It is first-class news for both Queensbury and Bradford that the Black Dyke Band has been given the go-ahead to create a centre of musical excellence here - once the money has been raised, of course.

The names of Queensbury and Black Dyke have been synonymous for a long, long time. However, in recent years the band has included fewer and fewer local people as its fame has attracted players from all over the country. It has also been heard less and less in the Bradford area, being much in demand for concerts around the world.

Queensbury, though, has quite rightly remained its base for rehearsals. That is where the Black Dyke Band's roots are. Those roots will be strengthened when the project goes ahead and the cramped band room is extended into a training academy.

The practice facilities will be brought up to date, in keeping with the stature of a band which belongs at the top of banding's Premier League. But the project has significance way beyond the band's own interests.

With Black Dyke's extensive collection of memorabilia due to go on show, it will attract people into the area by offering a new tourist attraction - something Bradford badly needs following the collapse of Transperience.

But probably most important of all, it will provide a source of inspiration for local people of all ages to take an interest in the world of brass bands, develop their own musical abilities, and perhaps re-inject some Bradford talent into the Black Dyke Band of the future.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.