Meet the MD: A Chat with David Maplestone
- Kirsty Hooper
- Aug 29
- 8 min read
Our Chairman Phil Green sat down with David to find out more about the stellar musical career that has brought him back to Sovereign, first as Principal Cornet and now as MD.
Hi Dave. Thanks for taking the time to share some details of your banding life with us - there have been so many requests for more information about our new Musical Director. Let's get started - Can you tell us how you started playing?
I grew up in Cwmbran in Gwent, South Wales. I think I was 9 when my Dad bought me a £3 cornet and told me I was going to learn to play - to keep me off the streets! I started and was soon at the learner’s class run by Cwmbran Band. This was about 1971, and I do remember the classes being held in candlelight due to the miners’ strike back then. It was when I attended secondary school that I met wonderful brass teacher called Dewi Evans. Wonderful, inspirational, kind man, who introduced me to the Arban tutor, and how to practise He was also a very fine Euphonium player. I made my way into Cwmbran senior band and moved through the ranks of the Cornet section from 3rd Cornet to Principal Cornet there.
Then I joined Markham and District band. I was 15 by now, I think, and was offered 3rd man. Don Hendy was the conductor. His policy on cornet solos was he would choose who would play the solos in any given piece, and he gave me a lot of chances to play the lead parts on several occasions. He was a very well thought of Band Trainer and conductor, who encouraged me greatly.
It sounds like you creating a name for yourself in the buoyant South Wales banding community. Why did you leave and why join Grimethorpe?
Well, at school we’d been visited by military bands, at the time recruiting players, and I’d decided I was going to join the Welsh Guards as soon as I left school. I was very fit, and my playing was very solid, but no one told my eyesight could affect my application. As it was, I was failed, on a Class 3 medical certificate at the time. I could have joined other army bands where the eyesight wouldn’t have precluded me but for me it was Welsh Guards or nothing, So I was left at a crossroads. Stay in Wales and get a job, perhaps mining, or look further afield. At the time many of the top bands had sponsors and you could write to them, asking for auditions - and jobs. So, I sent off a couple of letters and within four days Ken Hurst, Secretary of Grimethorpe Colliery Band rang my home and asked me to audition. I remember catching the train from Newport station to Sheffield and then another to Wakefield station, and eventually being met by Tom Paulin, Grimethorpe’s Principal Cornet at the time. I went to their rehearsal, and I had to audition in front of the whole band. I played the cornet solo 'Zelda'. The band offered me 4th man down – and a job - that evening.
That was a golden age of banding. What was it like to be part of Grimethorpe in that period?
Under Ray Farr we did some great gigs at Grimethorpe. Tours to France, Italy, which was filmed by Granada tv for a documentary, the former Yugoslavia and of course the famous Australian tours. We gave many groundbreaking concerts, especially featuring the music of Elgar Howarth, and also George Benjamin, William Walton, Sir Michael Tippett, Hans Werner Henze, and many more. The band did many recordings too, the Firebird album being one of my favourites with seminal recordings of many pieces, including 'On with the Motley', 'Troika!', and 'Great Gate of Kiev'. We also recorded regularly with Peter Skellern, and those albums were well thought of and won awards.
Whilst at Grimethorpe, I had lessons from George Thompson, who had retired from the band at this stage. He gave me huge confidence and helped me win the Cornet Championship of Britain in 1981, when I was 20. He wanted me to play 'Rule Britannia', but I was adamant I wanted to play something different, and 'Variations Sur Norma' had a melody that really appealed to me – so I did that and won, beating a lot of players with bigger names and reputations in the process.
I had the greatest of respect, and admiration, for Elgar Howarth, a truly brilliant musician, a genius, and worldly man. He inspired me so much, as well as many others, in how to be a more rounded musician and human being. The band worked with many other conductors who inspired me greatly and have left a lasting impression including, James Scott, Ray Farr, Major Peter Parks, Stanley Boddington, George Thompson, Wilfred Heaton and many more.
Whilst at Grimethorpe, to help keep my feet on the ground, there was a wonderful character called Harry Foster, who was like a father figure to me. I will always remember him.
If things were so great, why did you leave?
When Tom Paulin left the band both me and Alan Morrison wanted the end chair. We were both offered 6-month trials but when it came to my turn Alan was already so well established and playing so well in the style that Ray Farr was bringing to the band that I realised I’d need to look elsewhere. I remember being asked by Richard Evans to audition for Top Man at Leyland as they were really starting to build a band. I only had a 100cc motorbike but set off from Barnsley one lunchtime with a map to cross the Pennines. 7 hours later I arrived at the bandroom, auditioned, and only at that point did I realise my front headlamp wasn’t working. So, another long journey back over the Pennines but this time in the pitch black!
