Hannah Peel: 'I grew up with brass band music and it still sends shivers down my spine'

“I was given a cornet and free brass lessons at primary school,” she remembers. “And then the opportunity to join the local brass band, the Barnsley Metropolitan Band. It was a world I’d never even known before. As a child, all I knew was Irish music.”

She went on to play trombone and also performed and competed with West Yorkshire’s Hade Edge Brass Band. “Overall that sound has stayed with me permanently,” Peel says. “My trombone sadly is in my attic and doesn’t get played much anymore because I found electronic music and ended up in a different world. But it’s the one type of music that when I hear live will still send shivers down my spine…It’s a multi-sensory experience.”

Since April, Peel, who is a broadcaster on BBC Radio 3’s Night Tracks, has been fronting a ten-part series on the station, exploring the community of brass banding. It sees her highlight the world’s finest brass band music, from much-loved pieces to new compositions.

Across the series, she has been drawing a map of banding across the globe, in locations including Norway, New Zealand and Switzerland, and Peel has also been dropping into band rooms to hear recommendations from players, conductors and the community.

“Not many people know I grew up playing trombone in brass bands,” she says. “It’s such an addictive sound world. I can’t pass a band playing without waves of overwhelming nostalgia; from the band room smell to the heightened feelings when everyone in the room gets the piece, the breath, perfectly in time together.

“The community around this music is just as important as the playing, so it’s been fabulous to go into the band rooms and meet those involved. I hope those that don’t know this sound world find the show as fascinating as those who know it inside out.”

This week, for the last episode, the focus is on Yorkshire, home, of course, to the likes of the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, Black Dyke and Grimethorpe Colliery Band. Peel pays a visit to the region, with a piece inspired by artist and sculptor Barbara Hepworth, and The National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain plays a celebratory piece marking their 70th birthday.

Tuba player Gregor Spence features on the show. These days, the 25-year-old is manager of the Flowers Band, based in Gloucester. But were it not for his roots in Yorkshire, he almost certainly wouldn’t have dedicated his life so far to the world of brass banding.

Spence, originally from Barnsley, was given the opportunity to start learning a brass instrument whilst he was at school in nearby Wakefield. “No one in my family’s musical,” he says. “And I otherwise would never have had a reason to pick up a brass instrument. I was given a baritone because I was taller than most of the class, who were on cornets or trumpets.”

Within a year, Spence was given a tuba and, aged ten, he joined the Sellers Youth Band. The first time he went, “I actually ran out crying,” he admits, “because I just thought I was nowhere near good enough and it was all a bit overwhelming and I didn’t really know what to expect going into it. But I persisted.”

He’s glad he did. As well as joining, and then competing with the Elland Youth Band, Barnsley Brass and Skelmanthorpe Band, he became part of The National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain’s children’s band. “I think that is really what cemented this being a thing for life,” says Spence, who went on to study at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

“When you’re young, it (can be seen as a) bit of a weird thing to do, play a brass instrument. People in school think that’s not really a very cool thing. You go out of class for your brass lessons and they make a bit of a joke of it. But on the (children’s band) residential courses, all of a sudden you’re surrounded by like 80 kids that are all really good at their instruments. They really love it and you just feel at home.”

“I loved competitions and I still do now,” he adds. “The band I play for now, we compete at the very highest level...There’s something so satisfying about really working up a piece across a few weeks or even longer. You hear the progress. It’s a group of people all pulling in the same direction.

“You give that performance. Sometimes it goes to plan, sometimes it doesn’t. Obviously it’s great to win and do well, but equally even a contest on a bad day is still a great experience…It’s the social side as well. There’s not many hobbies you do where you get to see 30 of your best mates twice a week.”

Spence, who works in fundraising for music education charity The Benedetti Foundation, says it’s “harder than ever” to get young people interested in being part of brass banding - and one of the biggest challenges is then retaining players into adulthood. Yorkshire bands are “doing their bit” to try to nurture the next generation, he says, with initiatives to draw players in and keep them performing.

Youth sections in particular are supporting young people to learn instruments. But both Peel and Spence are testament to the value of musical opportunities in school too. “If I hadn’t been handed a brass instrument by chance in year four, I would have never found one otherwise,” Spence says. “I would have never gone to do the kind of things I’ve done or the places I’ve been with music. It was definitely one of those pivotal moments.”

Emmy-nominated Peel studied at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts and has produced a number of solo albums and collaborative releases over her career, as well as orchestrating and conducting for artists like Paul Weller. Her passion also lies with creating music for film and she has composed numerous soundtracks including for the documentary Game of Thrones: The Last Watch. For the last six years, she’s also been a regular on BBC Radio 3.

Her father was a music teacher, pianist and organist, so Peel was introduced to music from a young age. When they moved from Northern Ireland, her mother, also a teacher, encouraged her to explore orchestras and musical opportunities.

“When you move to a different place and you don’t know anybody, music is the one thing that communicates with everyone,” says Peel, who currently splits her time between North Yorkshire and Northern Ireland. “It was probably the best thing I could have had in my life at that time.”

The camaraderie was a huge part of banding for Peel, who could spend days on end with fellow players in rehearsals, competitions and marches. “Everybody is very friendly, very open and very supportive.

"But it’s a lot of hard work - two or three rehearsals a week plus competitions and concerts either locally or far away at weekends. Once you’re in that world you’re absorbed into it and it becomes quite addictive.”

She hopes her radio series highlights the “beautiful sound world” and encourages more people to see brass band performances and support their local musicians. “I don’t think that brass bands need a moment to shine because they just do what they’re doing and it’s an incredible, beautiful sound that’s very accessible,” Peel says.

“If this helps boost audiences and tell people about the unbelievable playing that’s involved and the hard work that goes into making concerts and keeping these communities alive, then that’s great.”

Brass Banding with Hannah Peel next airs on BBC Radio 3 at 8pm on Sunday, June 29. Episodes are available on BBC Sounds for 30 days.