'We get communities dancing': How Bradford's brass heritage still brings people together

It’s a sunny Saturday in Centenary Square, the heart of Bradford city centre, and a hundred or so people are dancing to a brass band in a raucous parade that’s part carnival, part flashmob and part protest. They’re a varied bunch. Older people on mobility scooters sway alongside beaming parents with excitable kids on their shoulders. The city has ground to a halt to watch. Children playing in the water fountain stare, and the Wetherspoons beer garden is a sea of smartphones capturing the action as the wacky parade passes. 

The Peace Artistes, a Bradford-based street band, lead the group in a blaze of red and gold from head to toe. The band leader is sporting a fez, while others opt for sparkly blazers, sunglasses and garish gold chains. Their music is, above all else, loud. Megaphones, whistles, drums and an eruption of brass are blasting music from around the world.  

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The band are participating in the Big Brass Blowout, part of Bradford’s UK City of Culture celebrations. The weekend-long event has seen numerous bands play across the city’s streets and venues to celebrate the area’s rich brass history. For more than a century, brass bands have been pillars of the community in and around Bradford. The tradition began during the industrial revolution, when factories, mills and mines started bands to give workers a reason to come together. 

Bradford is still peppered with former mills and factories, their chimneys towering over the terraced houses that surround them. But when the industrial revolution faded, the city’s love of brass did not, although many of today’s bands would be unrecognisable to Victorians. In the Big Brass Blowout’s lineup, traditional brass sits alongside afrobeats, reggae and soul. But nothing demonstrates the evolution of brass better than The Peace Artistes’ conga through the city. 

The band uses brass as a means of protest, to garner support for their chosen causes from nuclear disarmament to rejecting Donald Trump. Their sound differs from traditional brass, drawing on global and local influences. 

“We play African music, we play a bit of reggae, we play Latin, and we do a bit of pop,” says Kelly Kenyon, who plays the group’s sousaphone, a tuba-like instrument. “Street bands are known for grabbing from different cultures, which makes the band more inclusive. People that like jazz will come and play for us, people that like pop tunes might come and hear us. I think it’s a nice way to be.”

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Bradford’s melting pot – nearly 40% of people come from non-white backgrounds – gives the group a wealth of cultural inspiration on their doorstep. The band maintains one crucial aspect of traditional brass culture though: a strong community focus. 

“We do like to protest. But the majority of the stuff we do is getting communities jumping up and down and dancing,” says Kenyon. 

Despite the growth of modern brass, traditional bands remain popular, and Bradford has an international leader in the field. The 170-year-old Black Dyke Band, founded at Black Dyke textile mill, are one of the best brass bands in the world and have played with megastars including Paul McCartney and Elton John.

The backbone of their success is the many locally led bands in the area, which allow people of all abilities to nurture their talent. One of these, Hall Royd Band, celebrated its 80th birthday with a concert on Big Brass Blast weekend. Conductor Mark Sherwood says welcoming people of all abilities and ages has been crucial to their longevity. 

“We do a wonderful job of teaching people from scratch,” he says. “They may not know a thing about music, and somebody like myself will teach them the rudimentals, the theory and the joy of just making a big noise out of an instrument. It’s just a wondrous thing. 

“We’re a big musical family. It doesn’t matter how good you are, we’ll always treat everybody the same.” 

It’s this ‘something for everybody’ approach that has kept brass bands alive. Hall Royd was initially founded as part of a Methodist church but now welcomes members of all faiths. 

The mantra applies to the music too. According to Sherwood, the secret to brass’s endurance is playing a variety of songs that people recognise and enjoy. 

“We do pop songs, which people will sing along to. We do some folk songs, which people may know, but if they don’t, they’ll be joyful, and they can join in by clapping or whistling or singing. We’re doing music from The Mandalorian today, which is a famous Disney series which maybe the younger generations will recognise as well.”

It’s a shamelessly crowd-pleasing approach, but one that explains why brass bands remains so popular: they put their community first. 

Bradford’s City of Culture celebrations run all year. Find out more here.

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