June 29, 2024 • 48 mins
Welcome everyone!
Sorry about the long break, but we are back as if we never left with the president of the Victorian Bands League, Megan Stapleton, talking about all things coming up and just past in the land of Victorian banding.
Listen and enjoy!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, loyal listeners. Hello, loyal viewers. Welcome to Brass Bandcast,
the podcast about love, life, music, band, rehearsal,
split notes, intonation, and showing up late to podcasts.
I'm Tim. And Robin, how are you? Hello, I'm very well, thank you.
(00:21):
And we have a very special guest. Every week is another special guest, isn't it?
Every week we do a podcast, there's another special guest, which is pretty much
every week. We do a podcast every week, which is an apology to you.
But today we have Megan Stapleton. Everyone say hi.
Hi, Megan. People at home are saying hi. Hi, Megan. Hi, everyone.
Hello. It's good to be here. Yay.
(00:44):
Thank you for joining us. Yeah, thank you, Megan, for joining us.
We had a little bit of a rest, didn't we, Tim?
We did. Well, that's very nice of you, Robyn. We had a break because I stood
Robyn up about three or four times for podcast recordings because what's,
yeah, Robin's been rearing and ready to go,
and life just got in the way. But here we are. We're back. We're here.
(01:06):
We're podcasting. I know because it's just because every time I do something,
I'm like, I want to talk about this on the podcast and then I don't have an
outlet and I just have to tell other people and it's not as fun as telling all
the listeners about my life. Do they appreciate that?
Do the other people appreciate that? I don't know.
You get addicted to it. You get addicted to sharing your life and thinking your
(01:27):
life is interesting. But anyway,
you might think my life is interesting or you might not. I don't know.
Well, how's our life been since our last podcast? Robin, tell me.
No, Robin, please. Your life must be so interesting. I feel like we need to
know what have you been up to in the past five or six years?
All of our lives have been interesting. I know.
So, Megan, I don't know if you've listened to our podcast, but we're talking
(01:47):
about our weeks, but it's been a long week.
It's been what, like two months. So, we had Women in Brass.
Megan and I can talk about Women in Brass. And Tim came came to that too
that was fun i went to a willoughby band
rehearsal remember the last podcast was
with dom invited me to willoughby band rehearsal and then
as he was listening he reminded me by a text message to
(02:08):
come and i actually went to a rehearsal so that was exciting what
else we had some gigs we had this like parade through
the city there was a cool parade there was an american marching band
in this parade through melbourne oh nice that's very fancy
i played the the snare drum on that
march normally i'm not trusted with the snare
i learned how to draw so that
(02:31):
was exciting what else we went to
the alpine festival and we hung out with finella and rodonga band and that was
awesome great yeah i feel like more exciting things have happened i should have
written them down that's a lot how about you tim what have you been doing that's
so busy that that's so busy i'm from chris what have i been doing i don't know
i haven't been doing a whole lot of of band stuff,
(02:53):
but then suddenly I realised I've been doing heaps and heaps of band stuff.
Yeah, you had like a concert, didn't you?
Didn't you have a music concert? Yeah, I had a music concert. That's right.
There was a movies cabaret concert with the mighty Footscray Arable City Band.
Oh, oh. And then we, so we're getting ready for the Victorian State Band Championships,
which looks like being the biggest state band championships in Victoria in like forever.
(03:16):
It's going to be so big. We'll talk about that. Yeah, yeah. And then it might
have been the week before last.
So Footscray Arable City Band is historically quite a famous band in Australia,
especially in Melbourne. and we actually had some gold records in the 70s.
So there were gold records because some of our records were very popular,
sold heaps and heaps of copies.
And those gold records. Back when people brought brass band music. That's right.
(03:39):
And those gold records actually went missing in the early 1990s.
The council was knocking over the band hall and the folklore within the band
is, oh, the records were stolen and someone saw a wrecking ball hitting the
wall and had to run in and grab the stuff.
So don't tell anyone. one. Hopefully no one's listening. But for the past like
30, 40 something years, we've had spray painted regular records,
(04:01):
spray painted gold up on the wall and said, yeah, there are gold records.
And then last week we had a box returned.
Someone's granddaughter was cleaning out a garage. We had a box returned with
the real official gold records, as well as recordings of the 1967 Australian
National Band Championships from Launceston and all sorts of great stuff.
(04:23):
So it's been pretty, pretty exciting. So I'm excited to try and get all that
stuff digitized. And history.
Yeah. History week. And I've been playing my tuba as well and buzzing and practicing
a lot. And States is going to be fun.
Oh, won't it be fun? Yeah. Megan, what's going on with you, Megan?
(04:44):
What have you been up to the last week or so? Oh, Megan must be very busy.
Yeah, I'm not as cool as you guys, but I did go to Women in Brass,
which was very fun and I also went to the Footscray concert and I played in the mass trombone item,
where they tried to get 76 trombones I don't think there was 76 there was a
lot of trombones that was pretty exciting lots of band gigs my own band we always
(05:06):
do Flemington race course on Anzac Day they do a big ceremony there and we play
there which is kind of cool and then what else have I been doing oh Mini Valley's
second band Aberfeldy went to Bendigo which was very exciting,
and we debuted our brand new polo shirts we've got a grand four so the first
outing for our new polos, which was cool.
What's the polo look like? Can you give us a bit of a fashion here? Oh, yeah.
(05:29):
The Aberfeldy's colour is light blue and navy. So it's a navy polo with light blue accents.
Very fashionable. That's quite tasteful. Quite tasteful. But,
yeah, for a lot of them, that was their first ever contest.
We've got a member who's 11 members who are well into their 60s.
So it's a wide spread of ages and they did a really good job.
(05:50):
So that was probably the banding highlight, I think, for recent times.
I forgot about Acid Brass. There was Acid Brass too. You did Acid Brass,
didn't you, Tim? I did Acid Brass. Oh, that's right. I forgot all about that.
Yeah. I played in the middle of the city.
That was really fun. Did you have a big crowd? Yeah.
I did. I played with Danny Nong. My kid was in the newspaper.
He was semi-famous. Yeah, because they asked Danny Nong who were their oldest
(06:13):
and youngest members, and they're like, our oldest is like 7,
85, and our youngest is 7.
And they're like, wow, let's get pictures of them. And they came and did this,
like, quite enormous photo shoot with Mikey. So that was fun.
That's cool. Yeah. Yes, and then they were both at the gig and Mikey was playing the cowbell.
It was a very important cowbell party. It was like rocking along,
(06:33):
rocking along, gets a bit distracted, slows down, like, keep the beat, Mikey.
We had a cool, cool gang of percussion, ox percussion at the back.
I was trying to explain it to my husband and he's like, isn't that like when a DJ does samples?
I'm like, yeah. He's like, how does that translate to a brass band? I'm like.
(06:54):
Like the tubers doing lots of crazy stuff
and then horns will come in with a weird boppy beard and then they'll
stop and then someone else will play another weird boppy beard and the drum
kit goes nuts and that was fun yeah so many gigs love it and gigs gigs gigs
we're so busy us community musicians what else i met a boy in wodonga i said
(07:15):
i'd talk about him on the podcast us. Why? What? You met a boy.
No, I am already married, but he's on this mission.
I was going to talk about this later, but I'm getting very distracted and muddled in my thoughts.
He is on this mission. He's from Wodonga. He's named Billy, and he's come to
Melbourne for two weeks on work experience, and he's trying to go to all the
brass bands, and, like, he's working out on what night they rehearse.
(07:37):
What? And he's like, but I was like, that's such a cool thing to do.
Isn't that amazing? Billy. Someone should do that. Good on you, Billy. Yeah.
Good on you, Billy. It's impressive, but he'd need to be here for,
like, six months to hit all the Monday rehearsals, I reckon.
Yeah, there's a lot of Monday rehearsals. Yeah, I reckon Monday's probably the
most popular rehearsal night in Australia.
What do you reckon? In Victoria, it is. Other states have different rehearsals.
(08:01):
I've had this argument with people. Apparently, Monday night's a Victorian thing.
Yeah, that's what I've been told.
Unlike a Monday night, you're enough into the week, but you're not.
Like a Thursday night's pretty brutal.
By the time I get to Thursday, I want to stay at home in front of the TV, right?
But we're podcasting on a Thursday. We're podcasting on a Thursday night,
and I've just actually been at a bad rehearsal.
(08:22):
So there you go hey robin
can you remind me when we do these podcasts is there like a structure or
something that we follow if so yeah the structure well yeah
okay we've got a lot of catching up well that was the
structure that was the how was your week and that was very abridged for me because
we had a lot of things to talk about and i could go into detail about all those
things but i won't because we've got lots more things to talk about because
(08:45):
we've got to hear megan's life story we've got to ask her some questions talk
about how states is going how nationals is going i I need to hear news from around Australia.
Well, should we start with everyone finding out who Megan is?
Because they might not know.
So let me introduce Megan and then Megan, if you want to tell us a bit about yourself.
For anyone who doesn't know, Megan Stapleton, president of the Victorian Bands
(09:05):
League, plays the bass trombone with Moonee Valley Brass and is involved- Let her tell it, Tim.
Okay. And Megan, how did you get to where you are? How did it all start? Go. Go.
Um I I'm actually a violin player originally
don't hold me I know scandal and in
(09:26):
high school you had to learn instrument but you couldn't learn instrument you
already learned and I wasn't really too fast and my best friends
like I'm going to do trombone so I was like sure sounds cool
why not she does not play anymore and I
obviously still play so that was one of those random life
choices that turned out really well for me and then my
parents were down out on the local paper they're not musos at all but they
(09:47):
saw this ad saying um we're looking people for the local brass band
and they're like you're home on a monday night so i was
like quite young just starting high school they just
dropped me off one night and left me there and i
was quite shy so i walked on in sat down and
i didn't read treble clef but i was too embarrassed to say anything so i
mimed for about three weeks straight just didn't play
(10:10):
a note and then eventually the conductor clued on and was
like okay do you read
bass clef and i was like yes i do so then i started playing on bass
trombone i had this terrible piece shooter it wasn't really bass trombone i
was just playing the high notes um so eventually i learned treble clef
i joined the youth band i made lots of cool friends and that's why i got interested
in like running the bbl because one of the band managers of the youth band was
(10:33):
a former bbl president i was like that sounds kind of of interesting so i joined
the exec in 03 and became bbl president in 2012 and that's me.
Wow so you were just you were literally dropped off story we've ever had and
you were literally just like dropped off at at a rehearsal just dropped off
(10:53):
my parents like anyone yeah you were just like i'm going in no anyone there
they just abandoned me there were like beers under the I think if my parents had come in,
they might not have left me there, but they were just like, we'll be fine.
And it was quite a small band. The band was rebuilding at that stage and I was
kind of like, oh, I don't know.
I just kept going and then eventually, now I can't imagine doing anything else on a Monday night.
(11:17):
Wow. So it's been Moonee Valley. So that was Moonee Valley and you've just been
there the whole time and you did their youth band.
