Ken Hirst
Secretary of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band who kept the show on the road after the pit closed
KEN HIRST, who has died aged 90, was, for 42 years, secretary of the celebrated Grimethorpe Colliery Band; nicknamed “Mr Grimethorpe”, he was thought by many to be the model for Danny (played by Pete Postlethwaite), the conductor who keeps his band together following the closure of their pit, in Mark Herman’s 1996 film Brassed Off.
The eldest son of a colliery official, Ken Hirst was born on April 28 1927 in the Yorkshire pit village of Goldthorpe and was educated at nearby Cudworth Modern School and the local technical college. During the Second World War he served for a time as a Bevin Boy.
He began his working life as a colliery manager’s secretary with the National Coal Board before graduating to personnel, and spent his entire working life with the board in the South Yorkshire Coalfield.
During his early years in the Grimethorpe Colliery offices, Hirst found himself sharing a desk with the colliery band’s conductor, Henry Mileman, and the band’s secretary, Reg Alderson. When Alderson retired in 1953 Hirst succeeded him, initially taking on the dual roles of secretary and treasurer.
The band had been founded in 1917 as Grimethorpe Colliery Institute Band and financed by a penny a week subsidy from the workforce. All its members were then employed by the colliery. By the time Hirst became involved the band was in decline, but in 1959 he turned to the conductor George Thompson, who had led other works’ bands, under whose charismatic leadership the Grimethorpe band would enjoy an unprecedented period of success.
Equipped with new instruments courtesy of the Coal Industry Social Welfare Association, Grimethorpe won the Open Championship of Great Britain in 1967 and in 1969, narrowly missing out on the title in 1968. Crowned National Champions in 1970, they became the dominant force at the annual Mineworkers’ National Brass Band Contest, held in Blackpool.
Following Thompson’s retirement in 1972, it was Hirst who then invited the conductor, composer and trumpeter Elgar Howarth to become the band’s new professional conductor and musical adviser. Following success in the Granada Band of the Year Competition, Howarth turned to composers new to the medium, such as Harrison Birtwistle, Derek Bourgeois, Hans Werner Henze, Thea Musgrave and others, to create new works for the band.
Before long the Grimethorpe band was sharing concert platforms with Howarth and his London Sinfonietta, and in 1974, alongside the Black Dyke Mills Band, it became the first brass band to appear at the Proms. As well as making an appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest, they released numerous records and enjoyed a productive association with the singer-songwriter Peter Skellern.
Hirst was heavily involved in preparing the band’s, by now annual, world tours. In 1976, with the Cory Band, the Grimethorpe band visited America for the Bicentennial celebrations. A visit to Montepulciano in Tuscany in 1979 became the subject of an ITV documentary, Arrividerci Grimethorpe.
Hirst’s biggest challenge came in 1992 when it was announced that the colliery would close. With 19 of the band’s 25 members facing redundancy, things looked bleak. Thanks to Hirst’s success in finding private sponsorship, however, only three players were lost and the band’s triumphant success at that year’s National Championships formed the basis for the subsequent hit film, Brassed Off.
Hirst had retired from Grimethorpe Colliery itself in 1987 following a heart attack and eventually ended his association with the band in 1994.
He is survived by his wife Maureen and son, David, a reporter and presenter with ITV Yorkshire.
Ken Hirst, born April 28 1927, died May 26 2017