THERE’S NOWT SO BRITISH AS A BRASS BAND

And a new show reveals just how fierce the rivalry is at the country’s biggest competitions

Football fans are only too familiar with the phenomenon. A player becomes a team’s star. So a more prestigious team poaches them, and suddenly the star player is playing in different colours – and against their old team-mates.

Except in this world there’s a big difference: money. None changes hands here, for this is not football but another competitive juggernaut: brass banding.

Back in 2015, Helen Williams and her husband Glyn were members of the famous Foden’s Band in Sandbach, Cheshire and living in nearby Manchester. Helen, who plays the flugelhorn and cornet, and Glyn, who plays the euphonium, met at band practice and they spent their weekends travelling all over the country, competing in the various brass banding contests.

Then, after being approached by a rival band in Wales, they did something quite remarkable. They uprooted their whole lives, moving house and changing jobs, so they could play for a more prestigious outfit. ‘It sounds mad, but I guess it shows how seriously we take it,’ Helen admits. ‘The chance to play with the Cory Band was the chance of a lifetime. They’re the numberone band in the world and they tour abroad, which is exciting.’

If your only knowledge of brass bands comes from Brassed Off, then a new four-part series for Sky will be an eye-opener. Mention of the film, in which Pete Postlethwaite leads the Grimethorpe Colliery Band to victory in the National Championships against all the odds, results in a sigh from the leading lights of the real brass band world.

‘Anything to raise the profile of brass banding is good, and it did,’ says Philip Harper, musical director of the Cory Band. ‘But true to life? Maybe years ago, but not now.’ The reason? The required pieces are now more technically challenging and while showstoppers like the William Tell Overture (the winning anthem in the film) are as rousing as ever, they are unlikely to clinch the silverware these days.

In the series, cameras follow bands from all over the UK to the big contests. As well as the Nationals, there’s the British Open, in which adjudicators sit inside a tented box, unable to see the bands.

One episode focuses on more informal contests such as the

Whit Friday event in Saddleworth, Greater Manchester, which sees bands march round the countryside.

‘ It’s all- encompassing,’ says

Helen. ‘We rehearse a couple of nights a week and most weekends have events and competitions. And competitions are fierce.’ So much so that the judges’ lunches are scrutinised before they get them, in case messages have been smuggled in by those hoping to sway them. Yet brass bands are much easier to get into than orchestras. ‘They are one of the easiest ensembles to put together,’ says Philip. ‘All the instruments play in the treble clef, which makes it straightforward. Also, the instruments are relatively cheap, which makes it accessible.’

In the show, Helen and Glyn duet on a musical interpretation of Romeo And Juliet – and the flugelhorn and the euphonium make quite the double act. What happens when they practise separate pieces at home, though? You must be able to hear that euphonium three streets away, and the flugelhorn is not exactly quiet. ‘ We have to take turns,’ Helen says. ‘Otherwise it would be chaos.’

Some of Britain’s top brass banders

Ewan McGregor, Tara Fitzgerald and Pete Postlethwaite in Brassed Off