Brassed Off!

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Greater world fame came to the band in 1995 with the filming of Brassed Off! When government policy lead to the painful process of pit closures in the late eighties and early nineties writer/director Mark Herman decided that he wanted to make a movie about the way in which the closures affected the communities and people. The true story of Grimethorpe and its famous band gave him his vehicle and Brassed Off was the result. The highlight of the tour was when the band played in the grounds of the British Embassy in Washington when The Queen and Prince Phillip entertained President Ford and his wife. 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. Phil is in a marriage to Melanie Hill’s Sandra that’s feeling the strain of debt, and a bleak future. Not that Danny sees that. The one thing that gets him through, while the world he knows falls apart around him, is his love of music, and his love of the colliery band. Even to the expense of seeing just how much trouble his son is in.

Over the years, the band has performed at many memorial services for distinguished personalities in the country. The passionate band conductor, Danny Ormondroyd, finds he is fighting a losing battle to keep the rest of the band members committed. His son, Phil, is badly in debt and becomes a clown for children's parties, but this fails to prevent his wife and children walking out on him. In debt, Phil votes for the redundancy money, which he becomes ashamed of. As Danny collapses in the street and is hospitalised, Phil suffers a mental breakdown while entertaining a group of children, as part of a harvest festival in a church. He refers to himself as "Coco the scab"—a name that he had been called by a debt collector who he had asked to wait until the redundancy money had come through. Eventually, he attempts suicide by trying to hang himself, but is taken to the hospital. Phil reveals to Danny that in light of the colliery's closure, the band has decided not to continue playing. 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!” Despite the stubborn refusal of some brass band ‘diehards’ to accept Elgar Howarth and the avant garde music, one cannot escape the fact that it has been those two major contributions which have toppled the prejudices of those who still equate brass bands with Miners’ Galas and renderings of ‘Abide with Me’

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Brassed Off is a 1996 British comedy-drama film written and directed by Mark Herman and starring Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor. [2] Philip Wilby commented “a sure triumph of the human spirit, a sense of liberty and resurrection drawn out of sorrow and pain” As you can probably imagine, the mother of all celebrations was underway, and if any body of people know how to celebrate, Grimethorpe Colliery Band are world leaders and the evening became a blurred but very happy memory. The rehearsal started without him, as frantic telephone calls were being made to his home, which were totally fruitless. In the competition field, the band took part in a total of 42 contests between 1932 and 1945. The results were – 19 firsts, 11 seconds, 4 thirds, 6 fourths and 2 fifths. Quite an achievement in any class. Shortly after George Thompson’s return, he was responsible (in 1960) for the formation of the Grimethorpe Colliery Junior Band.

Dialogue [ edit ] Gloria: Do you want to come up for a coffee? Andy: I don't drink coffee. Gloria: I haven't got any. As ever, we were anxious to get a late draw, the television camera crews were still taking our every move and had even agreed with the organisers to set up a camera in the hall. We drew No.17, which for Ken Hirst was a major achievement. He even mumbled something about somebody pinching his no.1 ball, although he was a relieved man when they had. Simmo: [about Gloria] You had her. Behind the bus station. Andy: No, I didn't. Simmo: You told us you did. Andy: No, it were top half only. Due to the massive success of the Australia/Japan tour in 1999, International Concert Attractions booked the band again for a further tour of Australia in 2001 but this time including concerts on the North and South Island on New Zealand and a one off date in Hong Kong on the way home. 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.Vallance, Tom (4 January 2011). "Pete Postlethwaite: Distinctive, prolific actor, acclaimed by Spielberg as 'the best in the world' ". The Independent. Did you know anything about this period of British history? Has it inspired you to learn more? Discuss how movies can teach us about the past. Originally a small Hamlet – Grimms Farm – it became noteworthy at the turn of the century with the discovery of Coal and the establishment of an important colliery. And yet, Grimethorpe’s claim to fame stemmed not solely from the colliery itself, but from the brass band that bears the same name. The piece for London had already been chosen. It was to be ‘A New Jerusalem’ by Philip Wilby. The piece starts with an off-stage trumpet part that was fundamental to the whole ethos of the piece. The Voice of God started the work and returned twice more, the final time very near the end. To make the effect convincing and achieve the spine-tingling character of the whole piece – The Voice of God needed to be unseen by the audience throughout. 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.

ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2002 Albums" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association . Retrieved 27 December 2021. 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. 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 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.

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Before I get to them again, I need to talk about the moment the film really turns. “How you feeling?” “Death’s door. And the bastards still take the piss!” In 1974, Elgar Howarth brought Grimethorpe to the Harrogate Festival for an even more notable event – the premiere of the band’s first commissioned work. Brass band history was made when Harrison Birtwistle conducted his own ‘Grimethorpe Aria’. Although some of the audience on that occasion were obviously startled by the unfamiliar sounds they were hearing, the success of the work marked the beginning of a partnership between two sections of music that had before been considered totally separate.

Whilst the band is playing in the National Semi-Finals, the outcome of the ballot is announced as 4-to-1 in favour of redundancy, as Andy had predicted. Andy was a chronic diabetic, and at lunchtime had inadvertently missed a meal. His wife had taken their young son out for the day, knowing that Andy was tied up with the contest. In mid-afternoon, Andy suffered a ‘hypo’ and was laid motionless on the kitchen floor until his frantic mother found him at around tea-time. He was rushed to Barnsley General and was later released, but was in no fit state to play an Area Contest. We realised this as we signed on, minus a solo horn player. In carrying out this tour, the band missed the area qualifying competition for the Nationals held in Bradford, while the band were on the Gold Coast of Australia. The best comment to come out of this situation was from a woman from another championship section band saying “Aren’t you worried about your Brass Band World Ranking Points?”!!!!!In June 1985, half a dozen players appeared in the film All Creatures Great and Small, the actual recording being done in the North Yorkshire Village of Askrigg. October saw the band record excerpts for a Russell Harty profile on the Michael Parkinson programme. Phil: I love the band - we all do - but there's other things in life, you know, that's more important. Danny: Not in mine there isn't. 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. It’s the character of Gloria, along with Ewan McGregor’s Andy, meanwhile, that proved to be the thrust of the film’s promotional campaign when the film made it to the States. Bizarrely, Brassed Off was actually sold as a romantic comedy (!) by Miramax in the US, and to this day, the DVD cover highlights Ewan McGregor’s Andy and Tara Fitzgerald’s Gloria. In fact, the eager accompanying sales copy is worth citing: Grimethorpe incidentally did not take part as Elgar Howarth was in the box with William Relton and Roy Newsome, but such was the furore that many conductors thought it “undesirable” and the following years saw the Open revert to ‘Epic Symphony’, ‘Diadem of Gold’ and ‘Benvenuto Cellini’.