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This programme has exclusive access to the Cory and Tredegar Brass Bands of South Wales based in two of the poorest communities in Britain. Very few of their players are professional musicians and most have ordinary day jobs. None of them are paid. Yet give them a trumpet, cornet, flugel or horn and these ordinary people reveal their extraordinary talents - and a jaw-dropping work ethic. This film takes us into the unique world of brass banding; a Welsh tradition taken to its dizzy heights by two astonishing bands who regularly sell out arenas across the world. Cory and Tredegar are committed, competitive and have a camaraderie that’s part and parcel of their success. And just like their instruments, each individual band member has a personal back story and reason for being there.
We follow the Cory and Tredegar Bands to the Welsh Championships and an epic brass battle in Wrexham, North Wales. Pride, passion, perseverance: it’s all in a day’s work for the brass banders. The programme delves into the history of brass banding revealing how it was forged in the fires of industry – paid for and encouraged by industrial bosses keen to keep their workers out of the pubs and on the straight and narrow. We also meet some of the individual players in the bands. Conductors Ian Porthouse (Tredegar) and Phil Harper (Cory) are the only paid members of each band. They reveal the secrets to each band’s success as the programme follows four weeks of rehearsals running up to the championships. Individual band members tell their own stories including Tim, who overcame his tearaway youth to excel at the tuba, Ian, who juggles 2 kids and day job as a head-teacher, Rob who postponed his kidney transplant to play in the competition and Leanne who found love on the brass-banding scene and is now married to the conductor.