Let's Band Together: A Personal History of the Rise & Fall of a Westcountry Brass Band

Are you interested in Brass Bands? Christopher Northey-Youngs, has been a lifelong musician and brass band enthusiast. In this very personal history, he traces a Westcountry Brass Band's history through its highs, lows, trials and tribulations, as he explores the characters and personalities that have graced and shaped its 100-year+ past.

Why has the number of brass bands gone from thousands to a mere few hundred? What does it take to keep a group of musicians playing in harmony, and why so often do such groups of like-minded people lose the ability to preserve what's supposed to be their enjoyable pastime?

This interesting and historical account, of a brass band whose fascinating history goes back as far as the 1800s, in the West Country Town of Tavistock, on the Devon-Cornwall border, is packed full of pictures and stories and is written from a personal perspective, the author has been a playing member for over 45-years.

Together with stories of his first time entering a brass band rehearsal room, cheese and onion sandwiches, wobbly chairs, secret compartments, royal visits, a town that played its part in the D-Day landing and friendships made and lost, he tries to answer the eternal social question - Why can't people just simply have fun, and band together?