In about 1983 or 84, after a recommendation from George Thompson, I moved to Loughborough to play Principal Cornet with the William Davis Band, under John Berryman and Dr Keith Wilkinson. With that seat came a job in their stores and flat! Those were the days. That was a really strong band – such a shame it ended when the sponsorship stopped. I’d started teaching by that time too and much of my work was further away, in the West Midlands and beyond, so after about 5 years, when the opportunity to play Principal cornet with the Heart of England band came up I jumped at the chance. Working under Steve Roberts was another learning curve, he’s such a fine musician. We enjoyed some really good performances under Steve. I was working as a brass teacher for Shropshire Music Service, Dudley Music Service, and Hereford and Worcester Music service.
But at some point, you started to get stick-itch?
Yes, in the early nineties, I wanted to explore being a band conductor, to complement my teaching. I started with the City of Birmingham Brass Band, who used to do some lovely jobs in and around Birmingham, especially at Christmas. I went on to conduct the Banks's Brewery Band, and had some success there with qualifying them twice for the National Brass Band Finals at the Royal Albert Hall. I was asked, in 1996 for the first time, to conduct Sovereign Brass, having early success with this band, including winning the Pontins Championship Finals, Championship section.
In the early 90's, about 1992, I’d made contact with the BTM Band, A band based in South Wales, near Caerphilly. I had a lot of success with them, including, Wychavon entertainment wins, 'Area' wins, and runner up at Pontins Championship Finals, amongst others. I did some great concerts with them, including joint concerts with the Treorchy Male Voice choir, under their conductor Owain Arwel Hughes.
In qualifying BTM brass band for the National Brass Band Finals at the Royal Albert Hall in 1993, the Welsh TV Channel SC4 filmed myself and the band preparing, and performing at the Royal Albert Hall. By winning the Welsh Champion Band title we’d also qualified for the Europeans, and I was proud to conduct them, and represent Wales, at the European Championships in 1994. As my reputation built, I was asked to conduct many other bands including Grimethorpe, Fairey, Point of Ayre, and Desford.
Throughout this time of focussing my efforts on conducting though I kept my cornet and trumpet playing going, playing top man at Desford, and helping Sunlife Band on Principal Cornet. I also sat on Principal Cornet with Brighouse and Rastrick Band for several jobs. Did some professional Trumpet jobs as well, including for the ESO, and Royal Shakespeare Company.
Yes, we’ve all seen you with BTM on YouTube, it was a great performance. You’ve hardly changed! What was next on your to-do list then?
I was starting to have success with other Midlands’ bands – notably Staffordshire, with whom I won the 1st Section National Finals in 2002, Phoenix Brass – who were the other band when I won the Double in 2007, conducting Staffordshire and Phoenix to Area wins in Championship and First Section respectively, on the same day! I worked with Stourport, Bedworth, and Cleobury Mortimer bands too, as well as further spells at Sovereign. I’m delighted that I was asked to become Professional Conductor of the Masson Mills band around this time. They are a fabulous group of players, many of them ex-Thorntons/Orion Airways players, that raise an enormous amount of money for charity.
Dave, you’re well known as one the country’s finest brass teachers with some superstar students gracing the best bands.
Thank you. I suppose that around this time, more schools were engaging me as a Brass Teacher on a private basis. One school was Heathfield Grant Maintained School, where I taught cornet to Richard Poole. He is now Soprano Cornet with the Fodens Band. Other schools included Burton Borough School in Newport Shropshire and Abraham Darby Academy Madeley, where I taught Ryan Richards Trombone, who is now principal Trombone with Tredegar Band, also Melanie Whyle, who is Flugel Horn soloist at Fodens, Ashley Marston, who is Soprano Cornet at Brighouse and Rastrick, Oliver Hodgkiss, who is Principal Euphonium at Ebbw Valley, Nathan Garvey, who is playing E flat Tuba in the Royal Airforce Central Band, and many more wonderful students!
So how come we’ve been lucky enough to engage with you again?
I was honestly thrilled to be contacted by Steve Parsons, our Band Manager, in November of last year to come and play Principal Cornet. I’d moved further North but kept much of my teaching in the Midlands, so was perhaps unconsciously looking for a reason to come back – I don’t know. The relationship between myself and the band has lasted about 31 years, mainly as Musical Director, but also as Principal Cornet at times as well. Sovereign are building a good band up, and I enjoyed playing, but the job of Musical Director came up and I was asked to do it and I said yes. We have some very talented and experienced players in the band and are attracting others because the band and organisation are now so solid.
We have done some lovely performances already this year, including a rather special one at Pershore Abby, as part of the Mid-Summer Festival of Brass, in which the audience gave the band a standing ovation.
Thank you, Dave, for your time. Here’s to the next chapter and more fun and success.
