Rating: 
Original Review: Brass bands are uniquely British institutions - go into any English park during a summer afternoon and you will regularly hear a brass band playing in the background, and during my childhood I remember many times stopping off at the bandstand and eating ice cream with my grandfather.
The film Brassed Off was also quite dear to my heart: despite being a damn good movie, it was set in my neck of the woods - South Yorkshire - and the world famous Colliery Band from Grimethorpe are based less than ten miles from my home city of Sheffield. Therefore, I am rather reluctant to conclude that I was a little disappointed with this album. The album cover boasts "Original Score by Trevor Jones", but the truth is that there is less than ten minutes of original music, and what there is is split into six extremely short cues which never really get going and finish before you have time to decide whether you like them or not.
Of course, the rest of the music is performed impeccably by the Band, under the guidance of John Anderson, and there are some excellent themes, such as Rodrigo's En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor, March of the Cobblers (which accompanies the film's most amusing scene), Jerusalem, Danny Boy (which accompanies the film's most emotional scene), the William Tell Overture and Pomp and Circumstance. But these are all tried and tested musical mainstays and, to be truthful, to hear them once is enough. So if you want an opinion about Brassed Off's original music, I think I would find it difficult to give you one, because there's just not enough of it.
Track Listing:
Running Time: 49 minutes 55 seconds
RCA Victor, 1996
Music composed and conducted by Trevor Jones. Orchestrations by Trevor Jones and Geoff Alexander. Performed by The Grimethorpe Colliery Band. Band Leader John Anderson. Featured musical soloists Maurice Murphy, Paul Hughes and Shaun Randall. Recorded and mixed by Mike Sheady and Simon Rhodes. Album produced by Trevor Jones.
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These web pages were designed and maintained by Jonathan Broxton copyright 1997. All opinions and views expressed on these pages are my own and are in no way intended to reflect those of my employer, the Trent Institute for Health Services Research, or those of the University of Sheffield.