April 12, 2024 • 46 mins
Explore the musical world and memorable banding experiences with Adrian Loone, Vice President of the National Bands Council of Australia. In this episode of The BrassBannedcast, Adrian takes us through his fascinating 40-year journey, from playing a euphonium with holes as a schoolboy to spearheading the NBCA. Listen to the significant milestones of his life, both humorous and struggling. This episode promises a delightful exploration filled with stories about brass bands, band competitions, instrument transitions, and unique challenges.
With Adrian's entertaining narrative, dive deeper into the energy-packed realm of band competitions, the adrenaline, camarity, challenges, and unmatched experiences. From the highs of solo performances to the amalgamation of deep bondings within the band communities, this episode has it all. Hear the intriguing stories around the unique trophies of band competitions and gain insights into the exciting preparation for trophy presentations. This episode is a treasure trove of anecdotes, learnings, and behind-the-scene activities related to banding.
This episode is a treat for everyone who shares a passion for music, especially band enthusiasts. Dive into this melodic journey with Adrian as they narrate their experiences marked by enthusiasm, dedication, joy, and an undying love for music. Get ready to be entertained, informed, and inspired by the vibrant world of brass banding.
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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.
Hello, everyone all over the internet. This is the Brass Bandcast.
It's the podcast about love, life, laughter, music, rehearsals,
musical directors playing solos, bagpipes, tubas, concert bands,
brass bands, and marching.
(00:21):
Robin, how are you? I am good. I am very well, unlike you, Tim,
who is sick. I am a bit sick.
And I said, Robin, I feel a bit sick and my voice isn't great.
Can we postpone tonight's podcast? I said no.
No, we have to. I mean. And we're joined tonight by Adrienne Alloon. Adrienne, how are you?
(00:43):
Hey, Tim. Yeah, pretty good. Pretty good down here in sunny Tassie. It was sunny Tassie.
A big welcome to you. Hi, Robin. Hello.
And a big shout out to Tim's mum.
Oh, my mum will be so excited for this shout-out.
Can you give a shout-out to Robin's mum as well? My mum doesn't listen to the
(01:07):
podcast. She doesn't listen to the podcast.
She keeps asking me questions about my life. I'm like, if you want to know,
just listen to my podcast and have time to talk to you. Is that rude that I'm a terrible daughter?
Yes. Yay. So we're here. We're changing our format again.
Last week, I don't know if it worked or not. Yeah, my weird app.
(01:27):
But it's good to try new things, isn't it? Now we're live streaming on YouTube
or something. I think so. This is just behind the scenes stuff,
live streaming to YouTube.
It's fun.
The final podcast is going to be very edited, isn't it, Robin?
Oh, yeah. Well, maybe. It might get less and less edited as I run out of steam.
(01:50):
No, no, I spend a bit of time editing it. It's great. I wish I could edit my
life and take out all the stupid stuff I say before I let people listen to me.
Wouldn't that be amazing?
The beauty of the brass band cast. Isn't that great? No, have you done anything
interesting or fun in the last couple of days since we've last podcasted? No, not really.
(02:10):
We had a rehearsal back from Nationals. That was fun. Lots of people back.
Had a committee meeting.
Committee meetings are fun. If you're not on your committee,
guys, you should go on your committee.
It's very nice to be on committee because you find out all the interesting things
and you get to help do things. So, we're having our big discussion about how
(02:31):
nationals went and what we'll do next year.
Like, will we stay in Bendigo? Will we drive? Will we get minibuses?
Will we stay everywhere? Will we book a hotel?
We didn't decide anything. It's too confusing.
We just talked about it. So, it was fun. How about you? What have you been doing
in the last three days, Tim?
Just recovering. Recovering from my illness. Here I am, ready to podcast.
(02:54):
You went a bit wild and everyone's recovering.
Everyone's got it. It's going around. Did you get a flu vaccine?
You should have got the flu vaccine.
No, I should have not. No, no. No problem. Yeah.
Adrienne, have you done anything great in the last little while,
Adrienne? What's up with you?
All right. Well, I guess, you know, depressurising from the Nationals,
(03:16):
coming back down from orbit as I think we all have that post-Nationals crash.
I think, you know, reality comes barging in and, you know, work and all those
other things that aren't necessarily life affirming, shall we say.
So it's like it's that really intense thing. You go to a Nationals and then
(03:37):
it's like everything and everyone all at once. And then there's nothing.
Yeah. Yeah, and it's also everything you've been putting off while you get in
the lead-up to the Nationals because you've got all the rehearsals, all the organising.
You're like, I'll do that after Nationals. I'll do that after Nationals.
Nationals finishes, then you have to do it all.
(03:59):
All the laundry. I still haven't washed the possum poo out of my black shirt.
I still have to do that. Oh, the possum wee poo? Yeah, it's probably ruined now.
Yeah, I heard about the possum wee poo. Sitting in a bucket.
Yeah. So that's the post-national stuff. High quality stuff, the Burundari uniform.
Oh, no, no, no. No, it wasn't my Burundari shirt. It was my silky one. Yeah, no. Yeah.
(04:23):
The Burundjeri shirt could have just got in the washing machine,
but this was a nice shirt. It had got the wee poo anyway.
But, yeah, so that's been life. And so, Adrienne, I'd love to,
for people who might not know who you are, would you like to describe what your
current position is in terms of the National Bands Council of Australia?
Right. Okay. So I'm the vice president of the NBCA, which sounds,
(04:48):
ooh, that sounds really important or, you know,
know that there's all kinds of direction that I
would necessarily be leading people but but by
nature of the NVCA I'm essentially a
referee I think that's in the nicest possible sense of the word because you
know the power of the NVCA is with each delegate from each state and that's
(05:09):
where the rules come from so I'm probably moderator slash mediator and as time
goes on I'm probably a little bit of a sounding board too.
So that's probably the more procedural side of things.
And I guess then it sort of comes into its own when we get to a Nationals because
we assume certain duties, of course, just to make sure that everything's ticking
(05:30):
over and things are being adhered to.
But probably the more fun aspect of my involvement in the NBCA is unofficial
historian and webmaster.
So I get to do sort of cool things there, like resurrect the NBCA site after it fell over.
A couple of years ago and no sooner fixed that and
it fell over again so that's a constant battle
(05:52):
which is always fun but historically speaking so
you know the nbca came into form into being in its current form in 1934 when
it was the australian band council and for obvious reasons that acronym wasn't
going to stick for very long because we already had an agency so in about 1968
that That changed to the NBCA.
(06:14):
But it took a good 30 years just to get representatives from the state governing
bodies for banning to essentially be in the same room and agree to what looked
like a national set of contesting rules.
Because, you know, there'd been, let's say, quote, unquote, national contests
before that, but they were usually under the auspices of whoever the host body was.
(06:39):
So if you had a contest in New South Wales, it was run under New South Wales rules, et cetera.
So there was a lot of compromise before and after the formation of the NVCA.
And I think that for a body which is sort of notoriously, like anything that's
passionate, you know, it's going to be unstable at times.
(07:02):
It's going to want to move in six different directions at once sometimes.
And it's like finding that happy medium whereby you can still forge ahead and,
you know, go to the pub afterwards.
