In a special edition of our Frank Renton on Brass free podcast, Frank marks the death of James Shepherd, the former principal cornet of the Black Dyke Mills Band, and the founder of the James Shepherd Versatile Brass ensemble. He passed away on Thursday 22nd June, aged 86. When he recorded this short podcast, Frank said: "I’m talking about one of m…

Our Track of the Week comes from a young trumpet player who is gradually forging a reputation as an international soloist who we like to think had her first taste of fame as the winner of the BBC Radio 2 Young Brass award way back in 2014. It's Matilda Lloyd and it's delightful! Frank's second track is in his opinion one of the greatest pieces ever…

In this Frank Renton on Brass free podcast, Frank shares his Track of the Week and a piece of music that conjures up a memory from his life in music. The memory this week is one from the early 1970s when Frank was Band Master of the Gordon Highlanders and failed to convince his commanding officer that he hadn't just conducted a lot of wrong notes w…

For twenty three years I was the writer and presenter of Listen to the Band on BBC Radio 2, an enjoyable and fascinating job, especially after thirty odd years as a member of the Armed Services. Part of the programme was to interview people making news in the band world, and none was more interesting than the composer Nigel Hess who achieved fame a…

My Track of the Week this week features a young woman, Matilda Lloyd, whose fortunes I have followed ever since she won the BBC Radio 2 Young Brass Award in 2014, accompanied by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band with me conducting them. The track's just brilliant and she's proving to be a complete trumpet star. My second piece of music this week is als…

I never really mastered playing this piano solo by Debussy but when I discovered a wonderfully sensitive arrangement for band I knew it would make a perfect and totally unexpected encore for my concerts with Grimethorpe. In my second selection, The Beatles' music has echoed down the decades and with Liverpool in the centre of things last weekend fo…

Two contrasting pieces vie for attention this week both of which I love dearly. My Track of the Week reflects the formality of a Royal Coronation as commissioned from William Walton for the Coronation of King George VI in 1937. It absolutely captures the grandeur and ceremony of such an important occasion and I think it's a masterpiece and it's pla…

Almost 100 years ago George Gershwin was hard at work writing Rhapsody in Blue, as Gershwin later told his biographer, "it was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer.... I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise. And there I suddenly heard—and even saw on paper—the compl…

I’m preparing this edition of our free podcast in the week leading up to the Easter weekend, and my Track of the Week reflects this time of year. It’s a recording by a trumpet and cornet player for whom I and many others have simply run out of complimentary adjectives to describe his playing. So I hope you'll enjoy Philip Cobb excelling in the perf…

Oddly enough both pieces this week share the date of 1967. Although unconnected they make it a very memorable year for me. It was in 1967 year they launched a new lifeboat at Padstow on the North Coast of Cornwall and Malcolm Arnold who was living in Cornwall at the time was asked to write a special march for the occasion, and it's my Track of the …

I was brought up in Bradford and as I grew into my teens and became ever more interested in music and the arts, I became aware that one of our greatest composers Frederick Delius was also born there. One of the first records I was given was a recording of his music which did two things , it gave me a life long love of the sound of strings which has…

This week I’m featuring a brilliant cornet player, Stephen Cobb, who has never appeared as a player in these podcasts before, with music written especially for him by the American composer Stephen Bulla. I think Tchaikovsky’s ballet music, Swan Lake, is one of the greatest of all musical achievements. It never fails to thrill me and move me all at …

My personal musical choice this week isn’t actually a single piece but more about style and a dedication to perfection, epitomised by one person who through our work together became a friend, but before that was simply somebody who I thought epitomised everything that was good about the brass band, Jim Shepherd. My Track of the Week is by Nigel Cla…

Frank's personal track this week features an unforgettable moment when he discovered the music of Wilfred Heaton and heard it played by his favourite band in the UK at the time, the Enfield Citadel Band of the Salvation Army. His Track of the Week, features trumpet virtuoso Alison Balsom playing Gymnopedie by Erik Satie, accompanied by the Guy Bark…

We start this episode with Frank's Track of the Week and asking what would Mozart have made of this stunning arrangement of his famous Rondo Alla Turca played by three European cornet superstars. Then, Frank talks about playing for HM Queen Elizabeth II at the Trooping of the Colour and "having spent much of my professional life involved in militar…

