Barton Town Band has had their best year ever in 2007 winning the Northern Area Regional Championships and then gaining 2nd place in the National Brass Band Final of Great Britain. 2007 also saw the launch of a third band in the form of a learner’s ensemble and their first CD recording. So when I caught up with them in rehearsal recently I asked Jon Evison their Chairman what were their future plans?
JE: We have an interesting concert season proposed and a demanding contest programme commencing with our return to the Northern Area contest in Darlington on 30th March. This competition is causing us to focus on a test piece called “Three Part Invention” by Kenneth Downie and we will be welcoming back Richard Evans to take the band again.
SH: Richard is a well known conductor used to working with some of the best bands in the world, how do you all get on and how do you persuade someone of his calibre to conduct you?
JE: Well it’s a fact Richard is famous, he has often been described as the Alex Fergusson of Brass Bands and it is sometimes a challenge to get a space in his diary but he has followed the band’s progress over recent years, recognises and applauds our commitment to the development of young players, he knows some of us personally and generally likes the well attended positive hard working and friendly rehearsals he has conducted and winning is winning at all levels.
SH: Do you think you can win the Area competition?
JE: We always go into competition well rehearsed and with our heads up, we are never there just to make up numbers and if other bands win they will have had to play very well. I do have to say though, we have again stepped up a division and I know very little about the other competing bands but I am confident in our players’ abilities, know they will work hard and know we will perform well. I don’t think you can ask more of people.
SH: I mentioned the formation of the learner band in my introduction, why did you form this group?
JE: We have an ever expanding membership with over 70 young learners. The Youth Band has been operating for 3 years now and initially it allowed children to join at a starter level, this opportunity is no longer available as the skill levels in the youth band have increased so to offer this opportunity we had no option other than to create another band as it is vitally important to give young players an early opportunity to develop their ensemble playing and the children love it.
SH: You have been described as a zealot with regard to encouraging children to play music why are you so keen on this?
JE: I make no apologies and I am guilty as charged! I think it is vitally important for young people to engage in clubs, sports, arts and social activities especially if they are interacting with adults, it sets young people up with a number of essential skills they will use for the rest of their lives. I look at my own experiences; I could never be described as a sports man but have experienced tremendous enjoyment from playing initially the clarinet, and the opportunities as my skills developed out stripped most of my contemporaries in the sporting arena. I think it’s true to say at least half of young people find sport difficult so we have to offer an alternative. Unfortunately because instrument tuition is expensive to provide we are generally poor at doing this in England. The benefits of being involved in the performing arts, especially instrumental performance, are well documented, concentration levels are increased which give a boost to academic achievement and confidence is built and developed through performance. There are a lot of opportunities out there that being confident and being able to perform can open up.
SH: Come on, surely you’re not saying we should concentrate more on the arts than sport, what about sports health benefits?
JE: Certainly not but there should at least be parity and as you have asked the question I suppose I should answer it. The performing arts are a life time learning experience and a skill that people of all ages can experience together, you don’t have to retire from participation aged 40 and there are no gender barriers. The instrumental arts allow both sexes to compete with equality on a level playing field. As to sports health benefits, yes they are obvious and so are sports injuries, what perhaps is less obvious is that brass players have a very well developed lung capacity and a two hour band practice twice a week, plus home practice is quite a demanding fitness regime and in today’s society of people living longer dementia is a sadly increasing occurrence. If you regularly exercise your brain as instrumentalists have to, this has a proven positive effect.
SH: You said in your previous answer that providing instrument tuition is expensive, how does the band achieve this without crippling costs?
JE: We have been very fortunate to have received grants for a significant amount of instruments, this allows us to provide instruments on free loan negating the need for parents to purchase £300- £2500 instruments. This has obvious advantages, an important one being they can be handed back if the young person calls it a day without cost, we do however make a charge for lessons which works out at £4.50/week. Unfortunately we cannot avoid this as we employ graduate teachers. However, we never turn anyone away and if these subs are a problem we have contingencies to help any individual who needs support.
SH: £4.50 seems very reasonable when that includes an instrument; do these young players have any other expense?
JE: I agree as it also includes a uniform they also have the opportunity of attending up to 4 band practices weekly, the only other expense is if they wish to enter grade examination there is an entry fee and music to purchase.
SH: Am I to understand that you have launched a 4th band?
JE: That’s right in January we formed a Community Band which is a mixture of adults and young people, we were
becoming increasingly concerned that a number of our young players needed a more demanding environment to push them on. I was determined that we wouldn’t hold their development back, also we had a number of ex players still wanting to play and a small number of players wanting to step down from the demands of the competing band. This seems to be a good solution for all, it’s early days yet but already we are getting 20 players attending practices.
SH: I see you are advertising for players in the Bartonian, is this how you normally recruit people?
JE: No. We normally hold assemblies in the local junior schools and young people come to us after sparking an interest in this way, we decided to expand this because in the junior schools we are recruiting the under 11’s, we have some big
instruments in brass bands - Tubas and Trombones and we needed older children or their parents to take these instruments up so this is part of a strategy to encourage this.
SH: Do you have any future projects on the drawing board?
JE: The short answer is yes and lots of them, we are still negotiating with North Linc’s council to acquire land to build a music centre in Barton, we are developing an original brass band concert performance with visual and SFX and we would like to commission Bruce Frazer to compose an original musical work based around Barton’s industrial agricultural and maritime heritage. We will be recording another CD this year and we would like to have both Bruce and Richard Evans work with the youth band. Unfortunately, all these plans cost the organisation money, so it’s doubtful we will achieve them all this year but there are plenty of years left.
SH: Jonathan thank you very much.

If anyone would like to contact Jonathan he is available on 07976 276895 or e/mail
jonathan.evison@gmail.com and don’t forget to check out their web site www.bartontownband.com

Sue Hobdey