The Sunday Times July 7 1974
Where there's muck there's brass - plus 19 miners making history at the Proms
By Michael Moyniham

A MINER grimaces. "Music? Sounds more like a horror film to me." He is looking towards the wooden building behind the Miner's Welfare Institute at Grimethorpe, Yorkshire, where the colliery band are rehearsing Harrison Birtwistle's Aria for Grimethorpe for their history making appearance at the Royal Albert Hall on August 3 - the first time brass band music will be heard at a Promenade Concert.

Even to 26 miners blowing away at their cornets, flugel horns, tenor horns, baritones, trombones, euphoniums and basses, some of the ear-splitting noises of this specially-commissioned work by one of Britain's leading avant garde composers have taken some getting used to.

But they are aware that their participation in the 80^th season of the Proms will signal a major breakthrough. They think that, like the trumpets at the walls of Jericho, their atonal blasts must finally topple the prejudices of those who still equate brass bands with miners' galas and renderings of Abide with Me.

The Grimethorpe miners, wearing evening dress, will share the platform for the first third of the concert with one of their chief rivals in national championships, the Black Dyke Band. The other, more melodious, works they will play are by Elgar, Gustav Holst composed for brass bands and an indication of how far back the roots of "respectability" go.

For the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, founded in 1917, the final break with the cloth-cap's image came at a recent concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank when an audience of discerning music lovers gave them a standing ovation. Band master Fred Partlett, who started playing the cornet at the age of nine, 30 years ago, guardedly suggests that the modern work they included "might not have gone down so well" with their customary audiences.

"I enjoy playing this modern stuff," he says. "You have to concentrate much more than with a traditional score where you know more or less what's coming next. There's some odd things you have to do, marked by special symbols on the score sheet - a cross for removing the mouthpiece and blowing through it, a circle for slapping the instrument with your hand. It's for others to judge the total effect."

For the past two years the band has been under the firm but persuasive baton of Elgar Howarth, a London conductor better known for his handling of contemporary orchestral scores. In 1970, Grimethorpe had reached its peak of fame by adding the national championship of Great Britain to its many other awards but, in accepting their invitation to become musical director, Howarth made it clear that he had no interest in winning competitions and that he would be solely concerned with the quality of the playing.

"I found they had great technical flair, could play millions of notes and were very good with semi-quavers," says Howarth, who himself played in a brass band as a youth in Manchester.

"Most brass players in symphony orchestras have started in brass bands and some of these miners could almost certainly make the professional grade with the necessary training. As it is, they have made surprisingly quick progress with pieces like Aria for Grimethorpe. It is very difficult music, uncompromisingly modern in style."

Mutual respect is evident as suave conductor and bluntly spoken players  get to grips with the trickier bits in the practice hall. The miners, most of whom work at the coal-face, have been down the pits from 6am to 12.45pm, and have had time only for a change of clothes, a snatched meal and a pint at the institute bar before the 3 hour rehearsal begins at 2pm.

But there is no sign of fatigue as the burrow into Birtwistle. At some of the more excruciating sounds, quizzical glances are exchanged, even outright grins. In an interval one of the older players chortles over one of Howarth's asides: "Don't try to play together - if you play together it's wrong."

Most of the miners started playing young, often with a grounding in Salvation Army bands, and music to them is like racing pigeons or whippets is to other miners, an escapist hobby, an obsession. On long trips from home they are often out of pocket, though the Welfare Fund, to which Grimethorpe's 500 miners contribute a penny a week, tries to provide coach fares and hotel expenses. At the Proms, the evening dress will be extra expense, but nobody begrudges it. "We play for the love of it, not money," says one.

Howarth foresees ever-widening horizons. New recordings more challenging than the few they have already cut - with titles such as "Bold as Brass," "Black Diamonds" and "Hymns You Love." And there will be tours overseas.

"British brass bands are the best in Europe, if not the world. And Grimethorpe is the cream of the best," says Howarth. "Super players. Super people."

Pit band take the Proms by storm
By Dave Hirst

Grimethorpe Colliery Band, making their first appearance at the Henry Wood Promenade Concert took the Royal Albert Hall audience by storm last Saturday evening.

The captured the hearts of 8,000 Promenaders as they were roared on to encore after encore.

The audience would not let Grimethorpe and Black Dyke Mills Band, who were appearing with the colliery band, go off stage as Elgar Howarth, Grimethorpe's conductor, was called back onto the rostrum seven times.

The enthusiastic Promenaders must have been wondering why, after 80 season of the Proms, brass bands have never been heard before.

Gefore the concert started, the boisterous Promenaders in front of the stage certainly made their presence known with some witty remarks about the band, which must have given the bandsmen high hopes before they even started.

And yet, even though both bands have played against each other in contests at the great hall, it was something of a new experience to both facing a capacity audience.

The suave Elgar Howarth walked onto the stage in his midnight blue velvet suit to be greeted with another of those "quickies": "Where's thi flat cap, then?" To which Mr. Howarth gestured with a stroke at the back of the head.

A roar of laughter from the crowd and straight into the first number, "Severn Suite", by Elgar (the composer, this time), an old test piece for brass bands.

The Bands - Grimethorpe dressed in evening suits and Dyke in their traditional outfits of black and yellow - were warmly applauded and switched places as they prepared for Harrison Birtwistle's "Grimethorpe Aria", commissioned by Grimethorpe and first performed under the composer's direction as the Harrogate Festival last year.

At the end of the piece, a shy Harrison Birtwistle, dressed in jeans, was coaxed out of the wings and onto the stage by Elgar Howarth.

Here he received a tremendous reception, shook the hand of Elgar Howarth and applauded the bands for their fine performance.

Earlier, during a rigorous three-hour rehearsal session, he had listened to the piece and corrected certain points.

The BBC choir then prepared for action and Elgar Howarth conducted them in Grainger's "I'm Seventeen Come Sunday", a charming folk song which the audience lapped up.

As the conductor walked back on stage to more applause for the final item in the programme, the band prepared for Gustav Holst's "A Moorside Suite", another test-piece, which like both bands, created history with its first performance at the Proms.

This performance received more cheers than the past items, and as Elgar Howarth walked off the stage once again the Promenaders cheered for more.

And they got it. "A King's Hunting Jig", by John Bull, was the number the band chose - and a perfect choice it was. The reception was so outstanding the the same number was played once again.

By this time a BBC producer was getting worried; not at the reception the bands received or the way the played, but that the BBC Orchestra should have been on stage ten minutes earlier.

So once more Grimethorpe Colliery Band added to their previous success of the year at Leeds Music Festival and the Queen Elizabeth Hall, where they received standing ovations. These two, though big musical events for bands; could not compare with this memorable occasion.

Now that it has been established that brass bands are good enough to appear at the Proms, we may see, hopefully in the near future, a prom devoted to brass bands instead of them sharing a bill.

Whatever happens from now on, one thing is certain, Grimethorpe Colliery and have done Grimethorpe and Yorkshire proud.