Sam Fender's 'Remember My Name' features Easington band

On its final track, 'Remember My Name', listeners around the world can listen to the music of Easington Colliery Brass Band who provide the instrumental for the heart-wrenching ballad.

Peter Lawson, a member of Easington Colliery Band since he was 11-years-old and its secretary for 35 years, has spoken of the 'emotional' moment he heard the single for the first time

It's a track that has been two years in the making, with a first approach made to the band in 2023, which Lawson, 66, said was 'fantastic'.

"I got a phone call in March 2023 from Sandy Smith, who is a well-known brass player and arranger, who said he had been contacted by Sam Fender's manager to arrange the backing for a song about his grandparents.

"Around April 2023 we did the recording in a converted chapel in Northumberland and Sam turned up.

"When he turned up the band was open-mouthed!"

(Image: Easington Colliery Band) For the time they spent recording, Fender became a member of the band even wearing the signature concert jacket while he sang with the collective.

"He was part of the band," the Easington resident said. "Just a lovely down to earth lad."

"He said the song was beautiful," Peter said of Fender's reaction to the finished piece.

"When I heard the recording I was so emotional." 

 

 

 

 

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The song itself features parts of County Durham's mining heritage too. The arrangement underneath Fender's powerhouse vocals weaves parts of Gresford, the Miners' Hymn, into the accompaniment. It is another reminder of Fender's family heritage with his grandmother's family working in the pits. 

"Quite a few of the global audience won't know that Gresford is in the piece," Peter said.

"Sam asked for it to be woven in, his grandma's side of the family were all miners."

(Image: Easington Colliery Band) In a post on TikTok, Fender said "I knew I wanted to have a miners' brass band on the track.

"I went through all these bands and I chose Easington Colliery Band because they were the best and they'd won all these competitions.

"We recorded them and f***ing serendipity - Easington Colliery is very likely where some of my maternal family worked, as they were in mines all across County Durham.

"I didn't know until my mam told me. That's the universe at work right there."

The band also appeared in the music video - a video which has sparked a revolution of users on social media platform TikTok sharing images of their grandparents as an act of remembrance.

But, the video was recorded with only 10 days' notice for the band, meaning some members had to juggle work with starring in a music superstar's music video.

"Within a matter of 10 days, we had organised us shooting the video with Sam's manager," Peter said of the inception of the music video which was shot in February.

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"For the band to do that as well as working was amazing."

Peter, who is originally from Washington, thinks the track might inspire more artists to tap into their roots and examine the local culture of brass bands. "I hope it brings banding to the forefront and more artists use brass bands," he said.

Fender's album is out now and features Easington Colliery Band on track 11.