Yeah, I've played with lots of other bands. I wouldn't say I've played with
every band in Victoria, but I've played with nearly every band in Victoria.
I help out a lot or if I go to an AGM, let me play with them in their rehearsal.
So I do enjoy being in other bands. That's quite fun, sort of seeing how they do things.
(11:41):
But, yeah, no, Moonee Valley's home. Not going anywhere. Aw. Aw.
And I'd just like to dig in a little bit. So you were dropped off at the first
rehearsal and you're like, I'm not sure.
So the second rehearsal you went to, was that like your parents were just dropping off again?
You're like, no, actually, I do want to go back. or how did you stay with it
after you dropped off that first time?
It wasn't really a choice thing. My parents were like, you're doing this.
(12:04):
And I'm the oldest child, so I just follow the rules. I don't argue.
I'm an obedient type. So I just sort of kept going.
And then John Breen, who was taking Mini Valley, got me into youth band.
And then I started to make friends my own age. I think that's when it really clicked for me.
I was like, oh, this is cool because everyone else in Mini Valley felt 100 years
older than me. They probably weren't that old.
(12:25):
When you're a teenager, everyone feels a lot older. and then
yeah that's how i mean that's how i met other people
from other bands how i met danny we actually joined the
bbl exec at the same time so yeah it's
i think getting into the youth bands what kept me in in banding
and at that stage you had to play in a home band to play in youth band they're
quite strict about that so it's because there was a the youth band was going
(12:51):
to be an excuse for city bands to steal country kids like the kids would come
along and then they'd be lured to the big smoke by these fancy city bands and
not play with the home bands anymore.
So the rule was you had to keep playing with your home band to be in the youth band.
So just going back to what we talked about at the start, I wonder if Billy got
back to Wodonga or if he got lured in by some of these big city bands that he's been to rehearsals at.
(13:14):
No, no, he goes back to Wodonga. Okay. He's a good kid, Billy.
He goes back to Wodonga. He just goes to the Victorian Youth State Band.
So they were at the Alpine Festival and they're sounding great.
So do they not have to have this rule anymore? The kids can just play in it no matter what?
Yeah, any kid under 25 is welcome to play in it. Okay.
(13:35):
Currently the band is bursting at the seams. They sound really good.
I went and visited them in Tasmania last year on the Tasmanian tour.
I haven't spent that much time around bulk numbers of teenagers for a while,
so I felt super old was my number one takeaway.
Away but number two I was just impressed by how like good
the kids were like they were really friendly to each other
(13:55):
and really helpful and were setting up and the standard of the band was really
high and they seemed to be having a really good time it felt it reminded me
of when I was there and but you know everyone was sort of friends and yeah it
had a really good energy about it so that was really exciting to see it's really
well behaved these days I don't know were Were we that well-behaved, Tim?
No, we were the naughty kids, I think. Yeah, okay.
(14:18):
I'm like, look at them. They're all sitting in a concert watching,
having good manners. You hear all these things about the next generation.
I was like, ooh, they're probably better behaved than us. But,
oh, they're cute. They're so cute.
And then you got onto the VBL and you've been running that for 12 years.
Yeah, I had an 18-month break after the 2018 Nationals. I needed a change. Oh, okay.
(14:43):
I actually didn't. I do want to come back at some point, but when Kevin Cameron
stepped away suddenly just before COVID happened, it kind of all fell into place.
It felt like the right time to come back. I was feeling sort of re-energised.
And what kind of things do you do as the president of the VBL?
Yeah, what does a president of the VBL do? too yeah you
(15:05):
go to all of agms because a lot of bands present
awards that's the cool side seeing the bands and seeing the bands in their actual
habitat and meeting the members and for them it's kind of a big deal particularly
regional bands have a big president come out and you know you're this like mythical
figure and i kind of feel like i'm a fraud i'm just like a normal person
(15:26):
but it's always really cool to go out and present the awards to people and to
hear stories like people who have been in the band for like 50 years straight
or people who've just joined the band or the person who's joined the committee
for the first time and all those kind of things are really, I enjoy that.
I love seeing sort of bands, yeah, just be bands and do their thing.
But apart from that, it's a lot of paperwork.
(15:47):
People might think it's really exciting. It is not. It's a lot of emails,
a lot of paperwork, a lot of listening to complaints, listening to people who
definitely think they could do a better job than you but never put their hand up.
That's my favourite. But, yeah, it's mostly about organising and that kind of
is a strength of mine. So I actually enjoy it.
I was going to say, I think Victorian banding is lucky to have you there organising
(16:13):
stuff through because without strong organisation and without all the people
who are presidents of state bands,
a lot of what we do as community bands becomes less and less structured and
less and less community behind it sometimes. So thank you, Megan.
Thanks, everyone. one of the organizing stuff out there you're always
there thank you i can say confidently that every
(16:33):
state president just wants what's best for their state and that's
what everyone's trying to do and we all do it differently and we definitely
don't always agree but we all want what's best for our state so everyone out
there's that we've got the best do you think i don't know we've got to be impartial
robin we've got to be impartial all of everyone everyone is doing a A great job.
(16:55):
Everyone's doing great. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, there are.
But I only know Megan, so I think Megan's awesome.
So, Megan, and then there's the VBL. And does the VBL have – is it full?
Do you need more people there helping out and organising stuff? No.
A few vacancies at the moment, which is not always the case,
but we've had a few vacancies a couple of years now.
So if you're interested in being an exec counsellor, you don't have to be a
(17:17):
delegate of a band. You just have to be somebody who wants to get involved.
You cannot sign up now, just email president at VBL.
And what does an exec member of the VBL do?
Like what, what are they expected to do? Or what would you want them to do?
How does that work out? If someone's like, oh, it could be interesting,
but like, what's an exec?
Yeah, fair, fair question. so you turn up once a month
(17:38):
to a meeting the second tuesday of the month it's always
second tuesday it's at 7 30 our meetings
go for around 45 minutes once a
month and all you're required to do is have an opinion and be respectful just
two things so it's pretty easy i totally understand people are busy they have
lives and families and kids and jobs and all those kind of things so i don't
(18:00):
expect anyone to sign up and be like i've got 50 hours a week can't wait to
do some band And paperwork, because that's not realistic.
But banding's stronger when we hear from more people. And lots of people in
Victoria have opinions about how we can do things.
But if they don't share those opinions, they don't get heard.
So we've got a pretty diverse committee currently, but I'd love to hear from
more people on there and just, yeah, what I think Victoria and banding can do
(18:21):
better or differently or what would work for them. So, yeah,
it's not really that much of a commitment.
Let's join up. Let's go. Let's go, everyone.
Well, you need a diverse committee to represent all the different people.
Like you need young and old. A lot of people think, oh, it'll just be old people.
But no, we need like young people.
If you get like people just out of high school, starting uni on a committee,
(18:43):
they can give their thoughts about how youth bands should be run, et cetera.
It's like hard for old people to say, we think it should be this way when you
don't get the opinions of the young'uns, right?
Well, that's the thing. Danny and I were 18 when we joined the exec and we were
definitely the kids when we joined it.
And we kind of are still some of the younger ones on there.
(19:05):
So that was a – I don't want to out-cat old Danny is, but we're not 18 anymore. It's been a few years.
So, yeah, it'd be good to see some
more young people. We had a youth band member join just this last AGM.
We had our AGM on the 19th of May, and Fern joined, which was really exciting.
So great to have her on there.
And our Minutes secretary is younger as well. She's on there for a few years now, Louise.
(19:26):
So we definitely have people coming through, but, yeah, we need more.
We need more people all right oh
should we talk about nationals yes yes
so so megan what's what's your role with the
nationals next year they're going to be held in victoria and
you're the chair of the organizing committee who's arranging
(19:46):
is that how it works out this administrator and contest
supervisor so they're both roles that are defined in the nbca contest guidelines
and contest test rules so i'm sure you're familiar with those documents guys
probably read them all the time yeah and so robin that acronym robin is nbca ncba ncba great yep cool.
(20:10):
Yeah, basically that means I'm overseeing logistics and the admin and making
sure the event runs smoothly and also making sure the rules are followed.
There's also a contest liaison officer that's appointed by the NBCA.
We haven't finalised that person yet, but they're kind of the big three official titled roles.
But in more practical terms, yeah, I'm leading the committee that's organising
the nationals and obviously we've had some news in that space recently.
(20:32):
Everyone's heard that unfortunately they're no longer in Bendigo and that's
actually pretty sad. where I can't speak for everybody, but I'm certainly disappointed by that.
The Bendigo region lobbied really hard for this Nationals.
We locked it in in Bendigo before COVID. We had some great chats with the council
who've been so supportive of the event. At that stage when we met with them, there were plans.
(20:53):
They had permits issued to build a number of additional large-scale hotels in the region.
But also in addition, since we had sort of booked the Nationals in,
the National Street Rod Championships chose to
hold their national event in eastern india at the same time
what broads are people well i made
a joke at the exec meeting being like that's not going to be a crossover audience
(21:15):
and one of our exec members is like yes it is i'm going to both and i was like
whoa did not see that coming very excited to them though but it just meant the
accommodation was even tighter than it would have been so unfortunately.
We made the call maybe in hindsight we should have made the call earlier but
i think it's very easy to say that when you're not the one in the decision,
(21:37):
assessing all the options, liaising with the council, trying to decide things.
So, look, I know this has been hard news for some people to hear.
Other people are excited by it.
But me, I mostly feel sad to know how excited the Bendigo region was to host
this Nationals and the council was really, you know, trying to support us as
much as they could. But, yes, we are back in Melbourne.
I can't tell you where it's going to be held just yet, but we've actually,
(21:59):
in fact, I saw another venue this week, which was very exciting and a very nice-looking venue.
So yeah we've got a couple of options they're all on
the east side of melbourne so yeah
i'm hoping to make an announcement there very shortly school
holidays has delayed us though it's not school holidays
yet but it is for private schools and one school holiday it's getting a response
(22:21):
from schools is challenging so we may wait until mid-july but i'm hoping to
have an announcement before then if i can that is sad because i like a trip
and they'd like i was like oh if it's in Bendigo,
at least, because we were still going to go and stay down there.
Nationals in Melbourne, if you're from Melbourne, is a bit of a like.
It always feels like a bit of a like.
(22:42):
Hey, Robyn. Hey, Robyn. Robyn, I've got an idea. Yeah. Do you want to do a house swap for Nationals?
You can go on a trip. We can timeshare. No, it's not about just going in a house.
The whole band has to stay.
It has to be the whole band. I'm making it. It's a lot of fun.
Because you didn't just need accommodation for the interstate bands.
We needed accommodation for the bands in Bendigo.
(23:05):
And actually it was the Melbourne bands who'd already booked up most of the
accommodation, which was the problem. Oh, yeah.
We've got so many Melbourne bands. Like a lot went to Adelaide.
Yeah. Because I'm like on the east, people might not understand.
I'm like an hour from Melbourne on the other side.
So it would have been like three hours each way from India to Bendigo.
So I was going to stay in Bendigo anyway.
