The Fairey Band is a brass band based in

Heaton Chapel Heaton Chapel is an area in the northern part of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it borders the Manchester districts of Levenshulme to the north, the Stockport districts of He ...

in Stockport,

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

. The band has achieved fame in modern music circles with its appearances playing Acid Brass although they still play traditional brass band music and participate each year in the Whit Friday Brass Band contests. Its name comes from Sir Richard Fairey and the

Fairey Aviation Company The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire. Notable for the design of a number of important military a ...

, famous in later years for the

Fairey Delta 2 The Fairey Delta 2 or FD2 (internal designation Type V within Fairey) is a British supersonic research aircraft that was produced by the Fairey Aviation Company in response to a specification from the Ministry of Supply for a specialised aircra ...

aircraft - the first aircraft in level flight to exceed 1,000 mph, and had an important contribution to the shape of

Concorde The Aérospatiale/BAC Concorde () is a retired Franco-British supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation (later Aérospatiale) and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France an ...

and its drooped nose. An early signature tune for the band was Beaufighters, after a fighter aircraft Bristol Beaufighter made at Fairey in Heaton Chapel (and elsewhere) for "Ministry of Aircraft Production".

Fairey Aviation

The band was formed in 1937 as the ''Fairey Aviation Works Band'' by workers at the aircraft factory. This was at a time when the company was producing aircraft that would see plenty of action in the first few weeks of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, although sadly few of its aircraft would be of sufficient calibre to pose a real threat to German aircraft. Its aircraft, especially the old-fashioned yet versatile and destructive

Fairey Swordfish The Fairey Swordfish is a biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. It was also us ...

, mainly carried

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

es for the

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

. Fairey were taken over by

Westland Aircraft Westland Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer located in Yeovil, Somerset. Formed as a separate company by separation from Petters Limited just before the start of the Second World War, Westland had been building aircraft since 1915. D ...

Yeovil Yeovil ( ) is a town and civil parish in the district of South Somerset, England. The population of Yeovil at the last census (2011) was 45,784. More recent estimates show a population of 48,564. It is close to Somerset's southern border with ...

, chiefly due to its innovative

Fairey Rotodyne The Fairey Rotodyne was a 1950s British compound gyroplane designed and built by Fairey Aviation and intended for commercial and military uses.Kidde Kidde () is a brand and division of Carrier Global that manufactures and distributes fire detection and suppression equipment, as well as smoke and CO alarm units. Kidde is one of America's largest manufacturer of smoke alarms and fire safety p ...

fire safety company in 2000, although the band retained the ''Williams Fairey'' name. The sponsorship by Kidde finished at the end of 2002. In 2003, they were sponsored by ''FP (Music)'', a subsidiary of ''Fosters Partners (Asia)''. At the beginning of 2010 the band acquired a new sponsorship in the shape of the British brass instrument maker "Geneva Instruments" and became known as the "Fairey (Geneva) Band". This arrangement ceased during 2011 whence the band reverted to its original name of "The Fairey Band". Although no longer sponsored, the band still use the same bandroom location, where rehearsals take place. The road has now been named after Sir Richard Fairey (see address in panel).

Contest record

Whit Friday Whit may refer to: * Whit or Whitsun, another name for the holy day of Pentecost * Whit (given name) * Whit (novel), by Iain Banks * WHIT, a radio station licensed to Madison, Wisconsin, United States, which holds the call sign WHIT beginning 2009 ...

over a hundred brass bands take part in a day of brass band contesting at a number of venues around Tameside and Saddleworth. These results do not contribute to world rankings. For each of these two areas bands are placed at each venue and then placed for each area. Recently Fairey have concentrated in playing around the Saddleworth Area Whit Friday brass venues and have obtained the following placings: Saddleworth: 2016:2nd. 2015:1st 2014:3rd 2013:2nd Tameside: 2012:2nd 2011:2nd 2010:1st The band has been successful at the major national contests since its inception in 1937, however this was curtailed following the loss of company sponsorship in 2002. Following several lean contesting years, and a considerable rebuilding process, 2010 saw a remarkable resurgence in the band's fortunes. They achieved overall victory in the Tameside Whit Friday competitions and an invitation to the 2011 European Brass Band Championship in Montreux due to their victory at the 2010 English National Brass Band Championship. They placed 6th at Montreux. Further success followed with runners up spots at the 2010 British Open and Brass in Concert Championships, and a 3rd place at the National Championship finals at London's Albert Hall. Full contest winning record: National Champions of Great Britain: 1945, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1965, 1986, 1993, 2002, 2003 British Open Champions: 1941, 1942, 1945, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1956, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1979, 1987, 1993, 1998 English National Champions: 2010 All England Masters Champions: 1996, 1997 European Champions: 1994 Brass in Concert Champions: 1996 North West Area Champions: 1947, 1951, 1952, 1954, 1959, 1963, 1978, 1980, 1984, 1986, 1992, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2014, 2015 BBC Television Champion Brass: 1976, 1977, 1979 BBC Best of Brass: 1978 Granada Television Band of the Year: 1979, 1980 BBC Radio Band of the Year: 1987, 1988

Musical directors

Harry Mortimer Harry Mortimer (10 April 1902 – 23 January 1992) was an English composer and conductor who specialised in brass band music, one of the foremost cornet players of his era. Harry Mortimer was born in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, his father bein ...

* Leonard Lamb * Kenneth Dennison * Walter Hargreaves * Roy Newsome * Major Peter Parkes * James Gourley * Howard Snell * Alan Withington * Simon Stonehouse * Philip Chalk * Russell Gray * Garry Cutt

References

External links

The Fairey Band

WFEL - the company that used to be Williams Fairey

Fairey Band Contest results
- The Whit Friday results are at the bottom of the referenced page.

Video clips

Collection of clips

''Festmusic der Stadt Wien'' with Fairey's history

Festival
at

Delph Delph (Old English ''(ge)delf'' a quarry) is a village in the civil parish of Saddleworth in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies amongst the Pennines on ...

in 1998.
Acid Brass
at the

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br>Village Fete
in 2007.
Innocent Village Fete
in 2007 with the

Blaydon Races "Blaydon Races" ( Roud #3511) is a Geordie folk song written in the 19th century by Geordie Ridley, in a style deriving from music hall. It is frequently sung by supporters of Newcastle United Football Club, Newcastle Falcons rugby club, a ...

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