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Brass bands were central elements in British coal mining areas’ cultural life between 1945 and 1960 but their popularity was progressively challenged by the success of other musical styles coming from the United States. This didn’t prevent brass band music to appear as one of the most emblematic aspects of mining cultures in the second half of the 20th century. This article aims at understanding the strength of brass bands in the building of British coalfields’cultural unity in a political perspective. Drawing both on written archives and oral history, this paper shows how brass bands were used by the nationalized industry and the Communist Party of Great Britain as the symbol of an essentialized and traditional mining culture. At a local scale, the political role of brass bands was more implicit and ambiguous.