Miner's Strike anniversary marked at Glasshouse by Martin Green and Grimethorpe Colliery Band

Best known as the virtuoso accordionist in the visionary folk trio Lau, Green has spent the past two years on an odyssey deep into the world of brass bands, culminating in his acclaimed new album Split the Air.

His journey began by chance near his home in Midlothian. Following a poster advertising ‘BRASS IN THE PARK’, he discovered a self-sustaining world of music-making that – like the folk tradition – had retained its social function and was part of the warp and weft of the communities that performed it.

The Glasshouse will resound with the human stories that are bound so inseparably with the music, in the form of excerpts from interviews from Green’s BBC Radio 4 documentary. Love, Spit and Valve Oil showed how that unmistakable sound is shaped by the grit of difficult lives: lives spent in darkness at the coalface, in fear of violence at home, or blighted by unemployment. For generations, the bands have offered a refuge, a community and a source of healing. Green is an evangelical guide through the history and the lore of the scene as he cues up the clips, movingly underscored with a spine-tingling, cinematic ebb and flow as Grimethorpe Colliery Band brings his new album to life.

Split the Air gives full vent to his newfound passion and showcases his formidable skill in writing for brass. The music draws deeply on tradition, freighted with the long, rich history of British banding and its complicated links with industry, coal and competition. Yet it is never encumbered by the past. Often the band is stripped back to a single solo instrument – notably the tenor horn of special guest Sheona White, current Solo Horn of Brighouse and Rastrick Band and a former BBC Radio 2 Young Musician of the Year. Her extraordinary control and command brings a breathy, haunting lyricism to these intimate passages and leads the ensemble into new territory.

There’s a strong sense of narrative, drama and psychology in this music, the imprint of Green’s deep identification with the large and varied cast of characters who have welcomed and initiated him into the world of bands. He has learnt to harness the full force of the ensemble, too, thrillingly felt in lumbering marches, teeth-rattling dissonance and majestic resolution. Green’s commitment to understanding the history and the culture of brass band music has led him to uncover new possibilities for its future.

2024 sees the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the Miners’ Strike, when collieries across the country – including Grimethorpe, one of the deepest pits in Britain – shut down in protest at the government’s plans for mass closures. The Strike was brought to an end in early 1985 and the miners returned to work, but the brutal closure programme accelerated, and the last coal was cut at Grimethorpe in 1992. The area was plunged into poverty, but the heroic survival of its Colliery Band inspired the classic film Brassed Off, which the Band itself soundtracked.

“Split the Air continues to be an emotional ride”, say Green. “We’ve done this now in Central Scotland and in South Wales, and people always come to me afterwards with stories. The accents are different, but the stories all come from the same place. I hadn’t expected to hear so many, some that broke my heart, some that filled it with joy, and some that brought a rage boiling inside me.

“Now we travel to the North East of England, to Gateshead, and the accents will be different once again, and I can’t wait. It feels vital. To do this with Grimethorpe Colliery Band, one of the great brass bands in the world, is an extraordinary privilege. To share a stage with their incredible sonorous tone, their history, and of course their stories, will be an honour.”

Direct from Lau’s extensive UK tour, Martin Green is joined by Grimethorpe Colliery Band at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, Gateshead on Sunday 12 May. Tickets, priced at £24.20, are available to book via theglasshouseicm.org

Split the Air is available now on CD and download via Martin Green’s Bandcamp.