(23:25):
But like, yeah, we filled up accommodation. When they were like,
oh, accommodation's running out. Our band's like, quick, get in.
And I'm like, shouldn't we leave it for the interstate bands?
It was a bit of an ethical decision. We're like, nah, let's just book it for us.
But then, yeah, obviously some band. Speaking of lots of bands in Victoria right
now, we've got the Victorian State Band Championships coming up.
(23:45):
I've seen a list of all the bands competing, all the numbers.
The numbers look really, really high.
Like how come there are so many bands in Victoria and how come they're all coming
to States this year? It's awesome.
It's like every band. And it's almost every band, right? It's every band because
we have more than 80 bands registered in Victoria.
A lot of those aren't competing bands. So, yeah, of the bands coming,
(24:06):
well, 35 bands said they were coming.
Two bands, unfortunately, have withdrawn, which just happens.
Other things come up. Members can't make it. But, yeah, 33 bands is the highest band in, like, decades.
I don't have records that show higher, but I also don't have every state number going back forever.
But definitely in the last couple of decades, it's the highest ever attendance.
Attendance. I think it's because Victorian banding is particularly strong at
(24:27):
the moment. Lots of bands doing things.
I think we've come out of, you know, after COVID we were a little weak,
a bit slow to get back for very understandable reasons.
But, yeah, now we're back. Bands are just growing. We've had a number of new
bands join in the last year or so, particularly concert bands,
which has been really exciting to see more concert bands getting involved in Victoria.
(24:47):
And I think the state's been in Melbourne for the first time,
ever in the history of the vbl has definitely
made an impact so the vbl is 93 93
years old this year so yeah
first ever time in melbourne which was a big decision but i think it's paid
off really well given the entry numbers yeah absolutely yeah well for the benefit
(25:09):
of everyone else yeah they used to be in ballarat which is like an hour and
a half from melbourne so like a drivable distance but a bit annoying if you
want to stay at the pub as everyone knows that's It's my most important consideration.
Proximity to pub. And I think it's really exciting for a state championship.
So if other people don't know, the Victorian States this year is going to be
(25:30):
going Friday night, all day Saturday into Saturday night and all day Sunday as well.
So it's basically a three-day event for a state championship.
No other state has a three-day event for their state championships.
It's absolutely monstrously huge and really exciting. and only a couple of weeks
away, my conductor keeps pointing out that I need to practice to get ready for that.
Let's not stress me out. It's a month away. There's plenty of time to still
(25:53):
do logistics. I can still practice.
Yeah, easily. We've got A grade on the Friday night, four bands in A grade. Very exciting.
And then Saturday morning is concert bands. There are five concert bands competing.
And then we have the D grade bands. There are seven D grade bands.
And then we have B grade in the evening, so three B grade bands.
And then we've got the junior brass bands, four junior brass bands on Sunday
(26:16):
morning. Very exciting. Awesome.
Then the epic C-grade that never ends. It's going to go for eight hours.
Ten C-grade bands. Oh, my goodness.
That's completely epic. Yeah.
And I've agreed to maybe help out a band in C-grade as well, potentially maybe.
(26:39):
Not my band, so I'm very curious as to which band it is.
My list is sealed, but, like, I've looked at that C-grade test piece and, oof, it's a ripper.
There is some stuff to play in there. Yeah, C-Grade is the most happening band.
There are going to be more C-Grade bands in the Victorian States than there were at the Nationals.
Oh, and same with the D-Grade. There are only three D-Grade bands at Nationals.
(27:01):
It's going to be so heaps and heaps of bands coming, really exciting.
And there's bands coming like Sail and Stonnington that haven't been seen at
States in years and years and years and years.
So I'm super excited. I love the States weekend. I love seeing everyone.
I love hearing the bands. It's going to be a great weekend, so I'm pumped.
Oh, and you'll be there, Tim, with your cameras? I'll be there with cameras.
(27:22):
So if you're someone who's not in Victoria, don't worry, you can watch the live
stream and hear all the amazing Victorian bands.
It's going to be so much fun and lots of interviews and stuff as well. Yay.
Oh, that's so exciting. I told my band four rehearsals left and they almost
cried. They're like, what?
It has been a bit tricky, though, because only two weeks after school holidays
and a lot of bands complain that they lose a lot of members during the school
(27:45):
holidays, so they kind of lose a chunk of rehearsal time right near the event.
My conductor would say that's a personal problem, but I wouldn't say that because
that would be rude. My conductor would say that. He's rude conductors.
But we are looking to move it back to mid-August next year.
And I can say, spoiler alert, that the States are 95% likely to be in Bendigo next year.
(28:08):
Oh, it's like a, sorry, we stole nationals from you.
Yeah, I'm grateful for the support the Bendigo bands and the council gave me,
and I feel really bad that we couldn't do the event there.
And Bendigo is a great area. They've got great venues.
It's really nice. It's not that far from my house. It's probably further up.
(28:30):
So, yeah, I'm excited to take the States there next year. It's not 100% confirmed,
but it's looking really lively, so that's exciting.
Oh, and you don't like sharing information that's not confirmed.
Confirmed. So that's like heard it here first, isn't it?
Yeah, that's breaking news. Breaking news. We've done it, Robin.
We broke some news. We've done it.
We should get one of those like air horns or something like the sound effects. Breaking news.
(28:55):
I can give you some breaking news if you want, some actual breaking news. Okay, yep, goss.
Yeah, goss, because we had the NBCA conference just a week or so ago,
And that's when all the NBCA councillors get together in the one room.
Shout out to Yamaha Australia for hosting us in their office.
Thank you very much, Yamaha.
And we talk about all the rules and all that kind of stuff.
(29:18):
And we have changed one of the rules for the Nationals next year that you no
longer require every single person to sign in. Only one person signs for the whole band.
Oh, hallelujah. Or every sign-on sheets.
And the lines outside the door and, like, get in alphabetical order. Yeah.
Do you know, I work with computers mostly, and I think when I had to sign on
(29:42):
at Nationals was maybe the first time I really picked up a pen all year.
And I was like, how do I write my name? What does that look like?
What's a signature on file? Where did that come from? Is that my writing?
So do we don't have to like collect them a week before either?
Or do we still have to do that?
Some of the kids are like, can I make kids a signature? They don't even have one.
(30:04):
And I'm like, make it the same. Then I'm, like, stressed. I'm like,
and, you know, I hardly ever sign my name.
I was, like, post, you know, credit cards. I was like, what if it's not the
same? What if they don't let me on the stage?
Even worse if I'm the conductor. I don't know. A youngish 12-year-old,
like, you know, it won't be the same.
But it's for the best, I think. So, yeah, no more sign-on at nationals.
(30:25):
Set it here first. Wow. Yay.
That's a great scene. I think that's good. That's going to streamline everything.
Move with the times. All right. We better do Megan's questionnaire.
I bet she's got stolen things. I can't wait to hear.
What Megan's got stolen from the VBL? Gold records in her basement,
(30:46):
if you have a basement. No. Okay.
It's time for the questionnaire. This is the questionnaire. This is the favorite section.
Tim's rolling his eyes in case you can't see. No. Well, you can't see because it's audio, Robin.
It's audio. Just imagine me not rolling my eyes, loyal listeners.
Because it didn't happen. It didn't happen.
Megan Stapleton, do you have anything in your house that belongs to another
(31:09):
band or a band you don't play with, or perhaps the VBL, something that maybe
the band doesn't know you have?
I have a Moreland band uniform when Moreland band used to be a thing because I played with them.
I currently have a 5th Street and a Glenferry stuff in my closet from when I
helped them out here and I didn't give them back.
(31:29):
That jacket, that Glenferry jacket, that looks a bit fancy and expensive.
You should give that back.
I haven't damaged it. It's just safely hanging in my closet.
I just forgot to give it back and then I keep forgetting to give it back.
Yeah, same thing. I have a high-end polo that I used for a gig once and never returned.
Although who wants to use polo? I don't know. Anyway, I've got a bunch of BBL
paperwork, but it's really boring.
There's nowhere else to put it because the BBL stuff's in storage,
(31:51):
so that's not really exciting.
Just like pages and pages of signatures.
Yeah. I've got some of my own band in trophies up behind me.
There they are, sort of up there.
We can see trophies behind Megan right now, loyal listeners.
We can see trophies. It's true.
But no big band ones. They are actually all at the Moonee Valley Band Room.
(32:13):
So most of the BBL stuff's in storage, but stuff we need to use all the time,
Moonybelly kindly, with minimal complaining, lets me store it in their band
room so I can access it more easily without having to go into the storage unit.
So the BBL honour boards and a whole bunch of trophies apparently there.
So no tubers hiding in your closet, skeletons.
(32:34):
I live in a pretty small apartment, so I definitely know what's hanging around.
I'm the opposite now. When I get something from band in my house,
like we come home from a marching gig and there's a bass drum in my house,
I cannot get right to get a bit of like, get this out of my house. It's too large.
I also have a small house and children who probably break stuff.
Like, ooh, a drum. Bang, bang. Like, please don't break it.
(32:57):
I've actually been cutting down recently and now I've only got three tubers at my place.
That's pretty good. I've been really culling. Really culling.
Well, you still don't have like a main tuber, right? No, I've got my main tuber
back from from Oswins, but Sue Bradley lent me a tuba that I need to get back
to her, and it's just sitting there staring at me, looking at me,
judging me. Tim, Tim, Tim. Get that back. Hi, Sue.
(33:20):
I don't think Sue listens to our podcast.
How fun. Okay, Megan, what's your favourite instrument, but not including the
trombone or the bass trombone?
Or the violin. If you can play anything, or the violin.
That's a brilliant instrument. Euphonium. Yay!
That's the first person who said that. Really? Okay.
(33:42):
I think everyone has picked weird things. I think we've not asked everyone that
question, I think. I haven't had the list in front of me for a while.
Wait, wait. Well, why do you love, why is the euphonium the king of instruments?
Well, it's close to the trombone in terms of sound, but also it just,
the sound you can get with the euphonium, like a really top solo euphonium player
(34:05):
is just, it's incredible to listen to, just like the range of colour and the depth of sound.
Plus they always get the cool parts in band, And the euphonium player,
yeah, the really fever parts just go to the euphonium players.
So, yeah, I definitely – the bass trombone gets a lot of semi-braves. So, yeah.
I find of all the bass trombone players I know, they're not – they don't have,
(34:29):
like, you know, grass is greener. They're always like, I play the bass trombone and I'm not moving.
It's the best instrument. So many bands have a, like, really crusted-on bass trombone player.
Do they not? Like, I'm talking 20 years past. What do you mean, crusted on?
I'm just saying they've been there a long time. Both our bands,
our bass trombone players, are pretty much the longest serving members of the two bands.
(34:50):
There's nothing keeping them from my band on bass trombone.
But I wouldn't say I'm crusted on. I'm just technically still in my 30s.
Still very youthful, thank you. Very youthful.
Yes, very youthful. So, yeah, no, I think bass trombone, once you play it, you can't go back.
