Brassed off and with good reason ..

And nobody is denying there’s still almost a hundred years’ worth of profitable coal in the Grimley colliery seam.

Yet the miners who stood firm throughout the 1984 strike are now faced with a renewed redundancy ballot that threatens to consign both their livelihoods and a century of brass-band tradition to extinction.

Based on the 1996 hit Brit Flick of the same name, Brassed Off captures perfectly both the resilience and despair of an era in which successive Conservative governments ripped out the heart of the mining community and then came back for its soul. This stage version of Brassed Off by Bite My Thumb, Foot of the Barrel, Gravitas Entertainment and Northern Spark are proud to present their upcoming mini tour of Paul Allen’s masterpiece (based on the screenplay by Mark Herman) and featuring players from City of Bradford Brass Band and BD1.

It kicks off its three-legged tour at the end of this month, fittingly at the National Coal Mining Museum, Wakefield before heading for The Carriageworks in Leeds and finally the Civic Hall in Brighouse.

This stage version retains the film’s rugged humour, embattled sense of community and all those memorable lines. Simultaneously sad and uplifting, Brassed Off is staggeringly relevant today as the scars of wounds inflicted on Yorkshire communities during the 1984 Miners’ Strike still run deep.

As the curtain falls, Brassed Off guarantees to bring the house down ... Giving the true story of an against-all-odds struggle for the notion of community.

“This is an unbelievably important story”, said director Neil Knipe. “Plays like Brassed Off are now a modern folk tale for the north.

“These stories need to be ever-present, passed down from generation to generation so we never forget the plight and battle of the miners and the tragedy of the pit closures.

“Yes, this production has all the classic lines from the film and good old northern humour but, unlike a lot of productions, we’re making sure we highlight the deep desperation and sense of being trapped that these characters faced.”

The production has been months in the making and involves Brighouse based Foot of the Barrel productions who produce several shows and comedy nights across West Yorkshire.

The dates for Brassed Off are, August 26/27 – The National Coal Mining Museum (Call 01924 848806 for tickets): Sept 1/3 - The Carriageworks, Leeds (Call 0113 376 0318 for tickets): Sept 9/10 – Brighouse Civic Hall (tickets from www.visitbrighouse.co.uk or Ryecorn Wholefoods 01484 711835 for info.