The band was formed in 1900 by a Mr. Bestwick, a Sheffield police Inspector whose intention was that the new band should "give pleasure to all who would listen, whilst playing for their own pleasure and recreation." With himself as bandmaster and leader he set about raising funds for instruments and uniforms. Having succeeded in his efforts the band was given the name of Sheffield Recreation Brass Band.

Unfortunately little is known of the band’s history during this period (any information would be welcome) but the band contested with some success (at one point adding the words "Prize Band" to its title as was the custom of the time) and was in regular demand at local fetes, galas and garden parties. The two world wars obviously took their toll on players but the band struggled on, reforming again in peacetime.

During the long history of the band there have been many stalwarts who contributed much to keep the band going. One such man was George Webster who joined the band in 1920, aged 15. Over the years he held the position of librarian, treasurer and bandmaster. In later years he was made band president - a position he held until his death in 1985.

The band began contesting again after the second world war and at this time were graded in the third section. They competed at the Spring Belle Vue contest in 1948 when the conductor was George Webster but were at a low ebb by the mid 1950s, partly due to the toll taken by National Service on players. Things improved with the arrival of a new conductor - Jack Carr - a cornet player and instrument repairer who brought with him a number of experienced players from the recently defunct Sheffield Transport Band. Under his direction they began to steadily improve and became one of the most successful and consistent bands in the Sheffield area. At that time the band rehearsed in the upstairs room of the Hallamshire Hotel pub on West St. in the center of Sheffield.

It was in the early sixties that the band first began to make its mark on the wider band scene. The band was fortunate in having a young soprano player by the name of Derek Ashmore as an in-house arranger. Derek had joined the band in 1948 and it was his arrangement of Mussorgsky’s A Night on the Bare Mountain which gave the band an impressive thirteen first prizes in own-choice contests under the leadership of Jack Carr. After Jack’s death in 1968, Derek took over as conductor, holding the position until 1971, and went on to become a successful arranger and publisher, forming his own company - Hallamshire Music.

In 1969 the band persuaded the Sheffield Parks department to refurbish the Weston Park bandstand in the center of Sheffield which had been closed for 25 years. The re-opening concert was a great success and band concerts on Sundays continued for a number of years.

In the early seventies the band took the decision to change its name to City of Sheffield Band. This was because the local council had created a new department called the Sheffield Recreation Dept. and many people assumed the band was in some way linked to the local council. Contest-wise the band had some success at this time in the WD and HO Wills national finals at the Royal Albert Hall. Local music teachers Murray Slater and Stan Roocroft followed Derek Ashmore as conductors during this period which also saw the band secure sponsorship from a local food manufacturer to become the Quaker Sutherland Band. The band’s fortunes improved further with the arrival of conductor David Hirst, then the young soprano player with the Black Dyke Mills band. Under his direction the band achieved victories in a number of local contests including wins at Sheffield, Holme Valley and the Radio Sheffield ‘Bold as Brass’ competition - an entertainment contest featuring dozens of local bands in the Sheffield and Barnsley area.

The band has rehearsed in a number of less than ideal band rooms over the years. After the room in the Hallamshire pub became unavailable in the late seventies they moved to the staff canteen of the Quaker Sutherland factory at Darnall where the tannoy, providing music for the evening shift, played constantly in the background during rehearsals.

In 1979, Derek Ashmore returned and under his direction the band qualified for the first time for the Second section national finals in London. A new conductor Graham O’Connor arrived in January 1980 and led the band to an impressive number of victories in that year including the Yorkshire Area Second section, the Grand Shield and the Pontins championship. During that year the band gained a new sponsor and new name: the Andrews Heat for Hire Band. The band moved its base to the firm’s premises at Wincobank and, until a purpose-built band room was erected, the band rehearsed in the vast warehouse surrounded by roaring industrial heaters to keep warm. The highlight of that year was the appearance at the British Open Championships at Belle Vue. The band qualified with a historic win in the Grand Shield playing Thomas Keighley’s The Crusaders an old-fashioned but tuneful piece dating from 1925 which suited the band’s soloists and musicality perfectly. The test piece at Belle Vue that September was as different as could be: Robert Simpson’s Energy - a complex, almost mechanical work that required a great deal of hard work to bring off. In the event the band achieved 11th place out of 24 bands - a creditable achievement in that company for what was still a second section band. However this status was about to change because the following year, the band was promoted to the Championship section for the first time in its history.