It is like it's just got this darkness to
(35:10):
it and when you can make it crackle yeah you just
don't want to do anything else love a
bass trombone all right uh what if
i got this question what do you like outside brass band why don't i write that
what else is there what is there anything else out there like what tell us why
are you interested in your life outside brass band do you have any much time
(35:32):
for life outside i think it was music i think loony said like do you Do you
like other music or something?
I mean, I conduct a choir, which is quite cool. I really love doing that.
So that's really fun, the Mini Valley Community Choir.
I work a lot of hours. I run Helen Edd Australia, which is a music publishing
company. So that takes a lot of my time.
So, yeah, between work and band and, I guess, sleep, there's not a lot else
(35:57):
in my life. But I like it back like that.
Oh all right that really resonates with me
that really resonates with me yeah absolutely what else
is there what else is there do you
have a good falling over story has anything ever fallen
over music stand people things
on stage at rehearsal microphones chairs
(36:20):
no but i had a drum major when they
were twirling their baton around twirl it into my trombone slide during
a march and i couldn't move my trombone but in
fourth position i had to do the rest of the march in fourth
position it was the worst that's the
best i've ever heard where was this much i'm into your teeth and stuff like
(36:44):
you're getting bounced on my face didn't bring any tea thankfully but i felt
the jar it was down swanson street and it was expensive Offensive would be how I'd summarize that.
They have a special machine for that when you dint the trombone slide.
Like, this is like an actual machine for straightening them out, right?
(37:06):
You know what? I actually just gave it to some experts and then paid them money,
so I'm not sure how they did it.
But I imagine they would have some kind of, yeah, special tool to do it.
Make sure. Make sure you pay for that.
Yeah, no. The band helped out, which was very nice of them. You've got to be
confident with the twirl.
What is it? It's not called a twirl. It's a mace toss. The toss. The mace toss.
(37:29):
Did you do that? Tim, weren't you saying there was like in the pipe bands they
all have the drum majors?
Yeah, yeah. So it's a rule that I'll be looking to put forward to the NBCA, NCBA one day.
Like we should have a specific drum major competition for drum majors to do cool stuff.
Because they do it at the New Zealand pipe bands and like it's just like a scratch
band or a band that just marches back and forth while the drum major does tricks and it's really fun.
(37:54):
That's pretty cool yeah that's something there's potential
there in the street march i definitely think who do
who do we talk to about you know putting an extra like a drum major off in there
at the end the contest rules get published on september 1st every year and they
have to be changed by the nbca council and the nbca council's next meeting on
(38:15):
july 14th so you just send an,
Before July 14th, your proposal, and we can talk about it. Let's say there's a special drum major.
But does anyone, like, at the last Street March, Tim, you watched all the bands.
None of the drum majors really tossed, did they? Yes, they did.
The drum major of the Hyde Street Youth Band, which I think was band number one off.
(38:37):
So one. Any other tosses?
I don't believe. I can't remember. I'm sorry. Don't interrogate me.
The mace. Definitely twirled it, but no tossing it, I think.
A lot of twirling. The Marlborough band from New Zealand was very impressive with their mace work.
But there's a really cool trick I've seen them do at the New Zealand Pipes,
where they're twirling the mace, twirling the mace, and they twirl the mace around their neck.
(39:02):
It's sort of like hula hooping with a stick around your neck,
and they grab it again, and it's like it is so entertaining to watch. It's really fun.
Wow. But you've got to be careful of the trombones behind you.
I'm even less inclined to do a toss now because of
their slides and megan's accident everyone's been
warned you take risks when you march you do
(39:23):
i just i just want to take this opportunity to say a big hello to chrisley and
ben milne who were involved in the great australian mace off i don't know if
you know if you remember we had the nationals in brisbane in 2019 i think it
was and they were both saying that they could toss the mace the highest and
the fastest and just do the better of tricks.
So at the end of the street march, they actually came up and they did a little,
(39:45):
trick show for me and it was pretty entertaining.
I have to show you, Robyn, you might have missed that because you were busy.
I didn't go to that Nationals 2019.
One of my biggest regrets because then we didn't have them for another two years.
It was very sad, but I did feel like I had a baby, I think.
You think? No, I was going to say, because we talked about this at Women in
(40:08):
Brass, so So, Women in Brass, we have my favourite part of that.
It was like all the girls, awesome.
I love like mixing bands and we were talking about that, remember Megan at the pub?
Yeah. When they're like, oh, why is there, you know, not a Men in Brass?
It's like, well, pick any other reason.
The reason I love Women in Brass is because we mix up all our usual bands,
(40:28):
get together with different people and that's why I love Billy's story.
It is about visiting all the bands and going different places. And so I have the idea.
Oh, you'd go? We had a plan for that.
It may have been beer-fuelled at the pub after Women in Brass. I can't confirm that.
But the plan was to do the Victorian version of a state of origin but within the own state.
(40:52):
So you basically divide the state into four and you have to make four bands
from wherever you live in the state based on the equal dividing up of the state.
I reckon we should do it. How fun would that be?
Yeah, but there was a lot of talk about the boundary lines. I think that was
where the greatest contention did lay.
Well, it's where the road. In the West, really, people are just jealous, I understand.
(41:18):
But, you know, if the better people just live in the West, that's just how it goes, you know.
It sure is. It sure is. Once again, Megan, that really resonates with me, yeah.
The East and the Southeast, I think that was a bit of a wonky line of how we
would draw that one, so it would be fair.
But it sounds so fun. I like the idea of a singles band, even though I'm not single.
(41:38):
I mean, we keep talking back to Bandy Wants a Bandy and, like,
everyone who's single makes a band and as soon as you couple up, you're out of the band.
Because anyone I told that idea to thinks it's really terrible,
especially with single friends.
I think, Robin, I've heard that we can write into the NCBA until the 16th of
(42:01):
July with proposals, but then the NCBA is obliged to read and discuss. Yeah.
I think it should be sponsored. We should all, like, do a text to,
like, help our single friends find a bandy and bandies together.
I love this fun stuff. I want to mix because, yeah, so Ben and I,
we couldn't get our band along to Alpine Festival. We couldn't get enough people
(42:23):
to go. And they're like, just come anyway.
And I want to practice what I preach. Now, we talked about brass band tourism
a few times. It's like, well, Fenella did invite us.
So we're going to go. So Ben and I went and we played with the Jonga and now
I've got all these new friends.
Isn't that amazing? I was going to say my favorite thing about like doing my
streamy, interviewee stuff is I meet
so many people from so many bands and everyone is so lovely and so nice.
(42:45):
And it's such a wonderful community. So the more that bands can be talking with
each other, and I always get really surprised that people in bands don't know
other people in other bands.
To me, everyone will get on so well. Everyone's doing the same stuff and is, you know, a nice person.
So it's wonderful to see that mixing and interaction. I love it.
We're all very similar. I didn't know you, Megan, before Women in Brass,
(43:07):
and now I've got a new best friend. Aren't we best friends now?
Yeah. We hung out again at the next Swimming in Brass. I was like, hey, my friend.
That is actually exactly what you said and it was lovely to see.
But normally you're on the west side and I'm on the east side.
(43:27):
We don't really see each other. Are there more questions for your quiz or am I out of the woods?
I don't have any more written down. But have you got a question that we can
ask our next person and I can take one of these off, my sticky note on my desktop?
You could ask them, like, you should ask them what they would do if they were
in charge of Victorian banding or banding in their own state.
(43:48):
Ooh. What they would do. I like that question.
Okay. Yeah. Because sometimes people don't want to hear suggestions,
but if someone came up to me and said, hey, I've got a great idea for what would
be good for Victorian banding, I'd be like, tell me all about it.
Like, yeah, I want to hear people.
Because there are things we can do, things we can definitely do better.
And some things we do really well. Singles band.
(44:10):
Singles band. And I've told you that, the singles band idea.
Yeah. I've noted it down. I'm going to find the VBL executive team and get back
to you on that one if that's all right.
Well, that's okay. It doesn't affect me. I'm married.
But I'd go to a concert. If you had a singles band concert, I'd go to it,
and I'd go to the pub and just people watch.
(44:31):
I just wanted to bring up a couple of things, Robyn, as we might be moving into
our next segment, which is looking ahead to what's going on next.
There's actually a lot of really fun stuff that people might want to get out
and get to yourself included over the next few weeks so,
next weekend in Melbourne is the ANBOC conference it's Australian Band and Orchestra
(44:52):
Convention so I'm going to be there doing a bit of filmy streamy stuff and Hal
Leonard will be there I'm sure and there's lots of.
It's a good group of people who sometimes are a little bit more sort of school
education focused than community band focus, but it is quite wide-ranging.
So there's going to be a bunch of concert bands performing there.
I think the Yamaha Wins Ensemble is there as well, so it's happening next weekend.
(45:14):
The weekend after that is the New Zealand Brass Band Championships.
So anyone who's free the weekend after should head across to Auckland because
it's a relatively cheap flight from Australia.
You could fly from Melbourne to
Sydney, or you can fly from Sydney to Auckland. It costs about the same.
I'm really looking forward to getting over there and saying hello to all the
New Zealand bands. And then the weekend after that, I'll be hanging out with
(45:36):
my friend Sarah Willis from the Berlin Philharmonic, who's coming across to
Australia and doing some stuff in Melbourne.
And then we're going to be having a big French Horn Day up in Brisbane at the Brisbane Con.
So there's lots of really cool stuff going on.
If you want to get outside your band and what it's doing and see what else is
happening in the musical world, there's so much stuff happening.
(45:57):
And then the week after that is States.
Woohoo! Victorian States? we're an
international podcast i wonder when victorian
states on the new south wales states is the 24th 25th
of august the tasmanian states is the same as
the grand final weekend and i believe october
7th is the queensland states up in maryborough because i'm going to be going
(46:21):
to all of them yay robin why not go with another state could be fun yeah we've
gone to tassie States a few times when Nationals has been in Melbourne and it's like, ah,
we'll do a trip somewhere and let's just go and go down and have fun. Love it.
Yeah. Well, that's so exciting. Will we have another podcast before States? I don't know.
(46:45):
Yeah, well, we'll be doing a podcast from New Zealand for the New Zealand Nationals.
Will we? Yeah, we will. You heard it here first.
We better get a guest. Yeah, who do you want? A Kiwi guest.
Obviously. A New Zealand person. Okay. All right, you're in charge of finding
the guest. Helen might want to join us, yeah. Great. Okay. Yay.
(47:08):
Okay. Okay, and that's everything.
So we need to – No, well, we usually have to sing Year of the Dragon as an outro,
unless, Megan, you've got another piece you'd like us to sing as an outro.
All right, what about something we did in Women in Brass? Gelfos.
Yeah. I'm thinking you guys should do it.
(47:31):
That'd be great. Yeah, let's do it. You said you sing in a choir and you love it.
If you want to conduct us, we can sing Gale Force if you conduct us, Megan.
Well, which bit? The good bit. Start or the end? Yeah. The good bit.
Is that like... Hi, Maureen.
(47:53):
Oh,
the bass trombone doesn't play that. Thanks, everyone.
