NEWCASTLE'S MUSICAL HERITAGE AN INTRODUCTION By ...

country. Amers died in 1936 and Godfrey in 1939. Amers had a first class
musical background and a distinguished military career. It was natural in his
youth that he should be attracted to the military style of bandsmanship as this
kind of music was the Englishman’s staple diet; the average Englishman had not
yet become accustomed to the modern symphony orchestra and the
cacophonous modern music it played. Amers first took himself to Scarborough in
1909 and after a season there, moved to Brighton. He conducted in Newcastle
often enough but his contribution to the town’s musical culture was superficial.
He returned to Brighton after the war but soon moved to Eastbourne where he
remained for the rest of his career and created a series of music festivals that ran
from 1923 –1939. In the same way as his rival in Bournemouth he created a
centre of English music and attracted amongst others, Edward Elgar, Ethel
Smyth, Gustav Holst, Granville Bantock, Roger Quilter, Balfour Gardiner, Percy
Grainger, John Ireland, Vaughan-Williams and even the famous Russian
composer, Alexander Glazounov. He spread his net even further and recruited
the assistance of Hamilton Harty, Thomas Beecham, Malcolm Sargent, John
Barbirolli and Albert Coates to conduct his concerts. He slowly educated his
audiences by slipping in odd movements from symphonies between popular
items until by the 1930s they were getting full-blown symphonic programmes. His
death coincided with the end of an era in Eastbourne and the kind of music he
had presented, and by 1939 music hating councillors were proposing to pull
down the Winter Garden and build something useful like a country club, which
everyone could enjoy!
Why could Amers not have done this sort of thing in Whitley Bay. The simple
answer is that Whitley Bay catered only for the locals and Scots factory workers
and the Spanish City provided all their needs. At about this time there was a
thriving musical culture in many of the leading spas around the country but none
of the wealthier set came to the North East for the good of their health. To create
a musical culture, in addition to commitment there is a need for an audience
educated to listen to good music. Given the right opportunities Newcastle might
have created such an audience but as we have seen from the Laing Art Gallery,
the haggling over funds for the People’s Concerts and apparent lack of interest in
having a purpose built concert hall for musical performances, the Council was not
interested in Art or Culture in any form. It was not even interested in local
musicians or music per se for that matter unless it served some subsidiary
purpose. For example when a decision had to be made regarding music at the
1929 North East Coast Exhibition, an event intended amongst other things to
show off the regions achievements and boost local moral it turned to Capt Amers
and his South East Coast musicians. A slap in the face for Newcastle
professional musicians – or had the state of music making locally deteriorated
that much by 1929. Perhaps not, but the signs were imminent and by the 1950s it
had reached its lowest ebb. This generally coincided with a period of hardship
and change on Tyneside. The city was perceived by many people as being a
grey town and a cultural desert. The majority preferred to spend their hardearned
cash on the cinema, beer and football and as a consequence Newcastle
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