Brassed Off!

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Beginning in early 1993, groups of miners' wives camped outside some pits' gates and outside the Department of Trade and Industry in London. [3] This is referred to in the film. It contrasts with the muted response from the mineworkers, some of whom sang Shut the pit! to the tune of the song Here We Go! from the 1984–85 strike. [3] Plot [ edit ] The standalone CD, with added music from Trevor Jones, is a treat in its own right. But the music in the context of the film? It’s pretty much unbeatable.

And then there’s the heart-breaking shot. Herman’s close-up on Tompkinson’s tear-stained face, arguably the character whose family has lost the most, is perfect. The band undertook an unusual invitation to play at the World Cup Carnival at Saint Denis near Paris and returned to Paris again in July to perform at the Cite De La Musique conducted by Peter Bassino the Head of Brass at the Royal College of Music in London. September saw the band fly to Switzerland to undertake a three-concert tour and immediately returned to London to record the first of two television shows with Leslie Garrett. The band appeared in the second Series of Leslie Garrett Tonight which was shown in June 2000. In December the band appeared on the television show ‘Goin Home with Lesley Garrett’ on the new Sky “Artsworld” Channel. Lesley also features on the band’s compact disc – Classic Brass – which reached number three in the Classic FM chart. In September 2000 the band took part in the Quincentenary Concert for The Worshipful Company of Musicians, conducted by Elgar Howarth held at the Birmingham Symphony Hall. As we arrived at the hall, we were met by hundreds of people all cheering us on. It seemed like much more than just the normal contest goers. There were of course the obligatory 4 or 5 camera crews that followed us into the bowels of RAH. was the year after “Fireworks” had been unleashed on the unsuspecting banding fraternity at the British Open where Wingates under the baton of Richard Evans took the title playing of number 23.

Reviews

The main inspiration behind the band’s emergence into the new music field is Elgar Howarth, a musician with unique experience of composing, conducting and brass playing. The following year the band got booked for 70 concerts and this took some reducing, even now the band are doing 50-60 concerts / competitions a year and has a full concert list a year in advanced. Having lived all my life in a large metropolitan city, I cannot relate first hand to the plight of a small town community. Despite that, I found the story intriguing even though it may seem the outcome is somewhat predictable. The film follows the lives of the local Grimley Colliery Brass Band as they attempt to reach, and then win, the National Brass Band Championship. Led by ex miner and musical director Danny (Pete Postlethwaite) and inspired by newcomer Gloria (Tara Fitzgerald) the band battle through adversity to reflect the real history of Grimethorpe and become Champion of Great Britain. This delightfully entertaining comedy treat features hot screen stars Ewan McGregor (STAR WARS EPISODE 1: THE PHANTOM MENACE, MOULIN ROUGE) and sexy Tara Fitzgerald (SIRENS). It’s the critically acclaimed story about two old friends — and ex-lovers — whose surprise reunion turns their lives … and the lives of everyone else in town … hilariously upside down!”

Even then, though, Herman was conscious of writing “some dreary political polemic”. He wanted a cover for his story, and recalled a radio report about a brass band that had had to close when weekly subs stopped coming in. That seemed to fit the film he wanted to make, and thus the real-life Grimethorpe Colliery Band – and its home town – became an inspiration (albeit hidden – deliberately not very well – under the name Grimley in the movie). In 1993/1994 Frank Renton hit on an idea for a new radio show, so in conjunction with BBC Radio 3, shows were recorded entitled “Stars in Brass”. The format was six half hour shows recorded at BBC Studio 7 in Manchester and Studio 1 Pebble Mill in Birmingham with each show having a different star from the Brass Band, Big Band and Jazz World. But it may have been Grimethorpe’s very youth that has helped it to break with tradition, and interest some of the world’s leading composers in writing for a medium which has, up until now, been regarded as apart from the mainstream development of music.On 14th July 1994, the band played at the Memorial Service for the Right Honerable John Smith (1938 – 1994) QC, MP and leader of the Labour party until his death, held at Westminster Abbey. As well as family and friends, the service was attended by all the leading members of Parliament from the major political parties of the day and the Prime Minister.

