04/09/2024
When the BBC stopped broadcasting 'Listen To The Band' about 6 years ago, we decided to start a brass band programme of our own, and continue the tradition, from the earlier days of the Listen To The Band, of going out to record a brass band for each programme.
Our producer and most of our technical crew are retired BBC sound engineers who used to work regularly on Listen To The Band on Radio 2, and Bandstand on Radio 3.
East Leeds Community Radio broadcasts our monthly radio programme over the internet so that it can be heard from anywhere in the world, and we now have a very well equipped outside broadcast truck from which we can record our sessions.
As well as making broadcast quality recordings of the band's music, we do interviews with M.D., chair, any soloists, plus anyone else who has a good tale to tell about the band.
We can do evening sessions anywhere within an hour's drive from North Derbyshire (so that our presenter, Andy, can get there for 6pm after work hours), or weekend sessions further afield. Due to the fact we're a completely voluntary operation, we have to restrict ourselves to bands within an hour or so's drive from Leeds, or we can go a bit further if we can get two bands in the same venue for a weekend session.
Most programmes are recorded in the band's own rehearsal room, but bands occasionally choose a nearby hall or church if their bandroom has particularly poor acoustics, is noisy, or doesn't allow us to get our 7 ton truck next to the building and to safely run cables in.
For an evening session, our timings usually run something like:
4pm We arrive with the van, load the gear in and set up. This takes a couple of hours.
6pm (ish) we can start recording interviews in the van.
7.30 or 8 (usually whenever you normally start a rehearsal) record the music. On average this takes 2.5 hours. The better rehearsed you are, and the fewer retakes we need to do to fix things, the quicker it is!
After the music recording we can do any interviews with people who couldn’t make it earlier on, and then Andy records the links for the programme. While we do that, our crew will derig the bandroom so that we’re ready for a quick getaway at the end. We are likely to be completely finished some time between 11 and 12pm.
If we do a weekend session, the amount of time involved can be the same, though often, bands choose a more relaxed session with, say, a lunch break to give the band time to rest their chops.
Please get in touch if your band hasn't been on the programme before and you'd like to take part.
Our programme is run entirely by volunteers and no money changes hands in either direction.
You can get a good idea of what our programmes are like by having a listen to some of our past programmes at http://elcr.org.uk/from-the-bandroom
