Brass Barrack Street Concert Band

BRASS is a two part radio documentary on the Barrack Street Concert Band. Written and produced by playwright, Jim Nolan, and edited by Wayne Browne, Brass will be broadcast on WLRfm at 11am on December 29th and 30th

The Barrack Street Concert Band has been making music in Waterford since its formation in 1870 in the Mount Sion Christian Brothers School on Barrack Street. For more than 140 years the band has contributed richly to the cultural and social life of Waterford, an enduring presence in the ever-changing narrative of the ancient city.

In return for that contribution, the band has staked a permanent place in the affections of the people of Waterford. At grand civic and religious gatherings, on key sporting occasions, on the bandstands of Ballybricken and The People's Park, several generations of its members, many from the same families, have, through music, enabled the city and its citizens to tell its story.

The centrepiece of the band's programme is its Annual Concert which this year took place on Friday, November 18th at the Theatre Royal in Waterford. As well as being a key fundraiser, this event represents a welcome opportunity for the band to flex its creative muscles and in recent years its members have been proud to perform with singers such as Ronan Tynan and West End musical star, Paul Monaghan.

Using the lead up to and the concert itself as its narrative backdrop, the radio documentary, Brass, will set out to record the story of the Barrack St. Band. Through the voices of its present and surviving former members, the programmes will unfold the public and personal histories of the band as well as focusing on its present day activities. The documentary will examine what being in the band means to individual members and will explore the proud tradition where families from the hinterland of the street which gave the band its name can trace membership going back three and four generations. In summary, the documentary will seek to record, affirm and celebrate the quintessential relationship between the band and the community it serves.

Produced by Jim Nolan and Wayne Browne, a team with a proven track record in the field of radio documentaries, Brass will seek to satisfy the criteria of the Sound and Vision Scheme with regard, specifically, to Quality, Additionality and Heritage.

From left: Mark Fitzgerlad, Bandmaster, Barrack Street Concert Band, playwright, Jim Nolan and Michael Rowe, Band President.