In this Frank Renton on Brass free podcast, Frank recalls the first time he knew he wanted to be a trumpet player and his first experience of a full brass section when, the "sheer vibrancy and weight of sound was just overwhelming". We play that first piece, the Overture from Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and in Frank's Track of the Week,…

In this Frank Renton on Brass free podcast, we've brass music of symphonic proportions plus a jazz classic written at about the same time, with memories of Frank’s own recording of it in 1983, rekindled after a chance meeting with the soloist. Last week Frank was in Manchester for the Festival of Brass and recorded a conversation with clarinettist,…

Is it possible that a brass arrangement of Liszt’s orchestral masterpiece Les Preludes is better than the original, plus this is what happens when you put a world class jazz trumpet player with a world class brass band. My Track of the Week is played by the outstanding trumpeter, Mike Lovatt with the Foden's Band, conducted by Michael Fowles, playi…

Frank takes us back to his earliest conducting days and recalls the impact that recordings of a Shostakovich masterpiece had on him, and in Frank's Track of the Week we hear an award winning performance by the Cory Band from the 2016 Brass in Concert that Frank presented, of music now associated forever with one of the world’s greatest storytellers…

In this episode of Frank Renton on Brass I feature Elgar Howarth and Eric Ball. My track of the week celebrates the brilliant trumpet player, composer and conductor Elgar Howarth and my personal musical memory takes us back to 1956 when I made my first and only appearance at the National Brass Band Championships as a cornet player. I'm featuring th…

This is Frank's first free podcast and features Billy May's Big Fat Brass playing The Continental in a 1958 recording, and then we're off to Norway for Frank's Track of the Week from Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag. Enjoy! For more information on Frank Renton on Brass just visit our website at www.frankrentononbrass.com. #brassmusic #brassbands #podcas…

In this episode we kindasorta get around to discussing prevailing nerd stereotypes and their validity, or lack thereof, given the progressive nerdening of society at large. In keeping in the spirit of this topic, method actor-style, casual misogyny is the order of the day. But Caleb does go off on a momentary feminist tear about some b-grade horror…

In this episode we talk about campaign prep – how each of us approaches it, and how that’s changed/is changing still. We touch on how to work specific themes into games, where and how we draw inspiration from media, and why we prepare games the way we do. Also covered is the unique terror of GMing a boring game, David’s hard hustle to justify a tom…

Here’s the much anticipated (by us…) Fallout: New Vegas wank-cast. Fond reminiscences of our wasteland days (and nights! Ha-cha-cha!) abound, mixed up with the usual stimulating discussion on a broad range of topics. We speculate on the origins of furrydom, equate the threat represented by the Twilight novels with the threat of one Ms. Sarah Palin,…

This time it’s all about how to get the most roleplaying juice out of your characters – strategies for building and playing characters that help you get to the super-fulfilling and awesome RP experience. We talk about what has worked for us, and some things that have kept us from ‘getting into character’ in the past. Also included: curmudgeonly gro…

Aaaaaand, we’re back…another discussion episode this week. This time we talk in a highly subjective and biased way – you know like we do – about what we think makes a good roleplayer. What skills do ‘good’ gamers possess or cultivate?; How do we grow through gaming?; What kind of activities and play experiences promote this kind of growth? Please n…

It’s actual play time this week. This is our first play through of FIASCO! by Jason Morningstar. If you haven’t heard about this game already then you may be dead, and if you haven’t played it you’re missing out. It’s GM-less, requires zero prep, and allows you and your friends to create Coen Brothers style stories out of thin air, d6’s, and magica…

In this episode we speculate in cooing, reverent tones about Fallout New Vegas, discuss the recent action on the military’s DADT policy and its impact on Batwoman, go off on a host of other tangents, and eventually talk about our experiences portraying evil characters, both as players and GMs – what’s worked for us and what hasn’t, and what evil re…

Here’s our first episode. It’s a bit rough, but with lots of funny bits. We discuss the group’s experience with an old and free on the interwebs RPG called Everyone Is John, and talk about first gaming experiences. Also, SPOILER ALERT! (yes, already) We spoil the hell out of a terrible French film called “Fat Girl”. Hosts: Miles, Jason, Tori, Ken, …