Football and Culture

The first visit the Grimethorpe Colliery RJB Band made to France was during the World Cup. We were engaged to play at the World Cup Carnavalcade in St. Dennis, Paris. We drove from South Yorkshire to Paris via the Channel Tunnel, a first for a lot of the band, and arrived at our hotel, on the banks of the Seine, on Friday evening. We spent the Saturday morning sight seeing, around the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysee etc. etc. before being transported to St. Dennis for the afternoon Carnavalcade.

We were a little apprehensive when we arrived, as the temperature was in the high twenties, we were in full uniform, and this was a march! The idea was that a musical group from each country competing in the World Cup would take part. We set about it with our usual good spirits and set off marching at around 4 p.m. The parade finished at 10.30 p.m.! We had marched for over six hours in baking heat and were exhausted. The parade finished at a football stadium where we played to a crowd of around 15,000 (I think they preferred the Brazilian Samba Band more than Death or Glory!). We were taken back to our hotel where we spent an enjoyable evening in the bar with some members of the Jamaican World Cup Squad, before leaving fro home the next day - very stiff, and with huge blisters!

The second visit couldn't have been more different. We flew into Paris to play three concerts at the Cite de la Musique, the futuristic home of, amongst other things, the Paris Conservatoire. This trip was organised by Peter Bassano, Head of Brass at the Royal College of Music, London. We initially performed a short outdoor afternoon concert of lighter brass band music to a slightly bemused French public, followed by the first of two concerts titled "towards the Millennium".

The first programme traced the development of brass band music from the early operatic arrangements through Percy Fletcher's 'Labour and Love' to the 1950's and Eric Ball. The second concert, on the Sunday afternoon, continued the development through Gilbert Vinter and up to the present day - including a premiere of 'Falstaff' by the composer Andrew Powell. Both concerts were incredibly well received, and the band fully deserved the excellent review we got in The Daily Telegraph later that week. We understand that plans are afoot for the band to return to the Cite de la Musique in the near future.

Written by Andrew Snell