1984- 2001
ROY NEWSOME – SOME PERSONAL MEMORIES
I was born in Elland, Yorkshire in 1930. My father worked in a woollen mill and my mother kept a small sweet shop. From the age of about five I was a keen supporter of the town band, Elland Silver. Dad was the drummer.
I always wanted to play the cornet, but he would have none of this until I’d learned to play the piano. He taught me how to read music – seems to have done a fairly good job – and then sent me off for piano lessons. War broke out when I was nine. Suddenly there were vacancies in the band, so I was given my first cornet. Sadly, the band closed down soon afterwards and its instruments went to Brighouse, where a Home Guard Band was to be formed.
My father was also a drummer in this band. When I was about twelve I got my first pair of long trousers and joined what later became known as ‘Dad’s Army’. Next, I joined Slaithwaite Band, along with mainly lads of my own age, as most older players were now in the forces.
I was having severe embouchure problems because of the formation of my teeth, and my cornet teacher arranged for me to sit in on rehearsals with Brighouse & Rastrick Band. This had a double advantage because, playing 3rd cornet, I was not aggravating my lip problem, and I was also getting first class experience with a very good band under a top class band trainer, Fred Berry.
However, this lasted only a short time and I was back at Slaithwaite, where former bandsmen were soon to return from the war. Here I played under a number of conductors, including the formidable Noel Thorpe, Milnes Wood and, briefly, the legendary Jimmy Hickman. I’d continued to play the piano, mainly for my own amusement, but now I also took an interest in the church organ. All came to an abrupt end, however when, at 18, I was called up for National Service.
Shortly after my demob, Elland Silver Band was reformed. My father became its conductor and I played solo cornet. Eventually I took over the conducting, at the age of 21, though I was also by now an organist and choirmaster, and soon to be running my own dance band
I left Elland Silver to play with Crossley’s Carpet Works Band, in the top section. After gaining much valuable experience under John Harrison and Willie Wood, I returned to conduct Elland again, helping them qualify for the finals of the Nationals in 1958. We went to London and became 4th section National Champions.
That was a turning point in my career, as I now dropped all my other activities in order to study music seriously. I took lessons with Shackleton Pollard, the renowned organist of Halifax Parish Church, who guided me through the exams for the diplomas of A.R.C.M., A.R.C.O. and the coveted F.R.C.O. Later he prepared me for Durham University’s Bachelor of Music degree. All of this was achieved through one (occasionally two) private lessons per week, whilst still working full time – first as an apprentice-trained piano tuner and later in Crossley’s carpet mill.
Following the success with Elland, I was offered the conductor-ship of Slaithwaite. In five happy years here we won the North East 2nd section contest, going on to earn 2nd prize in the finals and also winning the Grand Shield at the 1962 Belle Vue Spring Festival.
This led to me being invited to audition for the post of Bandmaster of the world-famous Black Dyke Mills Band. I spent a decade there (in two periods – 1966-70 as Bandmaster and 1972-77 as Resident Conductor – the same job but with a more posh title). I worked alongside three professional conductors – Colonel C. H. Jaeger, Geoffrey Brand and Major Peter Parkes. These years were amongst the most successful ever enjoyed by this great band, winning the National and the British Open Championships six times each - including ‘hat tricks’ at both, a ‘double’ and a ‘double-double’. My next appointment was as Musical Director of Besses o’ th’ Barn Band in Lancashire.
Meanwhile, following those examination successes I entered the teaching profession, with appointments in Elland Church of England Junior School and at Mirfield Grammar School – later to become Mirfield High.
In 1976 a new course was founded in Salford, leading to a Diploma in Band Musicianship. The combination of my experience both in teaching and banding were factors which led to my appointment as Head of Band Studies at Salford College of Technology. We later merged with Salford University, where a range of degrees are now available and where, in fact, I acquired my own doctorate – a PhD based on a thesis on Brass Band History. The Salford courses have had a significant effect on banding throughout the world.
Returning to my career in bands, I spent eight happy and successful years with Besses, the most noteworthy result being winning the British Open Championships in 1982. But we also appeared regularly on radio and TV, and fulfilled prestigious concerts and overseas tours.