Catch you on the next podcast. Thanks, Megan.
Thanks for having me, guys. Bye.
Hello, loyal listeners. Hello, loyal viewers. Welcome to Brass Bandcast,
the podcast about love, life, music, band, rehearsal,
split notes, intonation, and showing up late to podcasts.
I'm Tim. And Robin, how are you? Hello, I'm very well, thank you.
(00:21):
And we have a very special guest. Every week is another special guest, isn't it?
Every week we do a podcast, there's another special guest, which is pretty much
every week. We do a podcast every week, which is an apology to you.
But today we have Megan Stapleton. Everyone say hi.
Hi, Megan. People at home are saying hi. Hi, Megan. Hi, everyone.
Hello. It's good to be here. Yay.
(00:44):
Thank you for joining us. Yeah, thank you, Megan, for joining us.
We had a little bit of a rest, didn't we, Tim?
We did. Well, that's very nice of you, Robyn. We had a break because I stood
Robyn up about three or four times for podcast recordings because what's,
yeah, Robin's been rearing and ready to go,
and life just got in the way. But here we are. We're back. We're here.
(01:06):
We're podcasting. I know because it's just because every time I do something,
I'm like, I want to talk about this on the podcast and then I don't have an
outlet and I just have to tell other people and it's not as fun as telling all
the listeners about my life. Do they appreciate that?
Do the other people appreciate that? I don't know.
You get addicted to it. You get addicted to sharing your life and thinking your
(01:27):
life is interesting. But anyway,
you might think my life is interesting or you might not. I don't know.
Well, how's our life been since our last podcast? Robin, tell me.
No, Robin, please. Your life must be so interesting. I feel like we need to
know what have you been up to in the past five or six years?
All of our lives have been interesting. I know.
So, Megan, I don't know if you've listened to our podcast, but we're talking
(01:47):
about our weeks, but it's been a long week.
It's been what, like two months. So, we had Women in Brass.
Megan and I can talk about Women in Brass. And Tim came came to that too
that was fun i went to a willoughby band
rehearsal remember the last podcast was
with dom invited me to willoughby band rehearsal and then
as he was listening he reminded me by a text message to
(02:08):
come and i actually went to a rehearsal so that was exciting what
else we had some gigs we had this like parade through
the city there was a cool parade there was an american marching band
in this parade through melbourne oh nice that's very fancy
i played the the snare drum on that
march normally i'm not trusted with the snare
i learned how to draw so that
(02:31):
was exciting what else we went to
the alpine festival and we hung out with finella and rodonga band and that was
awesome great yeah i feel like more exciting things have happened i should have
written them down that's a lot how about you tim what have you been doing that's
so busy that that's so busy i'm from chris what have i been doing i don't know
i haven't been doing a whole lot of of band stuff,
(02:53):
but then suddenly I realised I've been doing heaps and heaps of band stuff.
Yeah, you had like a concert, didn't you?
Didn't you have a music concert? Yeah, I had a music concert. That's right.
There was a movies cabaret concert with the mighty Footscray Arable City Band.
Oh, oh. And then we, so we're getting ready for the Victorian State Band Championships,
which looks like being the biggest state band championships in Victoria in like forever.
(03:16):
It's going to be so big. We'll talk about that. Yeah, yeah. And then it might
have been the week before last.
So Footscray Arable City Band is historically quite a famous band in Australia,
especially in Melbourne. and we actually had some gold records in the 70s.
So there were gold records because some of our records were very popular,
sold heaps and heaps of copies.
And those gold records. Back when people brought brass band music. That's right.
(03:39):
And those gold records actually went missing in the early 1990s.
The council was knocking over the band hall and the folklore within the band
is, oh, the records were stolen and someone saw a wrecking ball hitting the
wall and had to run in and grab the stuff.
So don't tell anyone. one. Hopefully no one's listening. But for the past like
30, 40 something years, we've had spray painted regular records,
(04:01):
spray painted gold up on the wall and said, yeah, there are gold records.
And then last week we had a box returned.
Someone's granddaughter was cleaning out a garage. We had a box returned with
the real official gold records, as well as recordings of the 1967 Australian
National Band Championships from Launceston and all sorts of great stuff.
(04:23):
So it's been pretty, pretty exciting. So I'm excited to try and get all that
stuff digitized. And history.
Yeah. History week. And I've been playing my tuba as well and buzzing and practicing
a lot. And States is going to be fun.
Oh, won't it be fun? Yeah. Megan, what's going on with you, Megan?
(04:44):
What have you been up to the last week or so? Oh, Megan must be very busy.
Yeah, I'm not as cool as you guys, but I did go to Women in Brass,
which was very fun and I also went to the Footscray concert and I played in the mass trombone item,
where they tried to get 76 trombones I don't think there was 76 there was a
lot of trombones that was pretty exciting lots of band gigs my own band we always
(05:06):
do Flemington race course on Anzac Day they do a big ceremony there and we play
there which is kind of cool and then what else have I been doing oh Mini Valley's
second band Aberfeldy went to Bendigo which was very exciting,
and we debuted our brand new polo shirts we've got a grand four so the first
outing for our new polos, which was cool.
What's the polo look like? Can you give us a bit of a fashion here? Oh, yeah.
(05:29):
The Aberfeldy's colour is light blue and navy. So it's a navy polo with light blue accents.
Very fashionable. That's quite tasteful. Quite tasteful. But,
yeah, for a lot of them, that was their first ever contest.
We've got a member who's 11 members who are well into their 60s.
So it's a wide spread of ages and they did a really good job.
(05:50):
So that was probably the banding highlight, I think, for recent times.
I forgot about Acid Brass. There was Acid Brass too. You did Acid Brass,
didn't you, Tim? I did Acid Brass. Oh, that's right. I forgot all about that.
Yeah. I played in the middle of the city.
That was really fun. Did you have a big crowd? Yeah.
I did. I played with Danny Nong. My kid was in the newspaper.
He was semi-famous. Yeah, because they asked Danny Nong who were their oldest
(06:13):
and youngest members, and they're like, our oldest is like 7,
85, and our youngest is 7.
And they're like, wow, let's get pictures of them. And they came and did this,
like, quite enormous photo shoot with Mikey. So that was fun.
That's cool. Yeah. Yes, and then they were both at the gig and Mikey was playing the cowbell.
It was a very important cowbell party. It was like rocking along,
(06:33):
rocking along, gets a bit distracted, slows down, like, keep the beat, Mikey.
We had a cool, cool gang of percussion, ox percussion at the back.
I was trying to explain it to my husband and he's like, isn't that like when a DJ does samples?
I'm like, yeah. He's like, how does that translate to a brass band? I'm like.
(06:54):
Like the tubers doing lots of crazy stuff
and then horns will come in with a weird boppy beard and then they'll
stop and then someone else will play another weird boppy beard and the drum
kit goes nuts and that was fun yeah so many gigs love it and gigs gigs gigs
we're so busy us community musicians what else i met a boy in wodonga i said
(07:15):
i'd talk about him on the podcast us. Why? What? You met a boy.
No, I am already married, but he's on this mission.
I was going to talk about this later, but I'm getting very distracted and muddled in my thoughts.
He is on this mission. He's from Wodonga. He's named Billy, and he's come to
Melbourne for two weeks on work experience, and he's trying to go to all the
brass bands, and, like, he's working out on what night they rehearse.
(07:37):
What? And he's like, but I was like, that's such a cool thing to do.
Isn't that amazing? Billy. Someone should do that. Good on you, Billy. Yeah.
Good on you, Billy. It's impressive, but he'd need to be here for,
like, six months to hit all the Monday rehearsals, I reckon.
Yeah, there's a lot of Monday rehearsals. Yeah, I reckon Monday's probably the
most popular rehearsal night in Australia.
What do you reckon? In Victoria, it is. Other states have different rehearsals.
(08:01):
I've had this argument with people. Apparently, Monday night's a Victorian thing.
Yeah, that's what I've been told.
Unlike a Monday night, you're enough into the week, but you're not.
Like a Thursday night's pretty brutal.
By the time I get to Thursday, I want to stay at home in front of the TV, right?
But we're podcasting on a Thursday. We're podcasting on a Thursday night,
and I've just actually been at a bad rehearsal.
(08:22):
So there you go hey robin
can you remind me when we do these podcasts is there like a structure or
something that we follow if so yeah the structure well yeah
okay we've got a lot of catching up well that was the
structure that was the how was your week and that was very abridged for me because
we had a lot of things to talk about and i could go into detail about all those
things but i won't because we've got lots more things to talk about because
(08:45):
we've got to hear megan's life story we've got to ask her some questions talk
about how states is going how nationals is going i I need to hear news from around Australia.
Well, should we start with everyone finding out who Megan is?
Because they might not know.
So let me introduce Megan and then Megan, if you want to tell us a bit about yourself.
For anyone who doesn't know, Megan Stapleton, president of the Victorian Bands
(09:05):
League, plays the bass trombone with Moonee Valley Brass and is involved- Let her tell it, Tim.
Okay. And Megan, how did you get to where you are? How did it all start? Go. Go.
Um I I'm actually a violin player originally
don't hold me I know scandal and in
(09:26):
high school you had to learn instrument but you couldn't learn instrument you
already learned and I wasn't really too fast and my best friends
like I'm going to do trombone so I was like sure sounds cool
why not she does not play anymore and I
obviously still play so that was one of those random life
choices that turned out really well for me and then my
parents were down out on the local paper they're not musos at all but they
(09:47):
saw this ad saying um we're looking people for the local brass band
and they're like you're home on a monday night so i was
like quite young just starting high school they just
dropped me off one night and left me there and i
was quite shy so i walked on in sat down and
i didn't read treble clef but i was too embarrassed to say anything so i
mimed for about three weeks straight just didn't play
(10:10):
a note and then eventually the conductor clued on and was
like okay do you read
bass clef and i was like yes i do so then i started playing on bass
trombone i had this terrible piece shooter it wasn't really bass trombone i
was just playing the high notes um so eventually i learned treble clef
i joined the youth band i made lots of cool friends and that's why i got interested
in like running the bbl because one of the band managers of the youth band was
(10:33):
a former bbl president i was like that sounds kind of of interesting so i joined
the exec in 03 and became bbl president in 2012 and that's me.
Wow so you were just you were literally dropped off story we've ever had and
you were literally just like dropped off at at a rehearsal just dropped off
(10:53):
my parents like anyone yeah you were just like i'm going in no anyone there
they just abandoned me there were like beers under the I think if my parents had come in,
they might not have left me there, but they were just like, we'll be fine.
And it was quite a small band. The band was rebuilding at that stage and I was
kind of like, oh, I don't know.
I just kept going and then eventually, now I can't imagine doing anything else on a Monday night.
(11:17):
Wow. So it's been Moonee Valley. So that was Moonee Valley and you've just been
there the whole time and you did their youth band.
Yeah, I've played with lots of other bands. I wouldn't say I've played with
every band in Victoria, but I've played with nearly every band in Victoria.
