Brass Band Culture

Brass bands were born out the strange marriage of working-class life and technology.

At the turn of the 19th century, many collieries and other heavy industries supported or held in their association musical groups, popular amongst which were wind bands, consisting of brass, woodwind and percussion instruments.

At the time, brass instruments were very rudimentary, either being valve-less horns and trumpets only capable of a few notes, or experimental keyed instruments which lacked the focused tone and their valve-less cousins.

Around the 1830’s, the application of valves to brass instruments were introduced.  This enabled trumpets and horns to play all the notes of the scales, and thus play more ‘melodic’ music.  Coupled with this was the invention of in the mid-1800’s of the Saxhorn family of valved brass instruments by Frenchman Adolphe Sax.  This family contained a homogenous series of instruments, from the flugel to the BBb bass, all using the same principals.

The addition of cornets and trombones to the Saxhorn family creates what is still is the tradition brass band instrumentation of soprano cornet, 9 b-flat cornets, 1 flugel horn, 3 tenor horns, 2 each of baritones and euphoniums, 3 trombones and 2 each of Eb and BBb basses.  Only the addition of a percussion section and the use of a Bb/F bass trombone is how a modern brass band differs from the first ones.

Northumberland Miners' Picnic

Nothing sums up the history of the band more than the Northumberland Miners' Picnic. First stage in 1867 in Blyth, the 'Picnic' became a celebration of the Northumberland mining history.

The picnic consisted of each pit village's brass band and banner marching to the host town. Then the bands would play a march in competition with other local bands. A separate section for bands outside of Northumberland would also take place (the 'B' section). These marches and competitions would attract up to 50,000 people.

Then the bands would march to the local field or park where they would perform more music, listen to speeches given by notable political figures of the day, and be presented with their prizes in an awards ceremony.

The first picnics were held between Blyth, Newcastle and Tynemouth. In the 1930's they were held in Morpeth, until 1952 where they were held in Bedlington until 1992 (the band won the first ever Bedlington picnic!). Then final few years of the picnic, at least it this format, were held in Ashington until the last contest in 2002.

The picnic is now observed by a memorial service in Ashington every June.