Robin Longbottom explains how comic bands became a popular draw at galas and fetes

IN July, 1904, Shipley Gala held its annual comic band competition.

The first prize of £2 was won by the Keighley Wiffum Waffum Wuffum Band and the second prize of 25 shillings went to the Haworth Bingem Bangem Prize Band.

From the 1890s through to the 1950s, comic bands appeared regularly at most galas and fetes.

They first became popular towards the end of the 19th century as lighthearted entertainment at musical society concerts.

A concert held in January 1888 by the Armitage Bridge Church Mutual Improvement Society, near Huddersfield, included a performance by members of the society disguised in fancy dress and calling themselves Signor Tablache's Comic Band. This impromptu group performed a variety of tunes on various nondescript instruments including tommy talkers, triangles and drums. The main instrument was the tommy talker, better known today as the kazoo. It had developed from a 17th century wind instrument known as a mirliton, which the player held horizontally and vocalised into the mouthpiece. As the player sang or hummed, a thin membrane in the mouthpiece vibrated and produced a musical sound.

The bands soon became popular and began attending galas and competing against one another. Members disguised their tommy talkers as outlandish wind instruments resembling trombones, trumpets and tubers and dressed up as clowns, soldiers, Zulus or 'Red Indians'. Their musical repertoire included popular tunes such as Yes, We Have No Bananas, Ilkla Moor Baht'at, John Brown's Body and The Death of Nelson. Choosing a comical name was an important consideration. Keighley had the Wiffum Waffum Wuffum Band, the North Brook Wind Pumpers, and the Parish Church Clown Band. Notable bands from other places included the Haworth Bingem Bangem Prize Band, Otley Splisham Splashem Splushum Band, Morley Parrock Nook Anthem Band and Trebmela's Wonderful Wiffy-Wuffy Band from Holmfirth.

When processing, they were often led by a hobby horse designed to look as though the person was riding on a small horse. The 'rider' would usually trot sedately in front of the band and then suddenly appear to lose control of the horse, dashing in and out of the watching crowd and snapping the horse's jaws which were operated by a piece of string. Judging at Keighley took place in the gala field in Victoria Park. Contesting bands would usually play for about 20 minutes and the last tune was always John Braham's The Death of Nelson. As the piece concluded, the conductor and sometimes the whole band would dramatically fall over dead. Marks were awarded for musicality, costume and most importantly on how well the conductor or band died at the end. The Morley Parrock Nook Band once lost to the Holbeck Jungle Band because their conductor “died better”. In 1904 one band performed the piece so badly that the reporter “believed that the performance would have brought about the death of anybody who had only listened long enough”.

After the First World War, new bands were formed. Many were made up of lads who had returned from the war and were given a military theme, such as the Silsden Underground Artillery (who pulled a small wooden cannon), the Hunslet Nanny Goat Lancers, the Airedale Fireside Lancers from Castleford, and the Brighouse Runaway Mounted on Foot Band. In 1923 the Hunslet Nanny Goat Lancers took first prize at Keighley Gala – its conductor, Henry Stubbs, was a tinsmith and had made most of the instruments. Contestants in subsequent years included the Holbeck Jungle Band, Yeadon McNamara's Band and the Paddock Silver Piggin Band (a piggin was a small ladling can for milk) from Huddersfield.

By the end of the 1930s the heyday of the comic bands was over, but occasionally a few new ones made appearances in the 1940s and early 1950s.