The Elephant March was written in 1910 as a contest march by James Ord Hume and has been popular from that year to this. It can be heard at many of the annual march contests during the summer months particularly in the UK.

One of the earliest pre-First World War recordings of the march was by Besses O'th' Barn Band.
On this show it is played by Black Dyke Band conducted by James Watson in 2008.

Enjoy the show...

Marcus Venables is a Canadian musician and composer from Toronto.

He is graduate of the University of Toronto in trumpet performance and has become a much sought-after soloist, conductor and composer. He has won several composition competitions and continues to receive commissions from a wide range of ensembles.

He began learning music through the Salvation Army and is currently the principal cornet of the Canadian Staff Band of the Salvation Army. As a soloist and conductor, he has travelled across Canada, the United States, and Europe. In June 2016, Marcus was a soloist at the Birmingham Symphony Hall in England with the International Staff Band.

As a composer, Marcus has received numerous awards including the 2011 Uni Brass prize for ‘Lord of my Youth’, 2013 Just music competition for ‘Concerto for Brass Band’, and the 2019 Cory Band composition competition for his piece ‘Colossus’, just to name a few. In addition, Marcus works for The Salvation Army Music and Gospel Arts Department at the Canada and Bermuda Territorial Headquarters in Toronto.

We are featuring The Gathering one of his compositions on this weeks show.

Ian Porthouse was born in Cumbria in 1967 into a family of musicians: his father was a cornetist and mother a pianist/singer.

At the age of five he began to take an interest in his dad's trumpet and joined Flimby Saxhorn Silver Band on 3rd Cornet where his father was principal cornet; within five years he would take over the end chair himself.

Also, around this time Ian became a founder member of the Cumbria Youth Brass Band under Richard Evans, who was to have a big impact on his career.

At the age of 16, Ian became the leader of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain and led the band for three years in total.

Richard Evans invited Ian to join the Leyland Vehicles Band in 1984 and within six months he was the new principal cornet at the age of 17.

In 1987 he went on to play with Desford Colliery Band under James Watson; the band became National Champions three years in succession.

In 1992, Ian was appointed Principal Cornet with the Black Dyke Mills Band, a position held by only five people in the previous 40 years, leading them to victory at the National Championships in the Royal Albert Hall in 1994.

During this time he played in such illustrious venues as the Carnegie Hall in New York and featured as a soloist with Phillip Smith, Principal Trumpet with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

In January 1995, Ian joined the Tredegar Town Band as Principal Cornet and resident conductor. He also conducted the Tredegar Youth Band and took them from National youth section to National 3rd section in two years.

1997 saw Ian accept an invitation to become Principal Cornet with the Yorkshire Building Society Brass Band under Musical Director David King. In that year, the band retained its European Champions title and became British Open Champion for the first time in its history, with Ian gaining the award for most outstanding soloist.

In 1999 Ian became musical director of Pennine Brass, taking them from the 2nd Section to the Championship Section in two years, including consecutive appearances at the National Brass Band Championships in 2000 and 2001, and numerous other contest victories, including the French Open title in 2001.

Ian gained another two National Championship wins with the Williams Fairey Band in 2002 and 2003 under Alan Withington.

Ian took up the baton with Tredegar Town Band in 2008 and has led the band to the National Finals every year since. Ian is also the only conductor ever to lead a band to victory at the Grand Shield and British Open in the same year with Tredegar’s memorable double in 2010.

Ian is currently Director of Brass Band Studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire and is in high demand as a professional conductor, tutor and adjudicator.

 This week we are featuring Tredegar Town Band with Ian conducting the band 

Chris Wormald is an arranger, composer, conductor, horn player, pianist, and adjudicator from Lancashire in England. He has played the French Horn professionally for over 30 years in many UK orchestras, the highlight being with the Philharmonia at The Barbican in London, and he was a multiple award-winning comprehensive secondary school music as a teacher for 34 years in England, becoming 2001 Classic FM Music Teacher of The Year at a major ceremony in London.

Chris has over one hundred published brass and wind band arrangements worldwide, many of them recorded by Black Dyke, Cory and Brighouse & Rastrick brass bands and many more brass and wind bands around the world. He also has over one hundred national and international adjudications to his credit, ranging from the Muse Wind Band Festival in Singapore to multiple Swiss, French, and English National Brass Band Championships.

As a teenage Tenor Horn player, Chris was a member of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain together with Nicholas Childs, Steven Mead, and many leading figures in the brass band world today and played with the NYBBGB under Harry Mortimer at Belle Vue in 1978.

