BESSES O' TH' BARN BAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8401, 16 April 1907, Page 6

BESSES O' TH' BARN BAND.

The Besses o' th' Barn Band's Auckland season resulted in phenomenal attendances. Receptions, banquets, garden-parties, and presentations were showered upon these brilliant Lancastrians, in fact nowhere in New Zealand has such lavish hospitality been extended to the Besses. The Masterton performances will commence on Thursday afternoon next at 3 o!clock, with a grand open-air performance at the Showgrounds. Evening concerts will be given on Thursday and Friday in the Town Hall at 8 o'clock, the box plans for which are at McLeod and Young's where all tickets are on sale from this morning. This famous band comes from Whitefield, near Manhcester, England, and takes its name from a quaint old Lancashire village called the Besses o' th' Barn, which at the commencement of the bana's history was simply a small hamlet of a few tenements. The village gained its name from a barnlike inn in this' region, for in 1747 a newspaper contained an advertisement calling a meeting of creditors to be held at "Bessy's o' th' Barn," No record exists of the actual date of the commencement of the band, but it is believed it originated over a 100 years,ago as a string band, afterwards turned into a reed band during the reign of George 111. In 1821 the Besses were awarded their first prize in musical competition, and played in the procession celebrating the coronation of George IV. In June, 1837, on the occasion of the coronation of the late Queen, the band also competed, playing, "HaiU Coming Mom," and was awarded first prize. In 1853 reed instruments were dispensed with, and replaced by brass, the band was augmented to the strength of eighteen performers, and secured the services of a professional conductor. During 1892 the band held every challenge cup in Great Britain and in 1903 won the 1,000 guineas brass band gold cup.