The Fairey Band is a

brass band A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularl ...

based in Heaton Chapel in

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

. The band has achieved fame in modern music circles with its appearances playing

Acid Brass Acid Brass is a musical collaboration between Turner-Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller and the Williams Fairey Brass Band. The project is based on fusing the music of a traditional brass band with acid house and Detroit techno. History Aci ...

although they still play traditional brass band music and participate each year in the Whit Friday Brass Band contests. Its name comes from Sir Richard Fairey and the

Fairey Aviation Company The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire that designed important military aircraft, including the ...

, famous in later years for the Fairey Delta 2 aircraft - the first aircraft in level flight to exceed 1,000 mph, and had an important contribution to the shape of

Concorde Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...

and its drooped nose. An early signature tune for the band was Beaufighters, after a fighter aircraft

Bristol Beaufighter The Bristol Type 156 Beaufighter (often called the Beau) is a British multi-role aircraft developed during the Second World War by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. It was originally conceived as a heavy fighter variant of the Bristol Beaufor ...

made at Fairey in Heaton Chapel (and elsewhere) for "Ministry of Aircraft Production".

Fairey Aviation

The band was formed in 1937 as the Fairey Aviation Works Band by workers at the aircraft factory. This was at a time when the company was producing aircraft that would see plenty of action in the first few weeks of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, although sadly few of its aircraft would be of sufficient calibre to pose a real threat to German aircraft. Its aircraft, especially the old-fashioned yet versatile and destructive

Fairey Swordfish The Fairey Swordfish is a retired biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. It was a ...

, mainly carried

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

es for the

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, RN fighting arms. it is a primarily helicopter force, though also operating the Lockhee ...

. Fairey were taken over by

Westland Aircraft Westland Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer located in Yeovil, Somerset. Formed as a separate company by separation from Petters Limited just before the start of the Second World War, Westland had been building aircraft since 1915. Du ...

Yeovil Yeovil () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England. It is close to Somerset's southern border with Dorset, west of London, south of Bristol, west of Sherborne and east of Taunton. The population of the bui ...

, chiefly due to its innovative Fairey Rotodyne. The band's name was shortened to the Fairey Band in the 1960s and changed to the Fairey Engineering Works Band in the late 1970s.

Sponsorship

The band became known as the Williams Fairey Engineering Band when Fairey Engineering Ltd was taken over by

Williams Holdings Williams Holdings was a major United Kingdom, British Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History The company was established by Nigel Rudd and Brian McGow ...

in 1986. In the mid-1990s, the band shortened its name to the Williams Fairey Band. In 2000 Williams Holdings was broken up and Williams Fairey Engineering was spun off into the Kidde plc

fire safety Fire safety is the set of practices intended to reduce destruction caused by fire. Fire safety measures include those that are intended to prevent wikt:ignition, the ignition of an uncontrolled fire and those that are used to limit the spread a ...

company, although the band retained the ''Williams Fairey'' name. The sponsorship by Kidde finished at the end of 2002. In 2003, they were sponsored by FP (Music), a subsidiary of Fosters Partners (Asia), and the band's releases reflected this with the name Fairey FP (Music) Band. At the beginning of 2010 the band acquired a new sponsorship in the shape of the British brass instrument maker Geneva Instruments and became known as the Fairey (Geneva) Brass Band. This arrangement ceased during 2011 whence the band reverted to its original name of the Fairey Band. Although no longer sponsored, the band still use the same bandroom location, where rehearsals take place. The road has now been named after Sir Richard Fairey (see address in panel).

Contest record

Whit Friday Whit Friday, meaning "white Friday", is the name given to the first Friday after Pentecost or Whitsun (White Sunday). The day has a cultural significance in North West England, as the date on which the annual Whit Walks are traditionally held ...

over a hundred brass bands take part in a day of brass band contesting at a number of venues around Tameside and Saddleworth. These results do not contribute to world rankings. For each of these two areas bands are placed at each venue and then placed for each area. Recently Fairey have concentrated in playing around the Saddleworth Area Whit Friday brass venues and have obtained the following placings: Saddleworth: 2016:2nd. 2015:1st 2014:3rd 2013:2nd Tameside: 2012:2nd 2011:2nd 2010:1st The band has been successful at the major national contests since its inception in 1937, however this was curtailed following the loss of company sponsorship in 2002. Following several lean contesting years, and a considerable rebuilding process, 2010 saw a remarkable resurgence in the band's fortunes. They achieved overall victory in the Tameside Whit Friday competitions and an invitation to the 2011 European Brass Band Championship in Montreux due to their victory at the 2010 English National Brass Band Championship. They placed 6th at Montreux. Further success followed with runners up spots at the 2010 British Open and Brass in Concert Championships, and a 3rd place at the National Championship finals at London's Albert Hall. Full contest winning record: National Champions of Great Britain: 1945, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1965, 1986, 1993, 2002, 2003 British Open Champions: 1941, 1942, 1945, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1956, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1979, 1987, 1993, 1998 English National Champions: 2010 All England Masters Champions: 1996, 1997 European Champions: 1994 Brass in Concert Champions: 1996 North West Area Champions: 1947, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1959, 1963, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1992, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2014, 2015 BBC Television Champion Brass: 1976, 1977, 1979 BBC Best of Brass: 1978 Granada Television Band of the Year: 1979, 1980 BBC Radio Band of the Year: 1987, 1988

Musical directors

* Harry Mortimer * Leonard Lamb * Kenneth Dennison * Walter Hargreaves * Roy Newsome * Major Peter Parkes * James Gourlay * Howard Snell * Alan Withington * Simon Stonehouse * Philip Chalk * Russell Gray * Garry Cutt

References

External links

The Fairey Band

WFEL - the company that used to be Williams Fairey

Fairey Band Contest results
- The Whit Friday results are at the bottom of the referenced page.

Video clips

Collection of clips

''Festmusic der Stadt Wien'' with Fairey's history

Festival
at

Delph Delph (Old English ''(ge)delf'' a quarry) is a village in the civil parish of Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies amongst the Pennines o ...

in 1998.
Acid Brass
at the Innocent Drinksbr>Village Fete
in 2007.
Innocent Village Fete
in 2007 with the

Blaydon Races "Blaydon Races" ( Roud #3511) is a Geordie folk song of 1862, with lyrics by George Ridley written in a style deriving from music hall. It celebrates the horse races held at Blaydon in North East England that year, although mostly composed ...

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, Borough of Camden (and historical ...

. {{Authority control Musical groups established in 1937 British brass bands Music in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport Fairey Aviation Company Musical groups from Greater Manchester