Afterwards you know it's so having the
having the respect you know the healthy respect to to agree
or to disagree to put your case but it's nothing's
(07:23):
ever done without passion and i think that that's something that can be can
be lost i think but so you're you're a very you're a busy person sort of being
a bit of a custodian of a lot of what goes on at a nationals i guess and being
that sort of referee in the background yeah we can be the wearer of many hats but But basically.
(07:43):
The general credo is if you're at a Nationals, it doesn't really matter what
you're doing or what your position is.
It's kind of like, okay, we just get in there and we volunteer.
We're just volunteers like everybody else, basically, making sure that things
just get done for the bandies. You know, basically, that's it.
Adrian, I would love to know.
(08:04):
How did this happen for you? When did you first walk into a community band room
and pick up an instrument and play some music?
And how did that lead to where you are right now?
Can we go right back in time? What was your very first band rehearsal you remember attending?
Okay. So there's a great story behind this. In fact, it's very timely,
(08:25):
this podcast, because I've just celebrated 40 years, my 40th anniversary of
banding. 40th band birthday.
Yay. Hey, happy band birthday.
Does that make me old? I don't feel old. I was not old when I was there.
Extremely. Absolutely.
And that's that great story that I think probably a lot of bandies around the
(08:46):
country have had whereby I was in primary school and teachers said we're having
a visit from a couple of people from the local band and they came along and
played their instruments and basically we were on a recruitment drive and said,
hey, who wants to join the band?
And it's like every kid in the class put their hand up.
Oh that's really cool yeah we want to do that so yeah come along to
(09:06):
the local band rooms wednesday night you know we'll get you out with
instruments and of all that that excitement there
were probably five i think
that actually you know took it up from my class so we
got sent out to the the back room which was and this is the this is the latrobe
federal band in tasmania so this is the which will be celebrating its 150th
(09:29):
anniversary last year after discovering through a publication of a history book
that they weren't as old as they thought they were.
That's nice. That's good. Younger than you thought. That's always a bonus in life, I think.
Yeah, it's always nice, you know, but sort of what had been sort of as part
of local law was the band was formed in 1872 and that was there emblazoned on
(09:53):
the jackets and on signage and everything.
And basically it just became part of the local law. But, of course,
when you didn't have access to the historical resources as easily as we do now,
it was probably a bit of a guesstimate, you know.
It wasn't too far off, but it couldn't really be backed up.
So it was only through the course of the research that's been done into this
(10:14):
book that we discovered some hard evidence that it wasn't 1872,
that it was in fact formed in 1875.
But hold on, Adrian.
Wait a second. Close enough. I want to know, you went to this first rehearsal. You were kitted out.
Do you remember what you played at that rehearsal? Do you remember anything
about actually playing? Oh, yeah, yeah, totally.
(10:36):
Going off on tangency. Anyway, so, okay.
I was given this euphonium full of holes.
Okay and it was kind of like well i don't think
this weedy little kid is going to you know necessarily make it give him
give him that give him that thing over there maybe maybe he'll
go away yeah that kind of thing so i suffered through i don't know probably
(10:58):
a month trying to get a scale out of this thing and trying my darndest and of
course i didn't naturally think that the instrument was at fault it's it's me
i can't know until someone pointed out when it was It was a one-on-one situation.
I was like, oh, we probably shouldn't give you that. There's a huge hole in the bell of that.
And, you know, it's amazing you're getting a sound out of it all.
(11:21):
But I said, yeah, but it's okay. I've worked out if I put my thumb here and
play it a little bit like a recorder, the air will go through.
So, you know, I can still reduce the cool down above and beyond.
So that was pretty good for an eight-year-old. It was like, you know,
I'm going to make this work, you know.
Know absolutely the problem isn't the problem
(11:42):
isn't you it's the instrument that's words everyone must hear
i think yeah so the the
that was spirited away the the euphonium never
to be seen again and i was given tenor horn um and you know so then all of a
sudden it's this hey this is much smaller and you hold it like this my teacher
said you know it's like you know you hold it like your girlfriend oh you're
(12:04):
probably a bit young for that oh okay yeah so yeah next Next thing,
I'm playing tenor horn and,
yeah, it just took off. All of a sudden, it just made perfect sense.
Like, you know, sitting down in front of a piano to some people,
that just makes sense. Wear those holes.
Yeah. And, yeah, I didn't have to put my thumb over anything that,
you know, that shouldn't have been. I shouldn't have to.
(12:27):
So that's how it was for 12 months out in this horrible room,
which was basically an old storeroom under a grandstand,
which is where the band rooms are, which wasn't lined or anything and we'd suffer
through winter, you know, we'd see a band room. So tough.
40 years ago, the instrument, no installation. Yeah, back in those days.
(12:51):
Wow. No air conditioning.
And in the other room, we could hear what was the junior band and that was what
we were aspiring to be part of.
And one by one, as we hit a certain mark, we would leave the room and go and
join the, you know, the band with the big kids.
And, you know, eventually the time came and went out there and was part of the junior band.
(13:15):
And if there's anyone in South Australia who's listening, my first conductor
was the great Kerry Hewitt.
Who now plays with Unley, and I caught up with Kerry at the Nationals,
and I saw him last year at Newcastle as well after many years of not seeing him.
And, yeah, it's just great that he's still about and he eventually remembered who I was.
(13:38):
To cut a long story short, I then had a few years in the junior band and eventually
you get asked to join the senior band,
and my mum was so proud of me joining the senior band when I was 13 that she
rushed out and bought this brand-new Jupiter tenor horn.
Oh, the finest, the finest quality.
Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful, shiny thing. And I played that for, I don't know,
(14:04):
six months or thereabouts, and then I was taken aside in band practice one night
by the conductor and said, we really need a flute player.
Oh. I know you've got this new instrument and everything, but hey.
Don't worry about that instrument. Don't worry about that.
And, you know, if I circle back to the very beginning, the first instrument,
the very first instrument I was given was a cornet, and there's no way I could
(14:26):
get a sound out of it all. So I was like, okay, here's a euphonium.
Okay, cool. Okay, that's full of holes. Here's a tenor horn.
Okay, now we're going to get you to play flugel.
And talk about a baptism of fire. That first rehearsal, I've gone from,
I'm still, what, 13, not quite 14, and I've given the flugel.
It's like, okay, you'll be fine. You'll work it out.
(14:47):
And I think about the third or the fourth piece in that we were rehearsing that
night happened to be a flugel solo, The Shadow of Your Smile.
And if you're familiar with the arrangement, it's got a beautiful introduction,
the band's setting this nice, you know, beginning-type tempo,
(15:08):
and then, you know, there's this big set-up, big break, and then the flugel's
got to come in, you know. Here we go.
Yeah. You know. It's got time. That's a bit mean of them to make you do that.
Yeah, it was cruel. But it's like, hey, in the deep end, you'll be fine. And what came out was...
Well, to quote the great Eddie Isen, I sounded like a foghorn being dragged
(15:32):
through where a foghorn should never be dragged.
It was horrible.
Did that stop you in the moment? Did that stop you in the moment?
Isn't that? Oh, no. It's like, you know, this ascending buzzing sound that went
nowhere and then it was kind of like we went and struggled on for another couple
of hours and the conductor said, okay, probably a bit early.
(15:55):
You know this is a bit early on in your journey i think we should probably just leave that for now,
and so after that experience of moving moving to
flugel and having that debut solo performance were you
inspired to keep coming back to bands obviously your work wasn't that made you
want to keep going back yeah i mean it was the it really was the camaraderie
i mean the fact that and this is banding at the time when you know you'd have
(16:19):
a smoko and it was a smoko like you know it was It was all of these middle-aged
men who would basically go off and have a smoke.
