MUSIC – at the social, on the march, and at the rally

Culture has always been part of the Tyne & Wear May Day events. Our marches have almost invariably been led by a local brass band. Our Exhibition Park (and before that, Leazes Park) rallies always finished with a band performance on stage.

When, in 2018, we moved the end-of-march rally to Grey’s Monument, we followed that with an advertised social, and invited performers, at the Tyneside Irish Centre. In 2019, for the first time in many years, we extended our celebration to more than one day, by holding the May Day social on Wednesday 1 May, as a prelude to the march and rally on Saturday 4 May.

The Covid pandemic prevented any 2020 events, and in 2021 our rally was entirely online, but we made sure that poetry and music were included. Now that we are ‘out of quarantine’, we are returning to a two-day celebration, with an eve-ofrally social at the Tyneside Irish Centre on Friday 29 April. And for that we are very pleased to have secured the services of The Belta Reivers (http://beltareivers. com/ and https://www. facebook.com/beltareivers/). In their own words, they are an “upbeat Geordie trio, bringing the best of old local songs and folk music from around the world. Sing-along’s, great instrumentals and plenty of fun.” They have played events and festivals over the North East, and have gone down a storm.

To lead out our march this year, we welcome back, after a gap of several years, the Backworth Colliery Band (https://www.facebook.com/ backworth), a traditional yet progressive brass band based in Backworth, North Tyneside. The band was formed in 1886, and was part of the social element of the surrounding mine workings, but it now comprises musicians from many works of life. Rehearsing twice a week, the band performs at concerts and contests in the North East and throughout Britain.

As has been our practice at Grey’s Monument, our rally will both begin and end with music. The Backworth Colliery Band will start us off, and we shall finish after the speeches with a short session from Bethany Elen Coyle and Ron Brown (see the photo in this brochure from the 2019 rally, when they performed as The Workietickets). Please give them a warm welcome.

The band and its members play many varied styles of music from traditional brass band music, to dance and swing band, modern pop, classics and film music, as well as the best of modern original composition for the genre.