Black Dyke Band

Proms (Not) on TV, 2026
Black Dyke Band
Royal Albert Hall

As I happened to mention in my FNOTP post, this year's blog is 'Proms on TV' - except when it isn't. 

I will be dipping in to various radio broadcasts if the fancy takes me. Indeed, as I start to write this up at 19:30 on Monday evening, I am listening to (but not blogging) tonight's Beethoven's Ninth.

I knew I was going to make a point of tuning to the Black Dyke Band Prom yesterday, on BBC Sounds. Reason being, in recent times I have developed an interest the Yorkshire brass bands. This is not least of all because I have, through work, made the acquaintance of a former trombone player of the Horbury Victoria and others (including Black Dyke, I believe). As a result of this, I was keen to rewatch Brassed Off, a film I was first introduced to when taking a guided tour of the Piece Hall in Halifax (where a small part of Brassed Off was filmed) a couple of years ago. My new colleague and I had a discussion - my Q's, and his A's - about how these brass bands - with their contests and league tables - came about. I learn that, essentially, the phenomenon came about from industry in Britain, notably the collieries of the nineteenth century, supported by employers and an opportunity for employees to have a meaningful pastime outside of their work - and I do get that. 

The minute they start playing Judith Bingham's FourMinute Mile, it is easy to understand why Black Dyke Band is so renowned. A professional ensemble, the quality shines through. Not the Salvation Army quintet on the local high street at Christmas (as good as that is). I am gagging for a big mug of  builders tea why I'm listening to Peter Grahams's Force of Nature. Can't think why?!

The chat at half time is cracking stuff as well. There are chimes of the very discussion I had with my colleague back in February. Talk of the divisions and league tables of the bands, which help to ensure players and bands maintain their standards. And talk of the music featured in Brassed Off iself: "Who could forget Tara Fitzgerald..." Indeed!

After the break it's some film favourites, including Harry Potter, and concluding with Paganini Variations.

This was a good Sunday afternoon, BBC Sounds listen. It helped me through the odious chore of bleaching my kitchen cupboards. I do look forward to being at the RAH in October, watching the Grimethorpe Colliery Band play alongside the projected film in real time.

........

I thought it would be remiss of me not to take a retrospective note of the the Wonderwall encore (featured on the First Night of the Proms) which I see has become a point of contention on social media. Maybe it should not have been a suprise to see a racket of intelligentsia worm their way out of the woodwork to condemn the piece, and how strong their views are on 'defending our culture' - as if it was ever anything but a melting pot. As we know, the forefathers of this racket were smearing the same shit on the walls in Beethoven's day. 

May I consume my lager and crisps during the broadcasts, or must I prepare myself a smorgasbord of olives and foie gras?

There is a broader theme here, where BBC presenters are disowned for splitting the odd infinitive, saying 'who' instead of 'whom...'. You get the picture.
    "This would never have been allowed at the Proms in 1900," they bemoan. And they're right. Neither would women conductors, homosexual players... all the things that make us blush to this day.

Lest we forget what it actually was: a light-hearted commiserator for the England football team. I do not understand why it needed to be more cerebral than that. Though I concede that the Black Dykes were probably not what the BBC's Director of Diversity had in mind.