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‘I’ve got the Hovis ad in one ear and the Battle of Orgreave in the other’: my obsession with brass bands
Why has a folk musician spent the last three years exploring the world of brass bands? Martin Green on how his obsession led to a documentary series, an audio drama, an album and, now, a live show
It’s hard to describe the buzz from standing next to a brass band That documentary series took me down to the depths of a disused mine with a miner who had been fighting a picket line conviction for 37 years, and to the heady heights of the national championships at the Royal Albert Hall, where I understood for the first time why competition can be so valuable as a point of focus. “People just stopped talking about it,” observed one of the documentary’s interviewees, reflecting on the trauma of the strike, the closing of the mines and the gutting of these communities. It’s a full brass band on stage, and I narrate, talking about the amazing people I’ve met intercut with excerpts from the interviews.
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