A MUSIC institution from Westhoughton is set to feature on national radio.

David Kaye, the president of Wingates Band which last year celebrated its 140th anniversary, travelled to Broadcasting House in London to record a slot for Listen to the Band on BBC Radio 2.

The recording comes 90 years after Wingates made its first national broadcast from studios in Manchester just two years after the BBC was formed.

Mr Kaye said: “Very few of the thousands of bands which have contributed to this quintessentially-British genre of music-making over two centuries of the band movement can match the Wingates pedigree.

“The band has performed regularly on regional and national radio networks since the earliest days of the BBC. To date there have been nearly 300 Wingates performances on radio, and quite a few TV appearances also.”

“Many key aspects of the band’s history were discussed, including the 1910 Pretoria Pit disaster which rent the band asunder.”

Mr Kaye was invited on the show, which is likely to be broadacast in March, by presenter Frank Renton after he published a comprehensive history of the band, From Bible Class to World Class, last year.

Lancashire Life magazine selected the book as the county’s Best Read category in last month’s book review feature.

The interview will feature Wingates Band music from their albums, Perspectives of Pretoria and From Fifes to Fame and Fortune which was released to mark the 140th anniversary.

Wingates Band’s last appearance on the BBC was in August when they were invited to Media City to record a 140th anniversary show.

The much-lauded band has won seven British Open Brass Band Championships and four British National Championships in its illustrious history.