We really appreciate all the general support that the band currently gets from audiences, players, families, other bands and the community in general but we are always keen to foster individual support.
Sponsorship - costs that the band incurs in its day to day running need to be paid for, and kind sponsors help out with this.
As always, if you have any questions or suggestions, we are always pleased to hear them - click Contact Us on the left to get in touch.
Your support really is vital. "Support" can be anything from simply dropping us an e-mail to tell us you've seen the website and telling us about a typo (they are there, somewhere, we're sure!), joining us at one of our concerts in the audience, offering to help us with transporting the gear to and from a concert, right up to sponsoring our transport costs for the year or even sponsoring the entire band's operations.
Besses o' th' Barn Band needs to thanks lots of people for their continuing support and help they have offered over the years.
Our audiences who keep on supporting us wherever we go. Truly, without our audiences, there is little point us doing what we do - so thank you!
If we've forgotten anyone - please accept our apologies and rest assured, your help and support is valued.
You can help preserve this legacy for future generations. It's a sad but unavoidable fact that any arts organisation, from a professional symphony orchestra with 100 players and scores of staff, to a small theatre company with just two performers, needs one thing constantly to survive - money.
By paying just £10 per year, you can help to do this.
That warm feeling inside knowing you are helping Besses o' th' Barn Band.
With a greater level of investment, you could help us with some of our unavoidable running costs, such as:
The help you could provide could be:
Help in terms of financial sponsorship, so paying e.g. £50 a year to go towards the cost of running the website, or £500 a year to help cover our coach hire costs, or any amount however often you are able to enable the band to continue to provide high quality music and entertainment to local and national audiences.
Anyone who is kind enough to provide sponsorship, in either kind or financial support, will get a mention here on our website and in our concet programmes. If you are particularly generous, who knows what else we might decide to do for you!
You will also be helping to secure the future of one of the world's oldest music ensembles. Perhaps the knowledge of this is worth more than the money or service you would be kindly donating to us?
We are also keen to continue to work with our current partners and venues to carry on providing the high quality levels of music and entertainment Besses has been proud to associate with for years.
us to come down for a blow or to help out with the administration of the band.
Do you have a business that is looking for sponsorship opportunities?
The Bandsman produced a set of postcards showing some of their activities. There were at least 14 of these and we only have the six below so can you help? Do you have any of the missing pictures or do you have one of the medals that were presented?
By the late 1800’s, Besses were already firmly established as one of the country's leading musical ensembles – amateur or professional. At that time, much of the repertoire of brass bands still consisted of arrangements of popular classical music, designed to provide the working classes with access to the works of world famous composers. People from the cotton and coal towns of Lancashire could afford to listen to their local brass band playing classical arrangements in local venues, whereas there was virtually no prospect of them being able to pay to travel and listen to professional orchestras in the major city centre venues. Many such arrangements, for example Rossini's Works and many of the early Henry Round selections, were made especially for Besses. Even by the high standards of today’s top bands, many of these pieces demand a remarkably high degree of both technical skills and endurance.
The change from reed to Brass is quite interesting as it would appear that there was a big row after doing a wedding job for Lady Elizabeth Gray Egerton to the Hon Dudley de Ros on October 12th 1953 and the Reed Band never appeared in public again!
Mrs Martha F. Besson had been assiduous in her attention to the comfort of the band from the time of its arrival, and on Sunday morning the whole of the band and accompanying party accepted her most kind invitation to a lunch at the Alcazar d'Ete, where a most recherché
Luncheon was provided. After luncheon the band called on Mrs Besson for a speech, and being prevailed upon to respond, Mrs Besson spoke most feelingly on her past association with the bands of Yorkshire and Lancashire. She had been estranged by family ties (by the way, her second daughter was but recently married) for some ten years or so, but the knowledge that she was once more among, the Lancashire lads stirred her heart to its innermost depth, and in a voice broken with emotion, which struck the human chord of sympathy, she told her guests of the deep gratitude she felt for the many kindnesses she had experienced from the bandsmen during the many years of association with them. Good wishes and hearty cheers were lavishly disposed on Mrs Besson, who was soon herself again, smiling and solicitous.