A number of conductors came and went during the 1980s: all helping to gradually improve the standard - Dennis Wilby, Derek Ashmore and David Hirst again, and Dennis Carr, it was Dennis who led the band to a second win in the Grand Shield in 1984, playing Le Roi d’Ys. Also in that year the band reverted to a former name as sponsorship ceased and the band became supported financially by Sheffield City Council who also provided rehearsal facilities in the former Carbrook School in Attercliffe. No-one who played for the City of Sheffield Band in those days would forget that band room - a lofty classroom on an upper floor of the Victorian school, egg boxes nailed to the walls to try and deaden the ringing acoustic.

It was during this time that the band made the first of its many trips to Bochum in Germany - Sheffield’s twin town in the industrial Ruhr district. The band made many close friends over there, one player - the band’s current chairman Alan Brentnall, even found himself a wife - Karin, who was the interpreter assigned to the band.

City of Sheffield band went through several more conductors: Roy Roe, Steven Sykes, Derek Renshaw and still steadily continued its improvement but then yet again, in 1988, the name was changed. This time acquiring the name under which it would make its reputation - Stocksbridge Engineering Steels Band. The new sponsor was a massive steelworks in Stocksbridge - a town ten miles to the north of Sheffield, (the original Stocksbridge Works Band attached to the firm had folded in the early eighties).

New rehearsal facilities were provided in the firm’s training center, new instruments and uniforms followed. The band was now up-and-coming and ambitious but needed a top conductor with a proven track record to compete against the best. Ray Farr, formerly of Grimethorpe and Yorkshire Imperial was engaged and he took the standard of playing to new levels, using his expertise to win a number of entertainment contests. He was followed in 1989 by Hugh Megarrell. If Ray Farr taught the band to play like a top band then Hugh Megarrell taught them to think like one. It was under his leadership that the band had the most successful period in its history. Qualifying twice for the London finals - by coming third in the Yorkshire Area in 1990 and second in 1991 with a magnificent performance of Journey into Freedom. Also that year the band qualified yet again for the British Open by a third place in the Grand Shield.

For the next few years it established itself in all the major contests - the British Open, English Masters, Spennymoor achieving some good results although never quite managing to break into the frame - the number of seventh places became increasingly frustrating. The band also made a number of fine recordings during this period, as well as broadcasting on Radio 2’s Listen to the Band..

In 1992 the band was invited to take part in the Lord Mayors parade in London. As it was rare to invite a brass band (the organisers usually only invited military bands) the rules stipulated that all bands should consist of 40 players, so extra players had to be recruited for the occasion. New, high collar uniforms with hats were ordered and even a Territorial Army drill sergeant was recruited to put the band through its paces. In the event, in competition with professional military bands, Stocksbridge received a certificate of commendation for its marching and presentation.

More conductors followed throughout the nineties: Chris Houlding, John Anderson, Kevin Bolton, Graham O’Connor and there were trips to Germany and Holland. Major recordings and concerts also followed with such internationally renowned soloists as Evelyn Glennie, Philip McCann and Derek Southcott. During this period, due to company restructuring the name was altered to UES Stocksbridge. In 1995 the band made history by becoming the first brass band to successfully apply for a National Lottery grant to buy new instruments, this was followed up by an appearance on live TV on the National Lottery show. However the highlight of the year was an exhausting but highly successful 21 day tour of Australia, giving 12 concerts coast to coast. The trip was made at the suggestion of former Bb bass player Andy Lincoln who had made a previous tour with CWS Glasgow band. The sponsorship and massive organization of the tour was handled by the man who was at the time the band’s flugel player and band manager John Lee.