And so it was like total immersion in a culture that felt very paternal.
It felt very protective. It did feel like you were part of something that was
a little bit illicit almost, if you like. You know, it was a very adult world.
(16:43):
And so the probably was that there was the allure was not in the music because
I certainly desperately wanted to play an instrument.
But there was sort of the illusion of being exposed to or being allowed to be
exposed to a very adult world,
you know, everything from being sworn at in Dutch by an elderly Dutchman who
used to play euphonium through to, yeah, surrogate parents.
(17:06):
I didn't feel like the answer to the question was going to go there.
The reason I wanted to come back was because I was sworn at by an elderly Dutch person.
Exactly. So it's all part of the tapestry. And next thing you know, you're doing gigs.
You know, you're in the band five minutes. And the next thing you know, hey, it's Anzac Day.
And then, of course, Anzac Day was just this whole other thing because,
you know, we used to do three services that involved getting on a bus and going
(17:30):
to other towns and doing a street march.
And then it would culminate in having a cooked lunch at the RSL and doing a concert.
So, you know, it's mind totally blown when you're 13.
You know, you're basically, you're on tour. You've been there five minutes and you're out gigging.
You know much like the joke of the of the the bass player that can learn two
(17:53):
two notes and and you know he doesn't go back to learn the third one because
it was it was anzac day your first year yeah it was it was it would have been
february of that year that i i joined the.
Yeah, and next thing you know, it's like, okay, we're going to learn to march. Did you march?
(18:14):
I'll get to that next question. And did you get much practice before you marched
or suddenly you found yourself walking with a flugelhorn?
I was walking with a flugelhorn. That was it. It was like, okay,
you stand here, you keep in line, and by the way, you have to play as well. Okay, cool.
Total immersion, thrown in the deep end, the good old days.
(18:34):
Oh, we still do that. Don't chuck people in the deep end.
It's the best way to learn. So single swim, you know, and it was,
you know, after a couple of years I'd start playing in the local comps.
I'd be doing solos and then through necessity after six years of flugel,
it was like, right, well, now we need a solo corner player.
(18:58):
You know, I found myself back at corner and I was like, oh, okay.
And that's been pretty much it. You know, I've been cornered for the last 30 years now.
I mean, okay, I'm on a bit of a sabbatical at the moment. There's been all kinds
of, you know, bumps in the road of recent times.
But, yeah, I'm still technically a corner player. So, yeah.
(19:21):
But also technically the euphonium player, if anyone's got a leaky euphonium out there.
I can only play the leaky euphonium, though. I should point that out.
Half recorder, half euphonium.
Yeah, with a thumb. Oh. Oh, how fun.
And then, Sue, you've been playing in bands for a long time and then somehow
someone roped you into the N-C-B-A.
(19:43):
N-B-C-A.
I'm the voice of the people. The voice of the people.
But don't know much about the N-C-B-A. You go.
You go. So I guess that the admin-y side of things has always been part part
of my banding life too because I think I'd probably been in the band for two
(20:06):
years and I became the librarian.
So it was like, yeah, okay, let me organise your library for you, you know.
And then, of course, there was committees and all that kind of thing.
So it really was sort of total immersion in not just playing but in running
and, yeah, organising stuff.
So it kind of necessarily followed that, okay, well, the admin side of things was fine.
(20:30):
Just as strong, I guess, you know, for me all the way through.
So I've always had some sort of a role, whether it's been librarian or on the committee or whatever.
So, yeah, then taking on being the secretary of the TBL and being on the MAB,
it all sort of just one thing leads to another next thing.
Or the next logical step is you should go and, you know, be part of NBCA. Yeah.
(20:55):
Yeah. Just one thing led to another.
Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty much. Those leaky euphonium, they can lead you anywhere.
You've got to be careful from that. It's a slippery slope.
And now, so people would most know you from the guy that reads out the scores, right?
So you go on the stage and you read out all the scores. I'm just,
I'm talking for the voice of the people. People are like, I don't understand what this guy does.
(21:19):
But do you do that every Nationals? It's most Nationals you do that, right? Or not?
Most, yeah, most Nationals. And it's generally because I'm the number cruncher
who's, you know, back there entering all the stuff and doing the posting on
Facebook of the results and all that kind of thing.
So it's like, okay, well, you've done the work.
You read them out. You do it. Yeah.
(21:41):
It sort of walks that fine line of, you know, it not being a stand-up routine
because, you know, people want the results.
But I've been to too many nationals in the past where it's like,
oh, come on, let's just, you know, get the numbers out there and,
you know, or it's can we have that again? Didn't quite catch that.
(22:02):
So I thought, well, if you're going to do it, let's just have a bit of fun.
Let's keep it light. And there just seemed to be a bit of a.
Yeah. Yeah, that's why we want to do some results entertainment.
Tim and I believe there should be more results entertainment before results.
Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Before results.
That's definitely something that's come to be when there was always that long
(22:28):
period of waiting, you know,
of the waiting between getting the results off the adjudicator,
doing the processing, you know, printing the certificates, you know,
not necessarily using computers. It was all handwritten.
Handwritten and handprinting. And with the calculators. What if you,
like, press an extra zero and one band wins by 10,000 points?
(22:50):
Yeah. You better have some sense.
So a lot of that's been streamlined now, of course, because it's just easy to have things ready to go.
So I'm probably taking away some of the build-up, the slow hand clapping and
the marching displays that we've had on stage.
It does seem quite efficient, but I feel like there could still be space for
(23:13):
like a high note competition or the reality TV shows, you know, Bandy Wants a Partner.
There's options out there. Bandy Wants Another Bandy. We haven't said all the names. No, we haven't.
I don't know. It could be any, yeah.
No, but I really like the way you made this course. It is very exciting.
(23:37):
Do you think we've gone too far, though? Have we got, you know,
should we be putting a bit more room in there now? You know,
should it be a bit more fun?
Well, I feel like sometimes I wonder if we could stage like a Days of Your Band
sort of, you know, afternoon TV drama episode. Yeah, a video.
What results? Filmed in a day. These results?
(24:02):
Because how much time is the right amount of time for the last band to play,
everyone to come in and get together, have that camaraderie and patience in
the hall, be entertained by someone playing a very high note?
They always need to bring out a table. There's always a little table.
There's always a table? There's trophies on it. Yeah.
They have to bring out a table. Adrian, are you responsible for the trophies
(24:24):
or is that someone else's job?
Well, that's technically the executive officer of the NBCA.
That's someone else. someone else you
read the scores you have to be your bit that's my
bit i mean yeah get just just getting all the
silverware back you know in the one room from all around the
country is it's an undertaking in itself
(24:46):
really you know and i saw my favorite photo
sorry gone oh yeah sorry i think
my favorite i guess is like you know where's the fireman's helmet is it here
you'd start you start hearing rumors you know it's been seen at the airport
port someone's got it it's it's landed it's in a hotel room somewhere it's it's
here it's in the city you know it's it's like tracking santa claus or something
(25:09):
it's like you know he's getting closer,
and so it eventually turns up it's like oh yeah okay yeah it is here awesome
yeah do they pre-polish it before they bring it back or do you polish it no no.
