ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE PURCHASE OF THE BACK ISSUES AND PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE OF THE BANDSMAN

As owner of the rights to the domain and social media platforms for The British Bandsman I am delighted to announce today that agreement has been reached with Martin Gernon and IBB Media for the sale of the rights to the magazine title and extensive Bandsman archive, the archive includes physical and digital photographs and also the complete back catalogue of The Bandsman magazine, all 6143 issues dating back to the very first issue in September 1887.

When I purchased the online segment of The Bandsman I was aware it was only a small part of the extensive history of this iconic name, it was important to keep the name alive which is why I chose at that time to concentrate my efforts on ensuring that the name continued if only as an online entity.

I was almost immediately getting requests for access to an issue of the magazine for research purposes or for an interview with a bands person who is now in later life and the family are looking to put together their archive of a loved one. In each case I was having to pass the request on.

I always had a long term aim to bring everything relating to The Bandsman back under the ownership of one person in order to keep it together and I am delighted that after conversation with Martin Gernon at IBB Media that I am now able to announce that the sale has been agreed.

Martin Gernon from IBB Media said “I am delighted that the British Bandsman Archive and magazine title have now been sold to Rob Tompkins. I know it will be in safe hands! The archive is a fascinating read to anyone who is involved in the brass band movement, and it is re-assuring to know that the issues of today about players, adjudication, contesting, repertoire and how bands market themselves in an increasingly crowded music space, formed many of the same debating points through banding history!
Our best wishes go to Rob and his team for the continued success of The Bandsman.”

Once the sale has been completed and the issues have changed hands then work will begin on the process of making The Bandsman Magazine archive available on-line as a searchable archive with options to purchase back issues and pages from within issues. As I am sure everyone will realise digitising and indexing 6143 issues of the magazine is a huge task and it is important that it is done well so we get the best from all of this banding history.

I would like to thank Martin Gernon at IBB Media for making this purchase possible and for his kind words, without doubt this is a very big moment, but it is only the beginning of a much bigger project that I am excited to get started.