I help out a lot or if I go to an AGM, let me play with them in their rehearsal.
So I do enjoy being in other bands. That's quite fun, sort of seeing how they do things.
(11:41):
But, yeah, no, Moonee Valley's home. Not going anywhere. Aw. Aw.
And I'd just like to dig in a little bit. So you were dropped off at the first
rehearsal and you're like, I'm not sure.
So the second rehearsal you went to, was that like your parents were just dropping off again?
You're like, no, actually, I do want to go back. or how did you stay with it
after you dropped off that first time?
It wasn't really a choice thing. My parents were like, you're doing this.
(12:04):
And I'm the oldest child, so I just follow the rules. I don't argue.
I'm an obedient type. So I just sort of kept going.
And then John Breen, who was taking Mini Valley, got me into youth band.
And then I started to make friends my own age. I think that's when it really clicked for me.
I was like, oh, this is cool because everyone else in Mini Valley felt 100 years
older than me. They probably weren't that old.
(12:25):
When you're a teenager, everyone feels a lot older. and then
yeah that's how i mean that's how i met other people
from other bands how i met danny we actually joined the
bbl exec at the same time so yeah it's
i think getting into the youth bands what kept me in in banding
and at that stage you had to play in a home band to play in youth band they're
quite strict about that so it's because there was a the youth band was going
(12:51):
to be an excuse for city bands to steal country kids like the kids would come
along and then they'd be lured to the big smoke by these fancy city bands and
not play with the home bands anymore.
So the rule was you had to keep playing with your home band to be in the youth band.
So just going back to what we talked about at the start, I wonder if Billy got
back to Wodonga or if he got lured in by some of these big city bands that he's been to rehearsals at.
(13:14):
No, no, he goes back to Wodonga. Okay. He's a good kid, Billy.
He goes back to Wodonga. He just goes to the Victorian Youth State Band.
So they were at the Alpine Festival and they're sounding great.
So do they not have to have this rule anymore? The kids can just play in it no matter what?
Yeah, any kid under 25 is welcome to play in it. Okay.
(13:35):
Currently the band is bursting at the seams. They sound really good.
I went and visited them in Tasmania last year on the Tasmanian tour.
I haven't spent that much time around bulk numbers of teenagers for a while,
so I felt super old was my number one takeaway.
Away but number two I was just impressed by how like good
the kids were like they were really friendly to each other
(13:55):
and really helpful and were setting up and the standard of the band was really
high and they seemed to be having a really good time it felt it reminded me
of when I was there and but you know everyone was sort of friends and yeah it
had a really good energy about it so that was really exciting to see it's really
well behaved these days I don't know were Were we that well-behaved, Tim?
No, we were the naughty kids, I think. Yeah, okay.
(14:18):
I'm like, look at them. They're all sitting in a concert watching,
having good manners. You hear all these things about the next generation.
I was like, ooh, they're probably better behaved than us. But,
oh, they're cute. They're so cute.
And then you got onto the VBL and you've been running that for 12 years.
Yeah, I had an 18-month break after the 2018 Nationals. I needed a change. Oh, okay.
(14:43):
I actually didn't. I do want to come back at some point, but when Kevin Cameron
stepped away suddenly just before COVID happened, it kind of all fell into place.
It felt like the right time to come back. I was feeling sort of re-energised.
And what kind of things do you do as the president of the VBL?
Yeah, what does a president of the VBL do? too yeah you
(15:05):
go to all of agms because a lot of bands present
awards that's the cool side seeing the bands and seeing the bands in their actual
habitat and meeting the members and for them it's kind of a big deal particularly
regional bands have a big president come out and you know you're this like mythical
figure and i kind of feel like i'm a fraud i'm just like a normal person
(15:26):
but it's always really cool to go out and present the awards to people and to
hear stories like people who have been in the band for like 50 years straight
or people who've just joined the band or the person who's joined the committee
for the first time and all those kind of things are really, I enjoy that.
I love seeing sort of bands, yeah, just be bands and do their thing.
But apart from that, it's a lot of paperwork.
(15:47):
People might think it's really exciting. It is not. It's a lot of emails,
a lot of paperwork, a lot of listening to complaints, listening to people who
definitely think they could do a better job than you but never put their hand up.
That's my favourite. But, yeah, it's mostly about organising and that kind of
is a strength of mine. So I actually enjoy it.
I was going to say, I think Victorian banding is lucky to have you there organising
(16:13):
stuff through because without strong organisation and without all the people
who are presidents of state bands,
a lot of what we do as community bands becomes less and less structured and
less and less community behind it sometimes. So thank you, Megan.
Thanks, everyone. one of the organizing stuff out there you're always
there thank you i can say confidently that every
(16:33):
state president just wants what's best for their state and that's
what everyone's trying to do and we all do it differently and we definitely
don't always agree but we all want what's best for our state so everyone out
there's that we've got the best do you think i don't know we've got to be impartial
robin we've got to be impartial all of everyone everyone is doing a A great job.
(16:55):
Everyone's doing great. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, there are.
But I only know Megan, so I think Megan's awesome.
So, Megan, and then there's the VBL. And does the VBL have – is it full?
Do you need more people there helping out and organising stuff? No.
A few vacancies at the moment, which is not always the case,
but we've had a few vacancies a couple of years now.
So if you're interested in being an exec counsellor, you don't have to be a
(17:17):
delegate of a band. You just have to be somebody who wants to get involved.
You cannot sign up now, just email president at VBL.
And what does an exec member of the VBL do?
Like what, what are they expected to do? Or what would you want them to do?
How does that work out? If someone's like, oh, it could be interesting,
but like, what's an exec?
Yeah, fair, fair question. so you turn up once a month
(17:38):
to a meeting the second tuesday of the month it's always
second tuesday it's at 7 30 our meetings
go for around 45 minutes once a
month and all you're required to do is have an opinion and be respectful just
two things so it's pretty easy i totally understand people are busy they have
lives and families and kids and jobs and all those kind of things so i don't
(18:00):
expect anyone to sign up and be like i've got 50 hours a week can't wait to
do some band And paperwork, because that's not realistic.
But banding's stronger when we hear from more people. And lots of people in
Victoria have opinions about how we can do things.
But if they don't share those opinions, they don't get heard.
So we've got a pretty diverse committee currently, but I'd love to hear from
more people on there and just, yeah, what I think Victoria and banding can do
(18:21):
better or differently or what would work for them. So, yeah,
it's not really that much of a commitment.
Let's join up. Let's go. Let's go, everyone.
Well, you need a diverse committee to represent all the different people.
Like you need young and old. A lot of people think, oh, it'll just be old people.
But no, we need like young people.
If you get like people just out of high school, starting uni on a committee,
(18:43):
they can give their thoughts about how youth bands should be run, et cetera.
It's like hard for old people to say, we think it should be this way when you
don't get the opinions of the young'uns, right?
Well, that's the thing. Danny and I were 18 when we joined the exec and we were
definitely the kids when we joined it.
And we kind of are still some of the younger ones on there.
(19:05):
So that was a – I don't want to out-cat old Danny is, but we're not 18 anymore. It's been a few years.
So, yeah, it'd be good to see some
more young people. We had a youth band member join just this last AGM.
We had our AGM on the 19th of May, and Fern joined, which was really exciting.
So great to have her on there.
And our Minutes secretary is younger as well. She's on there for a few years now, Louise.
(19:26):
So we definitely have people coming through, but, yeah, we need more.
We need more people all right oh
should we talk about nationals yes yes
so so megan what's what's your role with the
nationals next year they're going to be held in victoria and
you're the chair of the organizing committee who's arranging
(19:46):
is that how it works out this administrator and contest
supervisor so they're both roles that are defined in the nbca contest guidelines
and contest test rules so i'm sure you're familiar with those documents guys
probably read them all the time yeah and so robin that acronym robin is nbca ncba ncba great yep cool.
(20:10):
Yeah, basically that means I'm overseeing logistics and the admin and making
sure the event runs smoothly and also making sure the rules are followed.
There's also a contest liaison officer that's appointed by the NBCA.
We haven't finalised that person yet, but they're kind of the big three official titled roles.
But in more practical terms, yeah, I'm leading the committee that's organising
the nationals and obviously we've had some news in that space recently.
(20:32):
Everyone's heard that unfortunately they're no longer in Bendigo and that's
actually pretty sad. where I can't speak for everybody, but I'm certainly disappointed by that.
The Bendigo region lobbied really hard for this Nationals.
We locked it in in Bendigo before COVID. We had some great chats with the council
who've been so supportive of the event. At that stage when we met with them, there were plans.
(20:53):
They had permits issued to build a number of additional large-scale hotels in the region.
But also in addition, since we had sort of booked the Nationals in,
the National Street Rod Championships chose to
hold their national event in eastern india at the same time
what broads are people well i made
a joke at the exec meeting being like that's not going to be a crossover audience
(21:15):
and one of our exec members is like yes it is i'm going to both and i was like
whoa did not see that coming very excited to them though but it just meant the
accommodation was even tighter than it would have been so unfortunately.
We made the call maybe in hindsight we should have made the call earlier but
i think it's very easy to say that when you're not the one in the decision,
(21:37):
assessing all the options, liaising with the council, trying to decide things.
So, look, I know this has been hard news for some people to hear.
Other people are excited by it.
But me, I mostly feel sad to know how excited the Bendigo region was to host
this Nationals and the council was really, you know, trying to support us as
much as they could. But, yes, we are back in Melbourne.
I can't tell you where it's going to be held just yet, but we've actually,
(21:59):
in fact, I saw another venue this week, which was very exciting and a very nice-looking venue.
So yeah we've got a couple of options they're all on
the east side of melbourne so yeah
i'm hoping to make an announcement there very shortly school
holidays has delayed us though it's not school holidays
yet but it is for private schools and one school holiday it's getting a response
(22:21):
from schools is challenging so we may wait until mid-july but i'm hoping to
have an announcement before then if i can that is sad because i like a trip
and they'd like i was like oh if it's in Bendigo,
at least, because we were still going to go and stay down there.
Nationals in Melbourne, if you're from Melbourne, is a bit of a like.
It always feels like a bit of a like.
(22:42):
Hey, Robyn. Hey, Robyn. Robyn, I've got an idea. Yeah. Do you want to do a house swap for Nationals?
You can go on a trip. We can timeshare. No, it's not about just going in a house.
The whole band has to stay.
It has to be the whole band. I'm making it. It's a lot of fun.
Because you didn't just need accommodation for the interstate bands.
We needed accommodation for the bands in Bendigo.
(23:05):
And actually it was the Melbourne bands who'd already booked up most of the
accommodation, which was the problem. Oh, yeah.
We've got so many Melbourne bands. Like a lot went to Adelaide.
Yeah. Because I'm like on the east, people might not understand.
I'm like an hour from Melbourne on the other side.
So it would have been like three hours each way from India to Bendigo.
So I was going to stay in Bendigo anyway.
(23:25):
But like, yeah, we filled up accommodation. When they were like,
oh, accommodation's running out. Our band's like, quick, get in.