Who polishes the fireman's helmet? Looked shiny in that last photo I've seen of it.
(25:29):
Yeah, well, we had a bit of a polishing session in between results.
This is the stuff where we, this is the goss we need, the polishing session.
So you grab a whole lot of the executive, the NBCBA thing.
You all sit around with your silver load and your little rags and you polish the fireman's helmet.
(25:49):
It yeah someone someone went out and bought a bottle of of grasso and then we
got some nice polishing cloths from the trade stand and we're just there going
well you know let's see what we can do here let's let's you know just get these
all tidied up and yeah there was there was a bit of that going on but it's it's
kind of like well we can't present these what are we going to do.
(26:10):
They've all kissed it too many times i think we drank out of the b-grade trophy
once I hope we watched it before we gave it back I'm sure many bands have I
have a question I saw on Facebook that the winner of the Champion of Champions,
Kevin Hickman from New Zealand, I saw him with a photo of the Champion of Champions
trophy and I think he was in New Zealand with it Do Australians,
(26:35):
do we allow trophies for our competition to go back to the winner's country
if they're from not Australia?
Yeah, because Because I was at the New Zealand Pipe Band Championships,
because I love bagpipes, and the band won the grade three section,
(26:56):
which is like C grade, and that band was from Melbourne.
And they got the trophy, and they could have the trophy for about 30 minutes
after the results, and they immediately had to give the trophy back.
They weren't allowed to take the trophy home with them.
Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, that's like. Those pipe bands have strict rules,
yeah. I feel like there's drama in the past there somewhere.
(27:19):
That's like hard quiz. Everybody plays for the big brass mug,
but you don't get to take it. Yeah, exactly.
No, you just sort of leave it there. It's not even brass. It's not even brass. No.
But, no, the silverware is allowed to travel and has done it.
And comes back. And, yeah, I mean. You have to send it back on a thing.
(27:39):
Yeah. Yeah, it's always turned up. Yeah, our big brass moat,
our helmet's 50 years old now.
You're a historian. Why is it a fireman's helmet? Is that weird?
Like I've always, I've never wondered.
Yeah, I do, yeah. It's a donation from the Melbourne Fire Brigade Band.
(28:03):
When they, I'm not sure if they folded, they amalgamated, but they basically
donated the fireman's helmet in 1973 and that's when it became the trophy.
So it used to be an actual helmet, but how did they make it silver?
Yeah. They plated a real helmet with silver. Yeah.
(28:25):
Yeah. Yeah. And it's from Melbourne. So there you go. Who had an idea,
let's make the trophy a fireman's helmet? Isn't that kind of?
That's cool. That's super cool. I want to find out who made that idea.
Like, it's awesome. It's better than a boring normal trophy, right?
Well, I think that. What was the trophy before that?
I don't know. In fact, I don't know if they were necessarily perpetual.
(28:48):
I think they were just, you know, and this is what we're playing for this year.
I could have gone by the wayside.
But I think it was the VBL that had, and I'm sure someone can correct me here,
but it wasn't, did you play for a clock?
Wasn't there a clock was one of the trophies? I can't remember. That is familiar.
(29:11):
Oh, that does sound familiar. Yeah, maybe in Victoria we just have a weird trophy thing. Yeah. Yeah.
I think there is a clock. I don't know. I probably haven't won it enough to know.
Or won it enough. I've won it a bit, but not enough. Good on you,
Robin. Enough ever? Yeah.
Is there ever enough winning of trophies though, Robin? I haven't had enough.
(29:35):
Well, not the ones you have to give back. Like you should get to keep one and
one to give back. We've got a trophy cabinet.
Trivia about Burundara Brass, we share a band room with Glenferry Brass and
we each get a trophy cabinet.
And their trophy cabinet's way more interesting than ours. We just haven't been
bothered putting trophies in it.
But like the trophies we get, we have to give back and then there's nothing
to put in the cabinet. Yeah.
(29:56):
But I think you sometimes get a trophy to keep, don't you? Do you?
In some competitions, you definitely get a trophy. Yeah.
Like this year, Little Clarks went out as well because, you know,
all those winners of the perpetual trophies. It's like you've got to have a little keepsake.
You've got to have something that you can say, yeah. They're not as impressive as the big trophies.
You've got to give that back. Yeah. I suppose it would cost the competition
(30:17):
a lot of money if they had to make beautiful gold trophies every year,
didn't they, and not plastic ones.
We've got to be practical here, guys. I'm just airing my thoughts. Yeah.
Can I just make a little public service announcement? If anyone does win the
B-grade trophy, probably shouldn't drink out of it. No.
I'll just leave it there. It was thinking it had this, like, metallic-y thing.
(30:44):
It was a bit brasso-y or something. It was a bit brasso-y. Probably had cobwebs
in the middle. Yeah, that's a good.
They've taken it back to New Zealand this year. The New Zealand band won B grade.
Did they take it to New Zealand? Did you see them?
Everyone's looking at me blankly. We'll find out.
We had better warn them not to drink from the B-grade trophy.
(31:06):
Probably more sensible people just would know that and don't have to be warned. Do you think?
But, yeah, when it's the, you know. New Zealanders are very sensible.
It was really great to have the Marlborough. It was Marlborough District that
came over. Marlborough.
Marlborough. Oh, my goodness. They had gloves to marching and hats.
Yeah, they had feathers.
And shiny shoes. I really like their style as a brass band that's based in one
(31:30):
of New Zealand's premier wine regions to come across to one of Australia's premier
wine regions to do a contest and spend a few days and then go back again.
I think they're doing life all right.
That was good. It's always good to have our Kiwi friends over, isn't it?
It is. And Robin, are you coming to New Zealand Nationals, Robin?
(31:52):
I keep on asking and you keep saying, oh.
No, I told you I have children. They can come too. They can come too.
I'm not saying it's different. I am seriously considering it. Good.
My world is mixing with people. I think it's a goer. So, yeah, watch this space.
(32:14):
We want to have lots of crossover between Australia and New Zealand banding,
whatever we can do to make that happen. It's fun. It's a good thing.
Super fun. The open, the free trade agreement.
All right. Should we ask, I'll ask you some brass band cast questions, Adrian, now.
Okay. Are you ready? As if I haven't been asking you random enough questions already, as it is.
(32:34):
I feel like I've been talking way too much, but anyway. No, not at all. Not at all.
Voice of the people. Voice of the people. Yeah, Tim's sick, so he can't talk
so much. You are talking a bit, aren't you?
I said, Tim, you could just smile and let me do the talking,
but he cannot do that, can you? Even with your soul voice.
(32:55):
Okay, Adrian, this is still my favourite question provided by Jared McCunney.
Have you got anything in your house that maybe, maybe might belong to your band or maybe the NCBCA?
Like a stolen thing. Yeah. Time to come clean.
Something illicit. Well, I'm a corner player, so there's always an array of mutes.
(33:20):
Um yeah i can't say i've ever
bought a mute so they clearly don't belong
to me but yeah you do you know one
does collect things the band's fault for not engraving them band's fault as
soon as you buy them you engrave them right with the no name it's open right
yeah so there is a plethora of mutes in a in a bag from a variety of bands over
(33:43):
the years and and a mute stand as well,
And I must say, and this is my claim to fame, in my 40 years,
I've never bought a bottle of valve oil.
