Poppy Appeal in style

Since moving to its present-day premises in 1979, Boarshurst Band Club has played host to the finest bands and some of the finest players in the brass banding world. Getting the pick of each band’s finest players together in the same room is easier said than done.

Relief as Over Sixty Important Bus Routes are Spared Service Cuts

Funding found for socially necessary Greater Manchester bus routes

With the perfect storm of skyrocketing energy prices and swingeing bus service cuts, Greater Manchester’s bus users could have been in for a much bleaker winter. The loss of Department of Transport funding on the 4th October from COVID Recovery grants would have seen cuts to 33 bus routes and the loss of 31 bus routes.