We took a trip from Bond themes to bhangra beats in the company of Bradford’s mighty Black Dyke Band, chart-topping pop legend Marti Pellow, star soprano Carly Paoli, Punjabi Roots Academy and Bradford Cathedral Choir – and your host, BBC’s Zoe Ball. BBC Radio 2 Loves Brass was the opening concert in The Big Brass Blowout, Bradford 2025’s weekend-long festival of all things big, brassy and Bradford.

Alongside classic songs by the likes of Joni Mitchell and Wet Wet Wet, you heard operatic arias and bhangra beats, powerful ballads and hymns, song settings by local lad and world-famous composer Frederick Delius – plus a new commission from Peter Graham, one of today’s leading brass band writers, that celebrates Bradford’s 19th-century ties with the ‘New World’ across the Atlantic. Top class brass.

This concert is being recorded for transmission on BBC Radio 2 and BBC Sounds.

BBC Radio 2 Loves Brass was part of The Big Brass Blowout, a weekend-long celebration of the best in brass.