I had to buy one last year. One just miraculously appears when it's required
and it doesn't appear to be anyone's.
(34:06):
It doesn't appear to be anyone's, so now it's mine.
Mine now. Look at these. They don't seem to be anyone's now. They're mine.
Yes, I am a thief of valve oil.
So but over the years i mean goodness there's
been all kinds of trophies that aren't mine
(34:27):
you know you know what i've been looking after the silverware because you
know you run a contest and then the trophies that don't get claimed they
have to they have to go somewhere and that happens they end up
you know in bedrooms and and on mantelpieces and
things you know tucked away ready for the next nationals so
yeah lots and lots that you will take back one day
(34:49):
right you'll take it off yeah oh it
all goes back it's kind of you know i have a
40-year arrangement whereby everything will go back like
you know like the the wardrobe full of uniforms and that
everybody has you know amazing love
it all right adrian what is your favorite instrument
but you can't say the one you
(35:11):
currently play okay i am probably the
world's most frustrated air guitarist you know
what i wouldn't use to play guitar but i
fail miserably absolutely miserable at it it just does not make sense to me
but but my you know i i am i am a sad frustrated guitarist in the inside and
(35:34):
a sad frustrated left-handed guitarist for some reason um can i play Did you
play power chords? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
And do you air guitar frequently? Not as frequently as I used to,
but, you know, when the mood strikes, I will solo away big time. Very nice.
I think more of that. I think that can be encouraged all around,
(35:55):
air guitar. Yes. Love it.
Absolutely. I think that's going to be my mission for the next week or so, is to air guitar.
It's time for the National Air Guitar Championships, I think. That is a pre-results.
Wow. Yeah. That is huge. This is a big concept, I think, that's just been unearthed.
Every band can put forward their best air guitarist. Yes.
(36:18):
On stage, and everyone's got an air guitar too. What song would they air guitar to?
Bohemian Rhapsody. No?
There's a bit of a single. Fantata.
Yeah. Isn't it like, no, it's a grass band version?
Oh, should we sing that at the end? That could be an outro.
(36:39):
Oh, Bohemian Rhapsody. That's a wonderful answer. Yeah.
Congratulations on your answer. And for not picking bassoon or bagpipes.
I think maybe, Adrian does listen to our podcast though, so he maybe knew some
of the answers. He's pre-thought about his answers.
No, I had a pretty fair idea. where, you know, what questions am I going to ask you?
(37:02):
I'm pre-warned. Oh, have you thought of one for falling over?
No one can think of this on the spot.
Has anything ever, what is the biggest, like, thing that's fallen over?
Or have you ever fallen off while reading the scores?
Or has your microphone fallen? Yeah.
No, no. Probably the biggest, most spectacular pratfall, if you like,
(37:23):
that ever happened in a concert.
No, it wasn't a concert. It was a contest. was a back row corner player.
I won't mention the band or the player for obvious reasons, but they'd gone
to do the mute change and they put in the mute. And someone had stolen their mute.
Well, yeah. Different story, different story. And then after I gave it back.
(37:44):
But they were doing the mute change and they did the little fumble,
you know, and it's like on the tips of the fingers.
Oh, yeah, and they're just catching it, catching it, catching it.
And it's like catching, catching it, moving further further and further forward
into the stand until they fell through the stand, landing in the tenor horn section.
So it was pretty spectacular.
(38:04):
No one was injured, only a lot of pride.
Nothing was dented, but it was spectacular because it involved chairs falling
over, music stands, and then the inevitable sight of the mute rolling towards the UFO section.
So, you know, it was very spectacular.
(38:25):
Does that count? It's amazing. Yes, that definitely counts. These are killer answers.
Because I could really visualise that, almost as much as the tubular bells falling off the riser.
Who was Jamie was telling us about? The locks not on.
Amazing. All right, so what have we got on for the week? Or what's coming up?
(38:45):
What's next? What's next for you, Adrian?
Just a lot of working, unfortunately. Unfortunately, there's not,
and there's still a little bit of post-Nationals mopping up and,
you know, putting some stuff on the website and whatnot, you know,
which is always good fun.
But, no, nothing terribly exciting on the horizon short of a trip to New Zealand, Tim. Yes.
(39:11):
New Zealand, let's go. I think we should do this. I can, you know,
I can get on that bandwagon.
That band playing we'll get we'll get over there and we'll
yeah a bit of a chat about how new zealand coming to australia
more australian bands going across to new zealand more it's gonna
be great we'll get maybe we can get like a bilateral banding agreement yeah
(39:33):
tim do you think we should put like throw out the challenge you know who else
would like to join us you know do we get get a posse you know who wants to come
on a trip who wants to come on a trip Who wants to go? Not to play, just to have fun.
Robin wants to come. I don't want to come. New Zealand's really cold.
No, I do like New Zealand. I like The Hobbits and that vampire show.
(39:59):
I like that. What else do you like about New Zealand, Robin?
The lovely people. Do you like the lovely people? I do like the lovely people.
Do they have the wind bands in their nationals?
No, but they've got the National Concert Band Association of New Zealand has
their festival in the first weekend
of August, which you can see sometimes live streamed on Brass Band.
So they're separate over there. They're separate and it's a very different wind
(40:23):
band scene in New Zealand.
Not yet as strong as the Brass Band scene. We're more together.
I always love giving a shout out to our wind band friends.
Definitely. Robin, what's coming up for you, Robin?
Oh, I already said the other day. Say it again. It's two days later.
(40:43):
Just hanging around. Lady band. I still haven't practiced. I told you I would,
but I didn't. Sorry, Marissa, if you're listening.
Yeah, that's about it. And just getting back in, got to pick some repertoire
for States, got to pick some fun songs. I'll win that clock.
Yeah, I think our band has got to work on hymns. I've decided we've got to get our hymns good.
(41:07):
I might get like one of the Salvos guys to come in and run a rehearsal.
I would love, I would love to hear someone play like a hymn medley.
Like eight bars of this, just like a hymn medley. Like I just want. I know what you said.
That hymn, that hymn, that hymn. Cause like, it's all like.
Yeah. They've all got like one line, don't they? Yeah. Yeah.
(41:27):
And then if you, especially if you've got like 80s drum kit,
shout out to Western Brass.
And then you just modulate up a semitone into the next one. Like it'd be pretty.
That would be amazing. Let's tell Jared. I think maybe I'm sicker than I thought I was everyone. Sorry.
Yeah. It'd be easy. You just get the red book and play through them and then
tell the band to put it up a semitone each time with a drum beat. Could be done.
(41:51):
Ooh. I don't know. Yeah, it must be getting too late. Our ideas are getting
terrible. But, yeah, so there's that.
How about you, Tim? You doing more resting?
Well, I meant to. I've got too much work, so I work too much today.
I don't know what to write. But the Footscray band, Footscray Areval City band,
is celebrating its 150th this year.
(42:13):
Yeah. And there's going to be a very big concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre,
which is going to be booked out for a brass band-only concert,
which is pretty exciting. And tickets are on sale and all that.
But apparently I'm on the subcommittee to help organise it.
And I have been for a while, but I haven't been to any meetings.
But there's a meeting tomorrow night, so I'm probably going to go to that to try and organise stuff.
Are you going to have a cake and blow out 150 candles? You should do that. Suggest that as an idea.
(42:38):
Because Boondar is having it. This sounds like we're such babies.