The hospital scene, with Pete Postlethwaite in bed, was filmed at Doncaster College, not a hospital. The festival scene in Delph was filmed on Monday 23 October 1995. [6] In the case of that movie, people are taking their clothes off for money, because, well, what else is there? Don’t forget: there’s a haunting suicide attempt in the midst of the film too, one of the many parts of the movie that continue to resonate. At Monday evening’s rehearsal, somebody happened to mention that an announcement was to be made in the House of Commons at 2.00pm the following day. It could affect the future of British Coal and might have implications for the Yorkshire Coalfield and Grimethorpe Colliery in particular. We were not concerned about Grimethorpe possibly closing because we knew that there was at least 90 years of coal left and felt sure that this would keep the pit safe for many years. How wrong we were! The balloon went up. Tears of joy flowed down the face of every single member of the band. We had done it. A somewhat less ambitious visit to the Republic of Eire was arranged the following year where the band played to capacity audiences in Dublin and Cork. However, this will probably be long remembered by the band for the stormy crossings that were encountered on the outward and homeward journeys.The film is set ten years after the year-long strike in 1984–85 by the National Union of Mineworkers in Britain. Before the privatisation of British Coal, a wave of pit closures took place. Depleted of resources and in debt following the labour militancy of 1984–85, the miners were unable to continue a resistance against the policies of the government. Many had been in debt ever since the long strike, and were prepared to take redundancy money whilst it was on offer. Garden Rain’ by the Japanese composer Takemitsu was originally written for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble in 1974 but Howarth was allowed to re-score it for the full band. It is a reflective piece, both elegant and poetic (and very slow) which explores the softness of texture and colour that up until then had not been fully explored by brass band composers. During 1987, the band took part in the opening celebration of the 750 years anniversary of Berlin, held in the international Conference Centre of West Berlin. They also gave concert performances in the St. Magnus Festival held on the Orkney island of Kirkwall. On the 17th May 1979, the band gave a concert performance in the Dvorana Lisinski in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. On the 28th July, the band left the UK for a tour of Italy, returning on the 9th August, 1979. The band participated in the Montepulciano Festival in Tuscany and also gave concerts in Florence, Pavia and Turin. This particular tour was the subject of a documentary film called “Arrivederci Grimethorpe” made by Granada Television and which was subsequently shown on most networks in the UK in 1980. Both of these visits were with Elgar Howarth as conductor.

We trouped on stage at 6.15pm a little disconsolate. However, the band played really well, Ray Curry was absolutely amazing and played the horn solo as if he had been playing it for weeks. There were problems though, -not all of the horn parts had been covered and some trios turned into duets late on in the piece. We knew this immediately and retired to the pub to drown our sorrows and think what might have been. BBC News | Entertainment | Best 100 British films - full list". news.bbc.co.uk . Retrieved 18 November 2021. Vallance, Tom (4 January 2011). "Pete Postlethwaite: Distinctive, prolific actor, acclaimed by Spielberg as 'the best in the world' ". The Independent. Andrew resigned early in 1955 and Harry Mileman, who had remained in employment at the colliery, took over as ‘Caretaker’ Conductor until he left to take over a similar position with a band in New Zealand. When the Junior Band was reformed in 1960 it was felt that the band would be extremely fortunate if it found one player in every five years who was good enough to hold down a position in the Senior Band. In its first 16 years, there have been eight players who have seen service with the Seniors.The National Coal Board (NCB) arranged private ballots to determine between closing a pit immediately with compulsory redundancies or taking a pit to a review procedure to determine whether the pit should be privatised. Philip Wilby commented “a sure triumph of the human spirit, a sense of liberty and resurrection drawn out of sorrow and pain” Gloria Mullins has been sent to her home town of Grimley to determine the profitability of the pit for the management of British Coal. She also plays the flugelhorn, and is allowed to play with the local brass band after playing Concierto de Aranjuez, affectionately known as “Orange Juice” by the characters, with them. The band is made up of miners from whom she must conceal her purpose. She renews a childhood romance with Andy Barrow, which soon leads to complications. Andy is bitter about the programme of pit closures and determined to fight on, but he is also realistic about the circumstances and predicts a 4-to-1 majority for closure and redundancy. When Andy realises that Gloria is working for management, he accuses her of naïvety for thinking that the Coal Board is considering whether the pit has any viable future and argues that the decision to close Grimley would have been taken years earlier. It is later revealed, during a confrontation between Gloria and the management of the colliery, that the decision to close the colliery had been made two years previously, and that this was to have gone ahead regardless of the findings of her report; the report was simply a public relations exercise to placate the miners and members of the public sympathetic to their plight. Still, he’s but one part of an ensemble here, and Herman injects his and Fitzgerald’s romance in the film with earth, and some tasty-looking fish and chips. She’s management. He’s in love. They have a surprise reunion which turns their live hilariously upsi… no, not at all. In fact, they’re a surprisingly smaller part of the Brassed Off jigsaw.