Colliery band set to play on after raising lots of brass

A brass band is set to play on after hitting its halfway point of a fundraising campaign - in just nine months.

Easington Colliery Brass Band launched a campaign in April 2016 in a bid to replace its instruments, which members said were beginning to show their age after more than 20 years of regular use.

After receiving grants and donations of £33,000 from a range of organisations around the region, the band has so far been able to purchase 11 new instruments.

The band celebrated its centenary in December 2015 and is entirely self-supporting, aside from an annual donation towards the band and band room's running costs.

The band has always been closely linked to the colliery and played at the funerals of all the 83 men and boys who lost their lives underground in the 1951 pit disaster. They also still play a memorial concert every year at these miners' gravesides.

Along with securing the band's long-term future, the group is also hoping to set up a junior feeder band, which will use the existing instruments to give more local musicians the chance to play together and to one day reach the standards required to join the main band.

Peter Lawson added that several of their members are music teachers, and have already committed to providing their expertise free of charge to help a new generation of players, which will help to ensure the band has a bright future.