We're having our 25th anniversary next year. Like, yay, 25.
Everyone's like, my band's been running for 200,000 years or something. I don't know.
We're 25, but there's still, like, people in the band who have been in it from
the start. So that's saying something cool, isn't it?
(42:58):
25. What was your band age? Was that 100 and something?
What was yours? La Trobe. The mighty La Trobe Federal will be 150 next year,
yes, about this time. It's also same as Footscray.
Well, Footscray is this year. We were 69. Oh, okay. 1869. 1869.
1869. Okay. 1870? No, that's not 150. Maybe it's last year. I don't know.
(43:23):
We found an article in Trove saying that we were 1869, and it's on the website, so it must be real.
But I'm just saying it was a similar time you were established as the Latrobe
Federal Band then. Isn't that an interesting tidbit?
Go, Bandies. Yay. Oh, what a way to finish. All right. Well,
we need a closing song, don't we?
(43:44):
I've got a suggestion. Adrian, what's your favourite? Suggestion.
It would be totally remiss. You're the dragon?
No. No, no. We have to do my all-time fave, and, in fact, it's the piece where
my late wife had the moment where she crossed over into the dark side and thought,
I really like brass pants.
(44:04):
And that was at the 2000 Nationals in Launceston.
We were watching Q, and it was the mighty Mark Ford, you know,
Kung Fu Panda himself, there he was. Yes, yes.
And they launched into Devil in the Deep Blue Sea and there was just that moment
where it was like, wow, this is the best thing ever.
(44:25):
So I think that we should totally do the fast bit, you know. The fast bit. Okay.
The fast bit of Devil in the Deep Blue Sea.
Do you know this, Robin, or do you want Adrian to hum a bit of it first?
I think you need to hum it first. I've never actually played it.
Oh, really? Really? It's awesome. Ben's only 25 years old. Okay.
(44:46):
Okay. So you've got the two-bar introduction.
It was in Perth. It was Perth, was it? Perth Test Piece? It was Test Piece.
(45:07):
Yeah.
It's probably the only time I've sat there and listened to every A-grade band
because, you know, I heard all of the tests because it's just my absolute favourite piece.
But I must say Extreme Makeover is up there too, so, you know.
Oh, I do like, yeah, I've played Extreme Makeover and that's just like...
(45:30):
Or I remember it's those, like, notes. And the tooting with the bottles.
I remember the tooting with the bottles.
Yeah. Double a deep blue sink. Great piece of music. awesome piece but does
that singing count as the singing oh we're finished now do you want to do it
again I think that was fine ok ready bye,
(45:57):
bye bye bye bye bye.
Hello, loyal listeners. Hello, loyal viewers.
Hello, everyone all over the internet. This is the Brass Bandcast.
It's the podcast about love, life, laughter, music, rehearsals,
musical directors playing solos, bagpipes, tubas, concert bands,
brass bands, and marching.
(00:21):
Robin, how are you? I am good. I am very well, unlike you, Tim,
who is sick. I am a bit sick.
And I said, Robin, I feel a bit sick and my voice isn't great.
Can we postpone tonight's podcast? I said no.
No, we have to. I mean. And we're joined tonight by Adrienne Alloon. Adrienne, how are you?
(00:43):
Hey, Tim. Yeah, pretty good. Pretty good down here in sunny Tassie. It was sunny Tassie.
A big welcome to you. Hi, Robin. Hello.
And a big shout out to Tim's mum.
Oh, my mum will be so excited for this shout-out.
Can you give a shout-out to Robin's mum as well? My mum doesn't listen to the
(01:07):
podcast. She doesn't listen to the podcast.
She keeps asking me questions about my life. I'm like, if you want to know,
just listen to my podcast and have time to talk to you. Is that rude that I'm a terrible daughter?
Yes. Yay. So we're here. We're changing our format again.
Last week, I don't know if it worked or not. Yeah, my weird app.
(01:27):
But it's good to try new things, isn't it? Now we're live streaming on YouTube
or something. I think so. This is just behind the scenes stuff,
live streaming to YouTube.
It's fun.
The final podcast is going to be very edited, isn't it, Robin?
Oh, yeah. Well, maybe. It might get less and less edited as I run out of steam.
(01:50):
No, no, I spend a bit of time editing it. It's great. I wish I could edit my
life and take out all the stupid stuff I say before I let people listen to me.
Wouldn't that be amazing?
The beauty of the brass band cast. Isn't that great? No, have you done anything
interesting or fun in the last couple of days since we've last podcasted? No, not really.
(02:10):
We had a rehearsal back from Nationals. That was fun. Lots of people back.
Had a committee meeting.
Committee meetings are fun. If you're not on your committee,
guys, you should go on your committee.
It's very nice to be on committee because you find out all the interesting things
and you get to help do things. So, we're having our big discussion about how
(02:31):
nationals went and what we'll do next year.
Like, will we stay in Bendigo? Will we drive? Will we get minibuses?
Will we stay everywhere? Will we book a hotel?
We didn't decide anything. It's too confusing.
We just talked about it. So, it was fun. How about you? What have you been doing
in the last three days, Tim?
Just recovering. Recovering from my illness. Here I am, ready to podcast.
(02:54):
You went a bit wild and everyone's recovering.
Everyone's got it. It's going around. Did you get a flu vaccine?
You should have got the flu vaccine.
No, I should have not. No, no. No problem. Yeah.
Adrienne, have you done anything great in the last little while,
Adrienne? What's up with you?
All right. Well, I guess, you know, depressurising from the Nationals,
(03:16):
coming back down from orbit as I think we all have that post-Nationals crash.
I think, you know, reality comes barging in and, you know, work and all those
other things that aren't necessarily life affirming, shall we say.
So it's like it's that really intense thing. You go to a Nationals and then
(03:37):
it's like everything and everyone all at once. And then there's nothing.
Yeah. Yeah, and it's also everything you've been putting off while you get in
the lead-up to the Nationals because you've got all the rehearsals, all the organising.
You're like, I'll do that after Nationals. I'll do that after Nationals.
Nationals finishes, then you have to do it all.
(03:59):
All the laundry. I still haven't washed the possum poo out of my black shirt.
I still have to do that. Oh, the possum wee poo? Yeah, it's probably ruined now.
Yeah, I heard about the possum wee poo. Sitting in a bucket.
Yeah. So that's the post-national stuff. High quality stuff, the Burundari uniform.
Oh, no, no, no. No, it wasn't my Burundari shirt. It was my silky one. Yeah, no. Yeah.
(04:23):
The Burundjeri shirt could have just got in the washing machine,
but this was a nice shirt. It had got the wee poo anyway.
But, yeah, so that's been life. And so, Adrienne, I'd love to,
for people who might not know who you are, would you like to describe what your
current position is in terms of the National Bands Council of Australia?
Right. Okay. So I'm the vice president of the NBCA, which sounds,
(04:48):
ooh, that sounds really important or, you know,
know that there's all kinds of direction that I
would necessarily be leading people but but by
nature of the NVCA I'm essentially a
referee I think that's in the nicest possible sense of the word because you
know the power of the NVCA is with each delegate from each state and that's
(05:09):
where the rules come from so I'm probably moderator slash mediator and as time
goes on I'm probably a little bit of a sounding board too.
So that's probably the more procedural side of things.
