Love, Spit and Valve Oil
A new BBC Radio 4 series that explores the phenomenon of modern brass banding and what continues to draw people in.
Click here to listen to Love, Spit and Valve Oil on BBC Radio 4
Love, Spit and Valve Oil is a new documentary created by Martin Green for BBC Radio 4 exploring the history and magic behind the brass banding scene through their compositions, competitions, and communities.
Photograph: Sandy Butler
Musician Martin Green explores the phenomenon that is modern brass banding. After following a poster at the National Mining Museum Scotland that said “brass in the park, this Saturday,” Martin discovered one of the most inspiring social music-making acts he’d ever witnessed.
But, the mines are dead? Well, the music and the people most definitely are not.
Determined to find out what continues to draw people into brass banding, both musically and socially, Martin decides to write a piece of music for a brass band and seek advice from those in the community. There, he finds a series of interesting juxtapositions and discovers the important role brass banding has in people's lives.
Love, Spit and Valve Oil is produced by Rebecca Gaskell and Martin Green as part of A Sparklab Production and Lepus Co-Production for BBC Radio 4. Music composed by Martin Green and Orchestrated by Benjamin Woodgates.
How lockdown inspired Martin to create some of his most experimental, and unique work to date.
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