| Biography | Pemberton Old Wigan DW Band can trace its history back to around 1877. In 1883, a group of players known as the Blue Jackets Band formed the bulk of the Old Volunteer Corps who were later named The Wigan Rifles. However, in 1891, most of the members left the Volunteers and formed Pemberton Old Band.
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They quickly gained a formidable reputation all over the country winning major prizes including the prestigious title of British Open Champions at Belle Vue in 1903 under the renowned conductor John Gladney.
The band continued their winning ways under another famous musician of the day, John Greenwood who, along with his skills as a conductor and band trainer, was responsible for bringing many fine compositions and arrangements for Pemberton to premiere.
Undoubtedly the most famous of all the bands conductors was William Rimmer. The Father of the Brass Band movement, who scored many successes with Pemberton Old and who wrote the march Punchinello for the then principal cornet and later conductor of the band James Fairhurst as a gift for receiving the soloist award at the Belle Vue Championships.
In 1995 a neighbouring outfit, the Wigan & District Brass Band had fallen on hard times and were almost defunct when Pemberton Old took over the running of the band thus adding the name of its hometown Wigan to its name.
The organisation now has three bands, the 'A' Band, a 'B' Band and a thriving youth band that has a membership of around thirty youngsters.
In 1997, Peter Ashley set up the 'B' Band, as a means of bridging the gap between Pemberton's Youth and Senior musical ensembles.
In August 2003, all of the bands attended at the newly organised Hymn and March contest sponsored by JJB (Sports). After the contest, Mr David Whelan, the Chairman of JJB, said that he would like to sponsor the bands at Pemberton. It was said that the reasons for this decision was due mainly to the quality of the playing and the youth policy the band have in force. The name changes once again and became Pemberton Old Wigan (JJB) Band.
On Sunday 14th March 2004 a little more history was made with both the 'A' and 'B' Bands qualifying at the North West Area Finals of the National brass band championships of Great Britain.
The 'A' band under the direction of Mark Peacock attended the National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain, which were held in Harrogate in September 2004 and were awarded 1st place in the first section. Promotion was gained to the Championship section in 2005 but to be promoted as Champion Band of Great Britain was a bonus.
After several years in the Championship section the band qualified for the National Finals at the Royal Albert Hall after coming 3rd in the North West Area contest 2009, the last time the band qualified for the finals in the Championship section was 1907. Two years later, in 2011, the band qualified for the National Championships for a second time after again coming third at the North West Area contest.
Under the direction of Mark Bentham, the band progressed and to become one of the worlds top 30 bands in the 4BarsRest rankings.
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The band has since had another change of name as Dave Whelans new sport and leisure chain, DW Sports, agreed to sponsor the band thereby continuing Mr Whelans much appreciated support of the organisation. |