Chris Helme
Conductor Magazine - Editor
For thirty years Chris was a serving Police Officer and was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1990 for his service in the community. He has written three local history books and written a weekly nostalgia column in the Brighouse Echo weekly newspaper for over twenty years. He has produced a sixty-minute nostalgia cassette tape based on a number of the stories from his column and a number of other small publications. He has also written a number of articles which have been published in regional magazines. For over twenty five years he has taught local history to Adult Community Learning Classes in the Brighouse and Elland areas of West Yorkshire. More recently he has presented a number of classes on Committee Skills.
His
life in brass bands started in 1960 playing the cornet in the Clifton
and Lightcliffe Band and then gradually progressing on to the flugel horn
and then in 1968 to Eb bass which he still plays.
In 1970 he joined the Leeds City Police
and their wind band but left the Leeds Force the following year to join Bradford
City
Police
and their wind band. In 1974 the bands were amalgamated with the local authority
council changes. In the 1980's the amalgamated wind band was reformed as The
West Yorkshire Police Band, a brass band. For a number of years he was the
concert secretary, until quite recently when he joined the Drighlington
Band.
His first taste of conducting was in 1966 on an elementary conducting course at the Workers Music Association with Dr Alan Bush. He has only conducted as and when required since; conducting is something he wishes he had taken more seriously and continued from that early tuition, but playing, being an adult community learning tutor, writing, publishing, public speaking and being described as an organiser is where he feels he am best suited these days.
During the mid 1990's he was beginning to be in demand as a speaker and has now developed a style that has both informed and entertained the almost countless audiences that have heard any of the numerous lecture presentations he has delivered. His presentations have often been described as Infotainment. He has developed a presentational style that can both conjure laughter and melancholy through his various subjects that have been appreciated at Probus Clubs, Women’s Institutes, Wine Circles, Church Circles, Luncheon Clubs, Coffee Mornings, Trefoil Guild, History Societies, 3rd Age groups, Rotary, Round Table Clubs and many more including on two occasions at the Association's annual convention.
He is regularly asked to return to many groups a second and often a third time and is often called on to help out at short notice. Speaker Finders have often asked him if he knows of any other speakers. As a result of these requests in 1997 he published the first edition of his West Yorkshire Speaker Directory, with 60 speakers, presenters, slide show hosts and small group musical entertainers. These directories have now become bi-annual publications with the current 2007/2008 West, North and South Yorkshire Speaker Directories on sale but they are only available from the author or through Waterstone’s/Amazon book shops and website.
In recent years he has regularly contributed to Brass Review a specialist brass band magazine and only recently he was commissioned to write for the British Bandsman magazine. His stories of brass band nostalgia are about some of the personalities and bands from yesteryear and have proved very popular. His stories about some of the legendary performers and bands of the past have been appreciated by the huge number of brass band enthusiasts.
Chris is a an editor for the Calderdale Talking Newspaper where he and his group of readers help by producing their quarterly magazine tape which is a blend of nostalgia, memories and how life used to be – a mixture well appreciated by the all their listeners