And I guess then it sort of comes into its own when we get to a Nationals because
we assume certain duties, of course, just to make sure that everything's ticking
(05:30):
over and things are being adhered to.
But probably the more fun aspect of my involvement in the NBCA is unofficial
historian and webmaster.
So I get to do sort of cool things there, like resurrect the NBCA site after it fell over.
A couple of years ago and no sooner fixed that and
it fell over again so that's a constant battle
(05:52):
which is always fun but historically speaking so
you know the nbca came into form into being in its current form in 1934 when
it was the australian band council and for obvious reasons that acronym wasn't
going to stick for very long because we already had an agency so in about 1968
that That changed to the NBCA.
(06:14):
But it took a good 30 years just to get representatives from the state governing
bodies for banning to essentially be in the same room and agree to what looked
like a national set of contesting rules.
Because, you know, there'd been, let's say, quote, unquote, national contests
before that, but they were usually under the auspices of whoever the host body was.
(06:39):
So if you had a contest in New South Wales, it was run under New South Wales rules, et cetera.
So there was a lot of compromise before and after the formation of the NVCA.
And I think that for a body which is sort of notoriously, like anything that's
passionate, you know, it's going to be unstable at times.
(07:02):
It's going to want to move in six different directions at once sometimes.
And it's like finding that happy medium whereby you can still forge ahead and,
you know, go to the pub afterwards.
Afterwards you know it's so having the
having the respect you know the healthy respect to to agree
or to disagree to put your case but it's nothing's
(07:23):
ever done without passion and i think that that's something that can be can
be lost i think but so you're you're a very you're a busy person sort of being
a bit of a custodian of a lot of what goes on at a nationals i guess and being
that sort of referee in the background yeah we can be the wearer of many hats but But basically.
(07:43):
The general credo is if you're at a Nationals, it doesn't really matter what
you're doing or what your position is.
It's kind of like, okay, we just get in there and we volunteer.
We're just volunteers like everybody else, basically, making sure that things
just get done for the bandies. You know, basically, that's it.
Adrian, I would love to know.
(08:04):
How did this happen for you? When did you first walk into a community band room
and pick up an instrument and play some music?
And how did that lead to where you are right now?
Can we go right back in time? What was your very first band rehearsal you remember attending?
Okay. So there's a great story behind this. In fact, it's very timely,
(08:25):
this podcast, because I've just celebrated 40 years, my 40th anniversary of
banding. 40th band birthday.
Yay. Hey, happy band birthday.
Does that make me old? I don't feel old. I was not old when I was there.
Extremely. Absolutely.
And that's that great story that I think probably a lot of bandies around the
(08:46):
country have had whereby I was in primary school and teachers said we're having
a visit from a couple of people from the local band and they came along and
played their instruments and basically we were on a recruitment drive and said,
hey, who wants to join the band?
And it's like every kid in the class put their hand up.
Oh that's really cool yeah we want to do that so yeah come along to
(09:06):
the local band rooms wednesday night you know we'll get you out with
instruments and of all that that excitement there
were probably five i think
that actually you know took it up from my class so we
got sent out to the the back room which was and this is the this is the latrobe
federal band in tasmania so this is the which will be celebrating its 150th
(09:29):
anniversary last year after discovering through a publication of a history book
that they weren't as old as they thought they were.
That's nice. That's good. Younger than you thought. That's always a bonus in life, I think.
Yeah, it's always nice, you know, but sort of what had been sort of as part
of local law was the band was formed in 1872 and that was there emblazoned on
(09:53):
the jackets and on signage and everything.
And basically it just became part of the local law. But, of course,
when you didn't have access to the historical resources as easily as we do now,
it was probably a bit of a guesstimate, you know.
It wasn't too far off, but it couldn't really be backed up.
So it was only through the course of the research that's been done into this
(10:14):
book that we discovered some hard evidence that it wasn't 1872,
that it was in fact formed in 1875.
But hold on, Adrian.
Wait a second. Close enough. I want to know, you went to this first rehearsal. You were kitted out.
Do you remember what you played at that rehearsal? Do you remember anything
about actually playing? Oh, yeah, yeah, totally.
(10:36):
Going off on tangency. Anyway, so, okay.
I was given this euphonium full of holes.
Okay and it was kind of like well i don't think
this weedy little kid is going to you know necessarily make it give him
give him that give him that thing over there maybe maybe he'll
go away yeah that kind of thing so i suffered through i don't know probably
(10:58):
a month trying to get a scale out of this thing and trying my darndest and of
course i didn't naturally think that the instrument was at fault it's it's me
i can't know until someone pointed out when it was It was a one-on-one situation.
I was like, oh, we probably shouldn't give you that. There's a huge hole in the bell of that.
And, you know, it's amazing you're getting a sound out of it all.
(11:21):
But I said, yeah, but it's okay. I've worked out if I put my thumb here and
play it a little bit like a recorder, the air will go through.
So, you know, I can still reduce the cool down above and beyond.
So that was pretty good for an eight-year-old. It was like, you know,
I'm going to make this work, you know.
Know absolutely the problem isn't the problem
(11:42):
isn't you it's the instrument that's words everyone must hear
i think yeah so the the
that was spirited away the the euphonium never
to be seen again and i was given tenor horn um and you know so then all of a
sudden it's this hey this is much smaller and you hold it like this my teacher
said you know it's like you know you hold it like your girlfriend oh you're
(12:04):
probably a bit young for that oh okay yeah so yeah next Next thing,
I'm playing tenor horn and,
yeah, it just took off. All of a sudden, it just made perfect sense.
Like, you know, sitting down in front of a piano to some people,
that just makes sense. Wear those holes.
Yeah. And, yeah, I didn't have to put my thumb over anything that,
you know, that shouldn't have been. I shouldn't have to.
(12:27):
So that's how it was for 12 months out in this horrible room,
which was basically an old storeroom under a grandstand,
which is where the band rooms are, which wasn't lined or anything and we'd suffer
through winter, you know, we'd see a band room. So tough.
40 years ago, the instrument, no installation. Yeah, back in those days.
(12:51):
Wow. No air conditioning.
And in the other room, we could hear what was the junior band and that was what
we were aspiring to be part of.
And one by one, as we hit a certain mark, we would leave the room and go and
join the, you know, the band with the big kids.
And, you know, eventually the time came and went out there and was part of the junior band.
(13:15):
And if there's anyone in South Australia who's listening, my first conductor
was the great Kerry Hewitt.
Who now plays with Unley, and I caught up with Kerry at the Nationals,
and I saw him last year at Newcastle as well after many years of not seeing him.
And, yeah, it's just great that he's still about and he eventually remembered who I was.
(13:38):
To cut a long story short, I then had a few years in the junior band and eventually
you get asked to join the senior band,
and my mum was so proud of me joining the senior band when I was 13 that she
rushed out and bought this brand-new Jupiter tenor horn.
Oh, the finest, the finest quality.
Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful, shiny thing. And I played that for, I don't know,
(14:04):
six months or thereabouts, and then I was taken aside in band practice one night
by the conductor and said, we really need a flute player.
Oh. I know you've got this new instrument and everything, but hey.
Don't worry about that instrument. Don't worry about that.
And, you know, if I circle back to the very beginning, the first instrument,
the very first instrument I was given was a cornet, and there's no way I could
(14:26):
get a sound out of it all. So I was like, okay, here's a euphonium.
