THE name has changed, but the aim is the same.

Three years ago in the Royal Albert Hall it was the Yorkshire Festival Of Music and it was in aid of the Yorkshire Cancer Research charity.

This time round, on Saturday November 4, it's to be called the Festival Of Brass And Voices and the proceeds are going to Cancer Research UK.

And some of Yorkshire's best musical talent has vowed to make a success of the huge charity music event.

The 2003 version was big, very big, making more than £100,000 for Yorkshire Cancer Research, the highest figure ever raised for the charity

More than 1,500 choristers and two brass bands took part in the concert in a hall packed with thousands of supporters, many of them from the Huddersfield area.

But, frankly, it also had its problems.

The organisers hope they have learned the lessons of last time over seating and on bus stopovers. They have scaled down in numbers, too, back to about 1,000 voices.

Even so there are bound to be some eyebrows raised at an event that is now less Yorkshire and more national, both in its performers and in its fundraising.

Syd Harris is back as festival director, with William Relton as musical director.

Huddersfield's Sellers International and YBS return as the bands, ensuring top-rate musical backing.

Ian Cockerline and Alan Binnington are the accompanists, with Moldgreen-born actor Gorden Kaye again the compere.

Prominent among the many West Yorkshire choirs taking part are Almondbury, Denby Dale and Penistone Ladies and Huddersfield's Moorland Singers and Elland and Halifax, Thornhill and Millhouse Green male voice choirs.

There are also choirs from all over the North, as far north as Cumbria and Tyne and Wear and as far south as Somerset and Cornwall.

With the singers coming by coaches from a much wider area and comfort stops left to the decision of the driver and the coach captain, there seems little likelihood of a repetition of last time's problem of overstretched refreshment stops.

Transport and accommodation for singing members is £132. For supporters, with a seat in the Albert Hall, prices run from £151 to £172. There is a £40 supplement for a single room.

Prices include two nights' three-star accommodation in central London and return transfers to the Royal Albert Hall.

Concert tickets only are available at the Cancer Research UK festival office in Huddersfield (01484 647146) up to the end of February at a cost between £19 to £40.

After that, they are available from the Albert Hall's box office.

Some areas are already sold out.