At the end of that eventful year a film company approached the band to feature in a film being made in Sheffield about the plight of former steelworkers. A ‘steelworks’ brass band was included in many of the scenes. There was little indication in the long hours spent waiting around on those less than glamorous film locations what a major success The Full Monty would be or that, in the long term, the surrounding publicity would ultimately be the saviour of the band.

Unfortunately it was shortly after this busy year that the band began a slow decline. There were a number of reasons for this: the pressures and commitment of competing and running a band at the highest level, changing working patterns but in short, too many players left in too short a period, morale was low and the band was unable to recover. An announcement from the steelworks that, due to a change in ownership, they would no longer be sponsoring the band was the final nail in the coffin. A number of other top section bands had folded at this time and it seemed for a while as if the band world as a whole could be under threat. Early in 1997 Stocksbridge too, effectively folded. Three or four players clung on however. With a view to discussing a possible merger they began rehearsing with the nearby Barnsley Building Society Band keeping the spirit, at least, alive.

In September of that year, Derek Renshaw, the former principal cornet player and conductor decided to try and resurrect the band. He had family connections with the band going back to the 1960s, his late father Lew had been the band secretary for over thirty years. He gathered together some former players to discuss what should be done. After all, there was still an excellent band room in the Stocksbridge Victory Club, an extensive library, a nearly new set of instruments which shouldn’t all go to waste. A number of resolutions were made at that time: no-one wanted an immediate return to the pressures of contesting at the top level of banding, with its ruthless hiring and firing and intensive rehearsal schedule, no players would be paid so no-one would join solely for financial incentive It should also be friendly and fun - hopefully combining the standards of a Championship section band with the family feeling of the lower sections. Intending to return to the initial declaration by the anonymous police Inspector that the band should "give pleasure to all who would listen whilst playing for their own pleasure." It was decided to keep the name Stocksbridge as this would keep the ties with the local community plus it was the one that at least had some reputation - few people would have heard of Sheffield Recreation and another band had now hi-jacked the title City of Sheffield. The first rehearsal consisted of thirteen players and there was an open door policy inviting anyone to come for a blow.

Gradually the band room began to fill up again. The band still needed financial security however and an appeal was put out to local businesses for a sponsor. The nationwide publicity generated from this appeal came about solely as a result of the band’s participation in The Full Monty with articles appearing in The Big Issue and even the News of the World!. The press obviously reveled in the comparisons between the plight of the characters in the film and the poor former steelworks band in crisis. An offer of sponsorship soon came from a local ASDA store - one of the locations incidentally, used in the film. This support was eventually taken up by the company nationally.

The band went from strength to strength during 1998 attracting players from far and wide, no stars, no prima donnas, just a solid base of former players and some keen committed bandsmen and women, traveling from far and wide, proud to play for Stocksbridge. After such a lay-off however it was a long hard slog to try and regain the standards it had once had but slowly the work came in and standards improved. Then in January 1999 it was decided to test the band by entering a contest. This was a major step and there was some trepidation as the band had not competed in over two years. In the event, playing Connotations, the band won first prize at the Rochdale Contest. Not a major title, no giants were slain, but the victory did wonders for morale and confidence and for the first in a long while Stocksbridge could call itself a band again. Some setbacks followed - relegation from the Championship section was inevitable as the band had missed competing for a year but on 5th March this year the band hit something like its old form and won the first section of the Yorkshire region - conducted by Derek Renshaw - thus qualifying for the finals at the Royal Albert Hall for the first time in nine years.

This year the band celebrates its centenary. Possibly a new CD but most importantly, the newly re-named ASDA Stocksbridge Band will be inviting former players and conductors to a concert of celebration of a hundred years of banding (under whatever name it might have had at the time) and looking forward to the next hundred.

Details will be posted on this site.

David Lindley