And I'm like, shouldn't we leave it for the interstate bands?
It was a bit of an ethical decision. We're like, nah, let's just book it for us.
But then, yeah, obviously some band. Speaking of lots of bands in Victoria right
now, we've got the Victorian State Band Championships coming up.
(23:45):
I've seen a list of all the bands competing, all the numbers.
The numbers look really, really high.
Like how come there are so many bands in Victoria and how come they're all coming
to States this year? It's awesome.
It's like every band. And it's almost every band, right? It's every band because
we have more than 80 bands registered in Victoria.
A lot of those aren't competing bands. So, yeah, of the bands coming,
(24:06):
well, 35 bands said they were coming.
Two bands, unfortunately, have withdrawn, which just happens.
Other things come up. Members can't make it. But, yeah, 33 bands is the highest band in, like, decades.
I don't have records that show higher, but I also don't have every state number going back forever.
But definitely in the last couple of decades, it's the highest ever attendance.
Attendance. I think it's because Victorian banding is particularly strong at
(24:27):
the moment. Lots of bands doing things.
I think we've come out of, you know, after COVID we were a little weak,
a bit slow to get back for very understandable reasons.
But, yeah, now we're back. Bands are just growing. We've had a number of new
bands join in the last year or so, particularly concert bands,
which has been really exciting to see more concert bands getting involved in Victoria.
(24:47):
And I think the state's been in Melbourne for the first time,
ever in the history of the vbl has definitely
made an impact so the vbl is 93 93
years old this year so yeah
first ever time in melbourne which was a big decision but i think it's paid
off really well given the entry numbers yeah absolutely yeah well for the benefit
(25:09):
of everyone else yeah they used to be in ballarat which is like an hour and
a half from melbourne so like a drivable distance but a bit annoying if you
want to stay at the pub as everyone knows that's It's my most important consideration.
Proximity to pub. And I think it's really exciting for a state championship.
So if other people don't know, the Victorian States this year is going to be
(25:30):
going Friday night, all day Saturday into Saturday night and all day Sunday as well.
So it's basically a three-day event for a state championship.
No other state has a three-day event for their state championships.
It's absolutely monstrously huge and really exciting. and only a couple of weeks
away, my conductor keeps pointing out that I need to practice to get ready for that.
Let's not stress me out. It's a month away. There's plenty of time to still
(25:53):
do logistics. I can still practice.
Yeah, easily. We've got A grade on the Friday night, four bands in A grade. Very exciting.
And then Saturday morning is concert bands. There are five concert bands competing.
And then we have the D grade bands. There are seven D grade bands.
And then we have B grade in the evening, so three B grade bands.
And then we've got the junior brass bands, four junior brass bands on Sunday
(26:16):
morning. Very exciting. Awesome.
Then the epic C-grade that never ends. It's going to go for eight hours.
Ten C-grade bands. Oh, my goodness.
That's completely epic. Yeah.
And I've agreed to maybe help out a band in C-grade as well, potentially maybe.
(26:39):
Not my band, so I'm very curious as to which band it is.
My list is sealed, but, like, I've looked at that C-grade test piece and, oof, it's a ripper.
There is some stuff to play in there. Yeah, C-Grade is the most happening band.
There are going to be more C-Grade bands in the Victorian States than there were at the Nationals.
Oh, and same with the D-Grade. There are only three D-Grade bands at Nationals.
(27:01):
It's going to be so heaps and heaps of bands coming, really exciting.
And there's bands coming like Sail and Stonnington that haven't been seen at
States in years and years and years and years.
So I'm super excited. I love the States weekend. I love seeing everyone.
I love hearing the bands. It's going to be a great weekend, so I'm pumped.
Oh, and you'll be there, Tim, with your cameras? I'll be there with cameras.
(27:22):
So if you're someone who's not in Victoria, don't worry, you can watch the live
stream and hear all the amazing Victorian bands.
It's going to be so much fun and lots of interviews and stuff as well. Yay.
Oh, that's so exciting. I told my band four rehearsals left and they almost
cried. They're like, what?
It has been a bit tricky, though, because only two weeks after school holidays
and a lot of bands complain that they lose a lot of members during the school
(27:45):
holidays, so they kind of lose a chunk of rehearsal time right near the event.
My conductor would say that's a personal problem, but I wouldn't say that because
that would be rude. My conductor would say that. He's rude conductors.
But we are looking to move it back to mid-August next year.
And I can say, spoiler alert, that the States are 95% likely to be in Bendigo next year.
(28:08):
Oh, it's like a, sorry, we stole nationals from you.
Yeah, I'm grateful for the support the Bendigo bands and the council gave me,
and I feel really bad that we couldn't do the event there.
And Bendigo is a great area. They've got great venues.
It's really nice. It's not that far from my house. It's probably further up.
(28:30):
So, yeah, I'm excited to take the States there next year. It's not 100% confirmed,
but it's looking really lively, so that's exciting.
Oh, and you don't like sharing information that's not confirmed.
Confirmed. So that's like heard it here first, isn't it?
Yeah, that's breaking news. Breaking news. We've done it, Robin.
We broke some news. We've done it.
We should get one of those like air horns or something like the sound effects. Breaking news.
(28:55):
I can give you some breaking news if you want, some actual breaking news. Okay, yep, goss.
Yeah, goss, because we had the NBCA conference just a week or so ago,
And that's when all the NBCA councillors get together in the one room.
Shout out to Yamaha Australia for hosting us in their office.
Thank you very much, Yamaha.
And we talk about all the rules and all that kind of stuff.
(29:18):
And we have changed one of the rules for the Nationals next year that you no
longer require every single person to sign in. Only one person signs for the whole band.
Oh, hallelujah. Or every sign-on sheets.
And the lines outside the door and, like, get in alphabetical order. Yeah.
Do you know, I work with computers mostly, and I think when I had to sign on
(29:42):
at Nationals was maybe the first time I really picked up a pen all year.
And I was like, how do I write my name? What does that look like?
What's a signature on file? Where did that come from? Is that my writing?
So do we don't have to like collect them a week before either?
Or do we still have to do that?
Some of the kids are like, can I make kids a signature? They don't even have one.
(30:04):
And I'm like, make it the same. Then I'm, like, stressed. I'm like,
and, you know, I hardly ever sign my name.
I was, like, post, you know, credit cards. I was like, what if it's not the
same? What if they don't let me on the stage?
Even worse if I'm the conductor. I don't know. A youngish 12-year-old,
like, you know, it won't be the same.
But it's for the best, I think. So, yeah, no more sign-on at nationals.
(30:25):
Set it here first. Wow. Yay.
That's a great scene. I think that's good. That's going to streamline everything.
Move with the times. All right. We better do Megan's questionnaire.
I bet she's got stolen things. I can't wait to hear.
What Megan's got stolen from the VBL? Gold records in her basement,
(30:46):
if you have a basement. No. Okay.
It's time for the questionnaire. This is the questionnaire. This is the favorite section.
Tim's rolling his eyes in case you can't see. No. Well, you can't see because it's audio, Robin.
It's audio. Just imagine me not rolling my eyes, loyal listeners.
Because it didn't happen. It didn't happen.
Megan Stapleton, do you have anything in your house that belongs to another
(31:09):
band or a band you don't play with, or perhaps the VBL, something that maybe
the band doesn't know you have?
I have a Moreland band uniform when Moreland band used to be a thing because I played with them.
I currently have a 5th Street and a Glenferry stuff in my closet from when I
helped them out here and I didn't give them back.
(31:29):
That jacket, that Glenferry jacket, that looks a bit fancy and expensive.
You should give that back.
I haven't damaged it. It's just safely hanging in my closet.
I just forgot to give it back and then I keep forgetting to give it back.
Yeah, same thing. I have a high-end polo that I used for a gig once and never returned.
Although who wants to use polo? I don't know. Anyway, I've got a bunch of BBL
paperwork, but it's really boring.
There's nowhere else to put it because the BBL stuff's in storage,
(31:51):
so that's not really exciting.
Just like pages and pages of signatures.
Yeah. I've got some of my own band in trophies up behind me.
There they are, sort of up there.
We can see trophies behind Megan right now, loyal listeners.
We can see trophies. It's true.
But no big band ones. They are actually all at the Moonee Valley Band Room.
(32:13):
So most of the BBL stuff's in storage, but stuff we need to use all the time,
Moonybelly kindly, with minimal complaining, lets me store it in their band
room so I can access it more easily without having to go into the storage unit.
So the BBL honour boards and a whole bunch of trophies apparently there.
So no tubers hiding in your closet, skeletons.
(32:34):
I live in a pretty small apartment, so I definitely know what's hanging around.
I'm the opposite now. When I get something from band in my house,
like we come home from a marching gig and there's a bass drum in my house,
I cannot get right to get a bit of like, get this out of my house. It's too large.
I also have a small house and children who probably break stuff.
Like, ooh, a drum. Bang, bang. Like, please don't break it.
(32:57):
I've actually been cutting down recently and now I've only got three tubers at my place.
That's pretty good. I've been really culling. Really culling.
Well, you still don't have like a main tuber, right? No, I've got my main tuber
back from from Oswins, but Sue Bradley lent me a tuba that I need to get back
to her, and it's just sitting there staring at me, looking at me,
judging me. Tim, Tim, Tim. Get that back. Hi, Sue.
(33:20):
I don't think Sue listens to our podcast.
How fun. Okay, Megan, what's your favourite instrument, but not including the
trombone or the bass trombone?
Or the violin. If you can play anything, or the violin.
That's a brilliant instrument. Euphonium. Yay!
That's the first person who said that. Really? Okay.
(33:42):
I think everyone has picked weird things. I think we've not asked everyone that
question, I think. I haven't had the list in front of me for a while.
Wait, wait. Well, why do you love, why is the euphonium the king of instruments?
Well, it's close to the trombone in terms of sound, but also it just,
the sound you can get with the euphonium, like a really top solo euphonium player
(34:05):
is just, it's incredible to listen to, just like the range of colour and the depth of sound.
Plus they always get the cool parts in band, And the euphonium player,
yeah, the really fever parts just go to the euphonium players.
So, yeah, I definitely – the bass trombone gets a lot of semi-braves. So, yeah.
I find of all the bass trombone players I know, they're not – they don't have,
(34:29):
like, you know, grass is greener. They're always like, I play the bass trombone and I'm not moving.
It's the best instrument. So many bands have a, like, really crusted-on bass trombone player.
Do they not? Like, I'm talking 20 years past. What do you mean, crusted on?
I'm just saying they've been there a long time. Both our bands,
our bass trombone players, are pretty much the longest serving members of the two bands.
(34:50):
There's nothing keeping them from my band on bass trombone.
But I wouldn't say I'm crusted on. I'm just technically still in my 30s.
Still very youthful, thank you. Very youthful.
Yes, very youthful. So, yeah, no, I think bass trombone, once you play it, you can't go back.
