W Scott

Has anyone seen the film 'Brassed Off' ? It's a great film about a British coal mining town and their brass band. Tara Fitzgerald plays the flugel horn in the picture and she has the strangest looking Flugel I've ever seen. I've searched around some and I can't seem to find a Flugel that looks like the one in the movie. Anybody know what that horn really is?

Bill

Jazzman

That is an awesome movie......
You know the scene when they are on the bus to go on the road. There is a very good shot of a guy holding a cornet for about 4 seconds?? That is a placed promo for Smith-Watkins!! That is a Smith Watkins cornet in that shot......
As far as the flugel goes....don't know.

W Scott

Thanks! I wondered what the make of that cornet was. They have instruments in the movie that I've never seen before. There is a small, brass instrument that looks like a pint sized Baritone--what is it?

And yes, it's a great movie and the soundtrack is a must have.....

Bill

camelbrass

Hi,

It's probably a tenor horn, the Eb version of a baritone.

The baritone in a brass band is the smaller brother of the Euphonium (both in Bb)

Hope this helps.

Regards

Trevor

lonelyangel

The flugelhorn was made by a company called Hawkes (before they merged with Boosey to become Boosey and Hawkes or B&H) and the model is from their top of the range line called Clippertone.

My father (who has a collection of around 70, mostly vintage, brass instruments) has one of these as well as a Clippertone soprano cornet.

They are both really beautiful instruments and still play extremely well.
The flugelhorn solo on the sound track was not played by Tara but by a little-known, former brass band soloist by the name of Maurice Murphy.

By the way, the film is based on a true story.

All the best. Noel.

nowherenearadouble

Noel,
I thought Paul Hughes played the solo. He was also the Flugel player with Grimethorpe at the time.
Alan

W Scott

Well, according to the soundtrack, on 'En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor' Paul Hughes played the solo. For the rest of the tracks, it was Maurice Murphy. My teenage daughter, who plays trumpet, quickly decided that Tara wasn't playing that horn. She said 'Dad, her lips aren't red! She's not playing that thing!'.. She says men horn players grow mustaches to hide what horn playing does to their lips!

Thanks for the horn info, Noel. I'd love to hold and play one of those old flugels. Why is it that no one is designing them that way any more? They look more comfortable than the modern flugels.

An Eb tenor horn? Hmmm, it's amazing to see a totally brass band with all of the many instruments. Here in America, good luck finding a community band with even half of those instruments in it. Usually it's a baritone or two, a tuba and maybe a Sousaphone. The bass parts are often carried by a basoon or a bass Sax.

Thanks for the info!

Bill

JackD

Haha, I didn't know that. No wonder it sounded so nice. Great film.

keith e miland

The reason you don't see those types of instruments in the USA is that they are particular to a British style brass band. They have been around GB since 1850.

There are about 150 or more British style brass bands in the USA. I play in one here in Winona, MN.

Check out www.NABBA.org. (North American Brass BAnd Association) You can find out all about British stlyle brass bands here in the USA.

The full instrumentation is 1 Eb Soprano Cornet, 4 Bb Solo Cornets, 1 Bb Repieno Cornet (just used as a reenforecment), 2 2nd Cornets, 2 3rd Cornets, 1 Bb flugel, 3 Eb Tenor horns, 2 Bb British style baritone horns, 2 Tenor trombones, 1 Bass trombone, 2 Euphoniums, 2 Eb Tubas, 2 BBb Tubas and percussion.

There are thousands of arrangements and original pieces written for that instrumentation. The sound is unique. Up to 13 individual parts are being played at one time.

Great fun.

jo-rae-me

Great Movie and Great sound track too! Even love the name...Brassed off! My favorite part was when they did the pub crawl. And all ended up too drunk to play. Ive seen a trombonist actually do the same thing with his slide because he was too drunk! So funny!

Anyway, the reason Im posting a reply.
I'm currently involved in a "British Style Brass Band" in.....Australia!
We have traditional Brass bands down under too! No cracks about us originally coming from UK to the penal colony down under.
Check out an Aussie Brass Band.

http://www.sutherlandshirebrass.com/default.asp

And yes, we use tenor horns too.
Like a mini ...mini tuba....and in Eb too.
Nice sound to them, but Im a cornet player.
Come on you big movie makers.....make another Brass Movie!

Does anyone know the name of the flugel solo...I would like to track down the sheet music. I friend called it something, but not the name mentioned above. Thanks.
Cheers
Jo-rae-me