ABSTRACT
Besses is the most travelled of them all, having undertaken two world tours, each lasting almost a year and a half. On the first, during 1906 and 1907, they visited America, Canada, Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia, and on the second, lasting from November 1910 to February 1912, touring South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. Australia and New Zealand have each had substantial brass band movements for over a century, and each holds its annual National Championships, along with smaller regional events. The founders of the movements in these two countries were the immigrants who settled there during the latter part of the nineteenth century. There is much to be written about the early histories of some of the bands, especially those of Black Dyke and Besses o’ th’ Barn, about the professionalism of these and other bands such as Fodens and St Hilda’s, especially as manifested in their touring activities, both at home and abroad.