It is like it's just got this darkness to
(35:10):
it and when you can make it crackle yeah you just
don't want to do anything else love a
bass trombone all right uh what if
i got this question what do you like outside brass band why don't i write that
what else is there what is there anything else out there like what tell us why
are you interested in your life outside brass band do you have any much time
(35:32):
for life outside i think it was music i think loony said like do you Do you
like other music or something?
I mean, I conduct a choir, which is quite cool. I really love doing that.
So that's really fun, the Mini Valley Community Choir.
I work a lot of hours. I run Helen Edd Australia, which is a music publishing
company. So that takes a lot of my time.
So, yeah, between work and band and, I guess, sleep, there's not a lot else
(35:57):
in my life. But I like it back like that.
Oh all right that really resonates with me
that really resonates with me yeah absolutely what else
is there what else is there do you
have a good falling over story has anything ever fallen
over music stand people things
on stage at rehearsal microphones chairs
(36:20):
no but i had a drum major when they
were twirling their baton around twirl it into my trombone slide during
a march and i couldn't move my trombone but in
fourth position i had to do the rest of the march in fourth
position it was the worst that's the
best i've ever heard where was this much i'm into your teeth and stuff like
(36:44):
you're getting bounced on my face didn't bring any tea thankfully but i felt
the jar it was down swanson street and it was expensive Offensive would be how I'd summarize that.
They have a special machine for that when you dint the trombone slide.
Like, this is like an actual machine for straightening them out, right?
(37:06):
You know what? I actually just gave it to some experts and then paid them money,
so I'm not sure how they did it.
But I imagine they would have some kind of, yeah, special tool to do it.
Make sure. Make sure you pay for that.
Yeah, no. The band helped out, which was very nice of them. You've got to be
confident with the twirl.
What is it? It's not called a twirl. It's a mace toss. The toss. The mace toss.
(37:29):
Did you do that? Tim, weren't you saying there was like in the pipe bands they
all have the drum majors?
Yeah, yeah. So it's a rule that I'll be looking to put forward to the NBCA, NCBA one day.
Like we should have a specific drum major competition for drum majors to do cool stuff.
Because they do it at the New Zealand pipe bands and like it's just like a scratch
band or a band that just marches back and forth while the drum major does tricks and it's really fun.
(37:54):
That's pretty cool yeah that's something there's potential
there in the street march i definitely think who do
who do we talk to about you know putting an extra like a drum major off in there
at the end the contest rules get published on september 1st every year and they
have to be changed by the nbca council and the nbca council's next meeting on
(38:15):
july 14th so you just send an,
Before July 14th, your proposal, and we can talk about it. Let's say there's a special drum major.
But does anyone, like, at the last Street March, Tim, you watched all the bands.
None of the drum majors really tossed, did they? Yes, they did.
The drum major of the Hyde Street Youth Band, which I think was band number one off.
(38:37):
So one. Any other tosses?
I don't believe. I can't remember. I'm sorry. Don't interrogate me.
The mace. Definitely twirled it, but no tossing it, I think.
A lot of twirling. The Marlborough band from New Zealand was very impressive with their mace work.
But there's a really cool trick I've seen them do at the New Zealand Pipes,
where they're twirling the mace, twirling the mace, and they twirl the mace around their neck.
(39:02):
It's sort of like hula hooping with a stick around your neck,
and they grab it again, and it's like it is so entertaining to watch. It's really fun.
Wow. But you've got to be careful of the trombones behind you.
I'm even less inclined to do a toss now because of
their slides and megan's accident everyone's been
warned you take risks when you march you do
(39:23):
i just i just want to take this opportunity to say a big hello to chrisley and
ben milne who were involved in the great australian mace off i don't know if
you know if you remember we had the nationals in brisbane in 2019 i think it
was and they were both saying that they could toss the mace the highest and
the fastest and just do the better of tricks.
So at the end of the street march, they actually came up and they did a little,
(39:45):
trick show for me and it was pretty entertaining.
I have to show you, Robyn, you might have missed that because you were busy.
I didn't go to that Nationals 2019.
One of my biggest regrets because then we didn't have them for another two years.
It was very sad, but I did feel like I had a baby, I think.
You think? No, I was going to say, because we talked about this at Women in
(40:08):
Brass, so So, Women in Brass, we have my favourite part of that.
It was like all the girls, awesome.
I love like mixing bands and we were talking about that, remember Megan at the pub?
Yeah. When they're like, oh, why is there, you know, not a Men in Brass?
It's like, well, pick any other reason.
The reason I love Women in Brass is because we mix up all our usual bands,
(40:28):
get together with different people and that's why I love Billy's story.
It is about visiting all the bands and going different places. And so I have the idea.
Oh, you'd go? We had a plan for that.
It may have been beer-fuelled at the pub after Women in Brass. I can't confirm that.
But the plan was to do the Victorian version of a state of origin but within the own state.
(40:52):
So you basically divide the state into four and you have to make four bands
from wherever you live in the state based on the equal dividing up of the state.
I reckon we should do it. How fun would that be?
Yeah, but there was a lot of talk about the boundary lines. I think that was
where the greatest contention did lay.
Well, it's where the road. In the West, really, people are just jealous, I understand.
(41:18):
But, you know, if the better people just live in the West, that's just how it goes, you know.
It sure is. It sure is. Once again, Megan, that really resonates with me, yeah.
The East and the Southeast, I think that was a bit of a wonky line of how we
would draw that one, so it would be fair.
But it sounds so fun. I like the idea of a singles band, even though I'm not single.
(41:38):
I mean, we keep talking back to Bandy Wants a Bandy and, like,
everyone who's single makes a band and as soon as you couple up, you're out of the band.
Because anyone I told that idea to thinks it's really terrible,
especially with single friends.
I think, Robin, I've heard that we can write into the NCBA until the 16th of
(42:01):
July with proposals, but then the NCBA is obliged to read and discuss. Yeah.
I think it should be sponsored. We should all, like, do a text to,
like, help our single friends find a bandy and bandies together.
I love this fun stuff. I want to mix because, yeah, so Ben and I,
we couldn't get our band along to Alpine Festival. We couldn't get enough people
(42:23):
to go. And they're like, just come anyway.
And I want to practice what I preach. Now, we talked about brass band tourism
a few times. It's like, well, Fenella did invite us.
So we're going to go. So Ben and I went and we played with the Jonga and now
I've got all these new friends.
Isn't that amazing? I was going to say my favorite thing about like doing my
streamy, interviewee stuff is I meet
so many people from so many bands and everyone is so lovely and so nice.
(42:45):
And it's such a wonderful community. So the more that bands can be talking with
each other, and I always get really surprised that people in bands don't know
other people in other bands.
To me, everyone will get on so well. Everyone's doing the same stuff and is, you know, a nice person.
So it's wonderful to see that mixing and interaction. I love it.
We're all very similar. I didn't know you, Megan, before Women in Brass,
(43:07):
and now I've got a new best friend. Aren't we best friends now?
Yeah. We hung out again at the next Swimming in Brass. I was like, hey, my friend.
That is actually exactly what you said and it was lovely to see.
But normally you're on the west side and I'm on the east side.
(43:27):
We don't really see each other. Are there more questions for your quiz or am I out of the woods?
I don't have any more written down. But have you got a question that we can
ask our next person and I can take one of these off, my sticky note on my desktop?
You could ask them, like, you should ask them what they would do if they were
in charge of Victorian banding or banding in their own state.
(43:48):
Ooh. What they would do. I like that question.
Okay. Yeah. Because sometimes people don't want to hear suggestions,
but if someone came up to me and said, hey, I've got a great idea for what would
be good for Victorian banding, I'd be like, tell me all about it.
Like, yeah, I want to hear people.
Because there are things we can do, things we can definitely do better.
And some things we do really well. Singles band.
(44:10):
Singles band. And I've told you that, the singles band idea.
Yeah. I've noted it down. I'm going to find the VBL executive team and get back
to you on that one if that's all right.
Well, that's okay. It doesn't affect me. I'm married.
But I'd go to a concert. If you had a singles band concert, I'd go to it,
and I'd go to the pub and just people watch.
(44:31):
I just wanted to bring up a couple of things, Robyn, as we might be moving into
our next segment, which is looking ahead to what's going on next.
There's actually a lot of really fun stuff that people might want to get out
and get to yourself included over the next few weeks so,
next weekend in Melbourne is the ANBOC conference it's Australian Band and Orchestra
(44:52):
Convention so I'm going to be there doing a bit of filmy streamy stuff and Hal
Leonard will be there I'm sure and there's lots of.
It's a good group of people who sometimes are a little bit more sort of school
education focused than community band focus, but it is quite wide-ranging.
So there's going to be a bunch of concert bands performing there.
I think the Yamaha Wins Ensemble is there as well, so it's happening next weekend.
(45:14):
The weekend after that is the New Zealand Brass Band Championships.
So anyone who's free the weekend after should head across to Auckland because
it's a relatively cheap flight from Australia.
You could fly from Melbourne to
Sydney, or you can fly from Sydney to Auckland. It costs about the same.
I'm really looking forward to getting over there and saying hello to all the
New Zealand bands. And then the weekend after that, I'll be hanging out with
(45:36):
my friend Sarah Willis from the Berlin Philharmonic, who's coming across to
Australia and doing some stuff in Melbourne.
And then we're going to be having a big French Horn Day up in Brisbane at the Brisbane Con.
So there's lots of really cool stuff going on.
If you want to get outside your band and what it's doing and see what else is
happening in the musical world, there's so much stuff happening.
(45:57):
And then the week after that is States.
Woohoo! Victorian States? we're an
international podcast i wonder when victorian
states on the new south wales states is the 24th 25th
of august the tasmanian states is the same as
the grand final weekend and i believe october
7th is the queensland states up in maryborough because i'm going to be going
(46:21):
to all of them yay robin why not go with another state could be fun yeah we've
gone to tassie States a few times when Nationals has been in Melbourne and it's like, ah,
we'll do a trip somewhere and let's just go and go down and have fun. Love it.
Yeah. Well, that's so exciting. Will we have another podcast before States? I don't know.
(46:45):
Yeah, well, we'll be doing a podcast from New Zealand for the New Zealand Nationals.
Will we? Yeah, we will. You heard it here first.
We better get a guest. Yeah, who do you want? A Kiwi guest.
Obviously. A New Zealand person. Okay. All right, you're in charge of finding
the guest. Helen might want to join us, yeah. Great. Okay. Yay.
(47:08):
Okay. Okay, and that's everything.
So we need to – No, well, we usually have to sing Year of the Dragon as an outro,
unless, Megan, you've got another piece you'd like us to sing as an outro.
All right, what about something we did in Women in Brass? Gelfos.
Yeah. I'm thinking you guys should do it.
(47:31):
That'd be great. Yeah, let's do it. You said you sing in a choir and you love it.
If you want to conduct us, we can sing Gale Force if you conduct us, Megan.
Well, which bit? The good bit. Start or the end? Yeah. The good bit.
Is that like... Hi, Maureen.
(47:53):
Oh,
the bass trombone doesn't play that. Thanks, everyone.
Catch you on the next podcast. Thanks, Megan.
Thanks for having me, guys. Bye.
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