The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Weekend with Black Dyke
No, not a fantasy inspired by a TV series, but the famous Yorkshire band in Roubaix, wowing the French and doubling as Bradford City’s away support as they too take on the locals.
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Overview
Bradford builds solidarity within another town famed for its woollen industry, Roubaix in northern France. The most famous of brass bands, the Black Dyke Band, are invited to Roubaix to add some typical British brass band music to their 500th anniversary celebrations, as Bradford twin with the town in 1969. They also cheer on Bradford City as they take part in a mini football competition.
The record holding Black Dyke Band, like most other brass bands, have their origin in the Victorian era, usually sponsored by a colliery or factory. In this case it was John Foster, owner of Black Dyke Mills in the village of Queensbury, West Yorkshire, who started supporting the Band back in 1843 (he later bought a castle in Lancashire). Brass bands were entirely the product of working class culture, arguably its greatest artistic achievement. As with similar villages, Queenbsury mill workers also produced other self- created institutions, chapels and societies, such as a co-operative. The year before this trip to France, the band had a hit single with the Lennon–McCartney penned ‘Thingumybob’.
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