Next came an offer to take over as Professional Conductor with Fairey Engineering Band. I spent only three years here, during which we became both National and British Open Champions, achieved second place in the European Championships (the only time I ever conducted at this prestigious event) and were declared ‘BBC Band of the Year’ twice. It was whilst I was with Fairey’s that I became the Presenter of Radio 2’s weekly programme ‘Listen to the Band’. I spent eight very happy years with this, now almost a national institution, being the only regular weekly programme devoted by the BBC to brass bands.
Following the end of the Fairey appointment I took over as Principal Conductor of the Bristol-based Sun Life Stanshawe Band, dedicated to proving that a band in the South West could compete successfully with the great bands from the North. Though this was never proved in the long term, as the band folded in 1996, we won the British Open in 1990 and the World Championships in Kerkrade, Holland, in 1993. This was to be my last regular appointment with a band, though I still regularly help bands on a casual basis.
The NYBB
I was Music Director of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain for 17 years, beginning in 1984 on the ‘retirement’ of my predecessor, Arthur Butterworth. I had already appeared, at Arthur’s invitation, as Course Director on the Easter courses of 1977 and 1983. I had also stood in as euphonium/bass tutor in the Summer of 1967, when dear old Tom Atkinson was ill. My son, Martin, was a member of the NYBB in the early 1980s. I therefore had a good understanding of the workings of the band, and of the privileges and responsibilities I was inheriting.
At the start of my tenure, Bill England was Secretary and Betty Anderson Chairman. In later years Philip Biggs replaced Bill, as Administrator, and for a short time, Richard Evans became Chairman. Harry Mortimer CBE was President for most of my time with the NYBB. Following his death in 1992 Elgar Howarth became his successor. Though my three predecessors, Dr. Denis, Geoffrey Brand and Arthur Butterworth, had been know as Music Advisors, I was given the grand title of Music Director.
As was normal practise, I regularly invited Guest Conductors to take courses and we commissioned several new works from eminent composers. I also regularly invited leading instrumentalists from the brass band world and the music profession to appear as soloists in our concerts. Many of these were former members of the NYBB.
For most of my years with the NYBB the band survived on the proverbial shoe-string. Mrs. Wright, as Treasurer, kept a tight reign on the band’s finances. She ensured that there was always enough money in the funds for the band to survive for at least three more years – a shrewd policy that ensured the band’s future. We welcomed modest sponsorship for a few years, firstly from British Gas and then from Mobil, but basically, the band relied on the goodwill of those who served it.
Amongst my many highlights with the NYBB I must recall the Henry Wood Promenade Concert in the August of 1989, when our Guest Conductor was Sir Charles Groves. Our trip to America in the Summer of 1996 was also memorable, for many reasons. Our two concerts in The Barbican, London stand out in my memory. The fist of these was during the Easter course of 1992, when we celebrated the band’s 40th Anniversary. No fewer than 15 former Leaders teamed up with the current Leader, Neil Fulton, on stage that evening. Phillip McCann and the renowned percussionist Evelyn Glennie were the Guest Soloists.
We returned to The Barbican during Easter 1996 for a concert organised on our behalf by two members of the LSO, Ian Bousfield – former NYBB principal trombone and trombone tutor, and Rod Franks, colleague of Maurice Murphy in the LSO. Members of LSO Brass visited the NYBB on its course in Hadfield and, for the concert’s finale, augmented the band, playing under the baton of the LSO’s charismatic Principal Conductor, the American Michael Tilson Thomas. For good measure, Lady Valerie Solti (wife of the famous orchestral conductor) was the Narrator in the band’s performance of Elgar Howarth’s Fireworks.
We regularly recorded programmes for the BBC, occasionally appeared on television and also made one L.P. and on C.D.
Away from the NYBB, almost inevitably, I became a regular adjudicator and in addition to many local and regional competitions, I officiated at Granada Band of the Year, the British and Scottish Open Championships, the All-England Masters, at National Championships in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, America, Switzerland, Norway, Holland and Belgium, and three times at the European Championships. I’ve also worked in Japan, as well as in Sweden and Luxembourg and throughout the British Isles.
One of my most rewarding appointments has been as Music Adviser to Brass in Concert, founded in 1976 as a one-off but still going strong, and now located in the prestigious hall known as The Sage Gateshead.
Though I took early retirement from my full-time job at Salford University in 1989, I’ve continued working there on a part time basis and am currently the Curator of its Brass Band Archive.
My dear wife, Muriel, has always been there to help take the strain, and we count ourselves amongst the luckiest people in the world to have had such a full and varied life.
© Dr Roy Newsome