Following his studies at university in 1983, Chris has conducted brass and wind bands professionally, he has also performed, toured, adjudicated and worked all over the world. Highlights include conducting in North Carolina, USA, Brighouse & Rastrick Band at Leek Arts Festival, Grimethorpe in concerts from Reading Town Hall to South Wales and being Musical Director of Wingates Band following on from Howard Snell. He guest conducted Black Dyke Band in both 2018 and 2019 performing his own arrangements.

Chris joined James Shepherd Versatile Brass as a French Horn soloist for five years in 1990, the year he was also appointed to Smithills School in Bolton as Director of Music. Chris quickly formed his internationally renowned Smithills Senior Brass, Symphonic Wind and Big bands and over the next twenty years of competition together they won over sixty, major national and international competitions including becoming inaugural World Brass Band Champions in Kerkrade, Holland in 2005 (WMC Adult, 3rd Section) and winning sixteen National Festival of Music For Youth titles at the Royal Festival Hall in London and Symphony Hall in Birmingham with his Symphonic Wind Band and Senior Brass Band.

Chris conducted his Smithills musicians all over the World on over twenty sell-out concert tours abroad, from Norway to New Zealand and Japan to five concert tours of America in addition to eight times at the Royal Albert Hall in London before he retired from teaching in 2015 to work full time as a freelance conductor, horn player, pianist, arranger, and adjudicator. He is thrilled and honoured to have his arrangements published by Obrasso.

We are featuring two of Christopher's arrangements on this week's show..

My new audiobook 'All in a Day's Work' has taken over two-years to produce including the Covid-19 lockdown times when sessions at the recording studio had to be put on hold.  But at last here it is via the publisher Findaway Voices in Ohio, USA  you can now access the audio book in Calderdale Library. To access the Library website please clink on to this link:    https://calderdaleuk.overdrive.com/media/6394547                  Enjoy the book...

Louis J. Panella (1881 - March 13, 1940) was an American musician, composer, and teacher. He wrote many popular songs, both music and lyrics, and many pieces for concert bands. He was the brother of Frank Panella. Louis played trumpet with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and taught trumpet at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University). One of his best-known composition is a concert band march, The Pitt Panther which he wrote in 1923.

Frank A. Panella (January 14, 1878 – May 13, 1953) was a composer and arranger for band, best known for his march On the Square, which he wrote in 1916. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and began playing clarinet at age seven. He was a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, taught at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Tech, served as director of the Grand Army Band and the Westinghouse Air Break Company Band, and founded the Panella Music Company. He died in Crafton, Pennsylvania at the age of 75.

Johannes Hanssen (b: 2 December 1874 in Ullensaker – d: 25 November 1967 in Oslo) was a Norwegian bandmaster, composer, and teacher. He was bandmaster of the Oslo Military Band from 1926 to 1934 and again from 1945 to 1946. He received the King's Order of Merit in Gold and King Haakon VII's Jubilee Medal.

His most famous composition is his Valdresmarsjen (Valdres March), published by Boosey and Hawkes in 1904. A march celebrating the beautiful Valdres region in Norway that lies between Oslo and Bergen. The main theme is the signature fanfare for the Valdres Battalion, which is based on an ancient melody formerly played on the medieval Lur, an uncoiled wooden wind instrument.

Numerous settings for brass band exist in addition to various arrangements for concert band and orchestra.

We are featuring this popular brass band march on this show and is played by the band of the Yorkshire Imperial Metals Band in 1975 and conducted by Trevor Walmsley DFC.

In addition to the 12 chapters the book closes with an epilogue.

To listen to the book in its entirety it can be puchased at almost 40 online audiobook outlets worldwide. Below are just three with more to follow:

https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/Christopher_Helme_All_in_a_Day_s_Work?id=AQAAAEA8UW4RQM

https://www.audiobooks.co.uk/audiobook/all-in-a-days-work/531413

https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9780956214997-all-in-a-day-s-work

This is the first of my new podcast series which I am calling Bandstand Master Brass Series. This will not be replacing my regular Sunday Bandstand two-hour weekly show. But this new show will give me the opportunity of presenting some of the longer pieces of music from the world of contests, solos and some of those concert pieces that rarely if ever are played to today, whether it be a live performance or on the radio.
If you have an suggestions, requests or questions about the world of brass bands please contact me on my email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This podcast will not be weekly but every two to three weeks.

Enjoy the podcast.

Chris