ABSTRACT
On 3 November 1886, a writer for Musical World noticed the attraction of brass bands to labouring people in the Southern Pennines. Clearly, brass musicians had the opportunity to perform music throughout their lifetime. This situation provides an arena to reflect on working-class masculinity in a period when observers were attempting to understand the wider habits and customs of the working class. The brass band historian Arthur Taylor illustrated the density of brass bands on the Southern Pennine's Lancashire side by saying that 'the whole area of Saddleworth could almost be designated a national park for brass bands, with Dobcross as the centerpiece'. The bandmaster, John Lord, and the trainer supported by the prizes that the band had won under their leadership. An analysis of bandsmen's social networks, in a period when working-class leisure was highly visible, answers a call to examine masculinity in the period outside the more dominant models of middle-class education, power and politics.
