Derek Garside, doyen of cornet players who spread the brass-band gospel around the world

His effortless delivery, unerring accuracy, warm tone and sensitive interpretations endeared him to audiences

Derek Garside, who has died aged 94, was one of the great cornet players of his generation. Enjoying an illustrious career within the brass band movement, notably the quarter of a century he spent as principal cornet with the CWS (Manchester) Band, he also belonged to that select group of brass band players who enjoy an international reputation; in Switzerland he is credited with helping to spark the vast growth there in brass banding.
The CWS (Manchester), formed in 1900 by workers at the Co-operative Wholesale Society Tobacco Factory, was one of the busiest concert bands in postwar Britain. They were also regularly called upon to entertain the vast crowds at Manchester United’s home games at Old Trafford. At Manchester Cathedral in February 1958 their performance of their conductor Eric Ball’s tone poem, Resurgam, formed the centrepiece of the memorial service for the 23 victims of the Munich air disaster.
A proud Yorkshireman, Derek Malcolm Garside was born in Brighouse on March 9 1930, the younger son of Percy Garside, a noted singer, and his wife Florence, née Wadsworth, a talented pianist. He took up the cornet at Hipperholme Grammar School under the tuition of Fred Roberts, then Principal Cornet with the Brighouse and Rastrick Band.
Two years later the young Garside became a member of the local Clifton and Lightcliffe Band. Aged just 13, in late 1943, he rejoined Roberts, this time sitting alongside him as third man down in the cornet section of the Brighouse and Rastrick Band.
In 1947, when Roberts became bandmaster of the reorganised CWS (Manchester) Band, he brought Garside with him as his Principal Cornet. Like all the band members, Garside became an employee of the Co-Operative head office, and undertook his National Service with the RAF College Band at Cranwell.
Over the next 25 years his effortless delivery, unerring accuracy, warm tone and sensitive interpretations endeared him to audiences, while his gentle humour, generous spirit and impeccable timing won him the regard of his fellow musicians.
In 1948, the CWS were crowned British Open champions in 1948, a feat they repeated four years later. In June 1951, Garside led the band on their first tour of Switzerland, and would return many times over the next 50 years to perform, teach and adjudicate.
Replacing Eric Ball as musical director in 1954 was a man with a solid brass band pedigree, Alex Mortimer, who successfully reshaped the band into one of the finest of the new era.
To their already hectic concert and broadcasting commitments Mortimer added an extensive discography. In 1960 the band captured the British Open crown, repeating the feat six years later. In 1962 they were memorably crowned National Champions, a title they retained the following year.
Garside himself was the guest soloist at the National Finals Festival Concert at the Royal Albert Hall in both 1967 and 1968. The following year he was the inaugural recipient of the Insignia of Honour, awarded to an instrumentalist for “conspicuous service to brass bands”.
When ill health forced Mortimer to stand down in 1972, Garside took over as resident conductor. That year he successfully led the band, along with Black Dyke, Faireys and GUS, to Niagara Falls for the Canadian Brass Band Festival.
Taking his leave of the Co-op in 1976, Garside began a new career as a peripatetic brass teacher. He also had a spell as musical director of Foden’s Motor Works Band before guiding two Welsh bands, Ammanford and Llansaint, to contest success.
A lover of quartets, he created and led Foursome for Brass with his former Co-op colleague Lyndon Baglin. He also regularly performed in the company of his wife, the pianist Janne Edwards, playing to packed houses in Switzerland in 1995 and America two years later.
An occasional contributor to the Kings of Brass, in 2002 he was presented with the All England Masters Dedicated Service Award.
His wife predeceased him.
Derek Garside, born March 9 1930, died July 27 2024