Okay, cool. Okay, that's full of holes. Here's a tenor horn.
Okay, now we're going to get you to play flugel.
And talk about a baptism of fire. That first rehearsal, I've gone from,
I'm still, what, 13, not quite 14, and I've given the flugel.
It's like, okay, you'll be fine. You'll work it out.
(14:47):
And I think about the third or the fourth piece in that we were rehearsing that
night happened to be a flugel solo, The Shadow of Your Smile.
And if you're familiar with the arrangement, it's got a beautiful introduction,
the band's setting this nice, you know, beginning-type tempo,
(15:08):
and then, you know, there's this big set-up, big break, and then the flugel's
got to come in, you know. Here we go.
Yeah. You know. It's got time. That's a bit mean of them to make you do that.
Yeah, it was cruel. But it's like, hey, in the deep end, you'll be fine. And what came out was...
Well, to quote the great Eddie Isen, I sounded like a foghorn being dragged
(15:32):
through where a foghorn should never be dragged.
It was horrible.
Did that stop you in the moment? Did that stop you in the moment?
Isn't that? Oh, no. It's like, you know, this ascending buzzing sound that went
nowhere and then it was kind of like we went and struggled on for another couple
of hours and the conductor said, okay, probably a bit early.
(15:55):
You know this is a bit early on in your journey i think we should probably just leave that for now,
and so after that experience of moving moving to
flugel and having that debut solo performance were you
inspired to keep coming back to bands obviously your work wasn't that made you
want to keep going back yeah i mean it was the it really was the camaraderie
i mean the fact that and this is banding at the time when you know you'd have
(16:19):
a smoko and it was a smoko like you know it was It was all of these middle-aged
men who would basically go off and have a smoke.
And so it was like total immersion in a culture that felt very paternal.
It felt very protective. It did feel like you were part of something that was
a little bit illicit almost, if you like. You know, it was a very adult world.
(16:43):
And so the probably was that there was the allure was not in the music because
I certainly desperately wanted to play an instrument.
But there was sort of the illusion of being exposed to or being allowed to be
exposed to a very adult world,
you know, everything from being sworn at in Dutch by an elderly Dutchman who
used to play euphonium through to, yeah, surrogate parents.
(17:06):
I didn't feel like the answer to the question was going to go there.
The reason I wanted to come back was because I was sworn at by an elderly Dutch person.
Exactly. So it's all part of the tapestry. And next thing you know, you're doing gigs.
You know, you're in the band five minutes. And the next thing you know, hey, it's Anzac Day.
And then, of course, Anzac Day was just this whole other thing because,
you know, we used to do three services that involved getting on a bus and going
(17:30):
to other towns and doing a street march.
And then it would culminate in having a cooked lunch at the RSL and doing a concert.
So, you know, it's mind totally blown when you're 13.
You know, you're basically, you're on tour. You've been there five minutes and you're out gigging.
You know much like the joke of the of the the bass player that can learn two
(17:53):
two notes and and you know he doesn't go back to learn the third one because
it was it was anzac day your first year yeah it was it was it would have been
february of that year that i i joined the.
Yeah, and next thing you know, it's like, okay, we're going to learn to march. Did you march?
(18:14):
I'll get to that next question. And did you get much practice before you marched
or suddenly you found yourself walking with a flugelhorn?
I was walking with a flugelhorn. That was it. It was like, okay,
you stand here, you keep in line, and by the way, you have to play as well. Okay, cool.
Total immersion, thrown in the deep end, the good old days.
(18:34):
Oh, we still do that. Don't chuck people in the deep end.
It's the best way to learn. So single swim, you know, and it was,
you know, after a couple of years I'd start playing in the local comps.
I'd be doing solos and then through necessity after six years of flugel,
it was like, right, well, now we need a solo corner player.
(18:58):
You know, I found myself back at corner and I was like, oh, okay.
And that's been pretty much it. You know, I've been cornered for the last 30 years now.
I mean, okay, I'm on a bit of a sabbatical at the moment. There's been all kinds
of, you know, bumps in the road of recent times.
But, yeah, I'm still technically a corner player. So, yeah.
(19:21):
But also technically the euphonium player, if anyone's got a leaky euphonium out there.
I can only play the leaky euphonium, though. I should point that out.
Half recorder, half euphonium.
Yeah, with a thumb. Oh. Oh, how fun.
And then, Sue, you've been playing in bands for a long time and then somehow
someone roped you into the N-C-B-A.
(19:43):
N-B-C-A.
I'm the voice of the people. The voice of the people.
But don't know much about the N-C-B-A. You go.
You go. So I guess that the admin-y side of things has always been part part
of my banding life too because I think I'd probably been in the band for two
(20:06):
years and I became the librarian.
So it was like, yeah, okay, let me organise your library for you, you know.
And then, of course, there was committees and all that kind of thing.
So it really was sort of total immersion in not just playing but in running
and, yeah, organising stuff.
So it kind of necessarily followed that, okay, well, the admin side of things was fine.
(20:30):
Just as strong, I guess, you know, for me all the way through.
So I've always had some sort of a role, whether it's been librarian or on the committee or whatever.
So, yeah, then taking on being the secretary of the TBL and being on the MAB,
it all sort of just one thing leads to another next thing.
Or the next logical step is you should go and, you know, be part of NBCA. Yeah.
(20:55):
Yeah. Just one thing led to another.
Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty much. Those leaky euphonium, they can lead you anywhere.
You've got to be careful from that. It's a slippery slope.
And now, so people would most know you from the guy that reads out the scores, right?
So you go on the stage and you read out all the scores. I'm just,
I'm talking for the voice of the people. People are like, I don't understand what this guy does.
(21:19):
But do you do that every Nationals? It's most Nationals you do that, right? Or not?
Most, yeah, most Nationals. And it's generally because I'm the number cruncher
who's, you know, back there entering all the stuff and doing the posting on
Facebook of the results and all that kind of thing.
So it's like, okay, well, you've done the work.
You read them out. You do it. Yeah.
(21:41):
It sort of walks that fine line of, you know, it not being a stand-up routine
because, you know, people want the results.
But I've been to too many nationals in the past where it's like,
oh, come on, let's just, you know, get the numbers out there and,
you know, or it's can we have that again? Didn't quite catch that.
(22:02):
So I thought, well, if you're going to do it, let's just have a bit of fun.
Let's keep it light. And there just seemed to be a bit of a.
Yeah. Yeah, that's why we want to do some results entertainment.
Tim and I believe there should be more results entertainment before results.
Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Before results.
That's definitely something that's come to be when there was always that long
(22:28):
period of waiting, you know,
of the waiting between getting the results off the adjudicator,
doing the processing, you know, printing the certificates, you know,
not necessarily using computers. It was all handwritten.
Handwritten and handprinting. And with the calculators. What if you,
like, press an extra zero and one band wins by 10,000 points?
(22:50):
Yeah. You better have some sense.
So a lot of that's been streamlined now, of course, because it's just easy to have things ready to go.
So I'm probably taking away some of the build-up, the slow hand clapping and
the marching displays that we've had on stage.
It does seem quite efficient, but I feel like there could still be space for
(23:13):
like a high note competition or the reality TV shows, you know, Bandy Wants a Partner.
There's options out there. Bandy Wants Another Bandy. We haven't said all the names. No, we haven't.
I don't know. It could be any, yeah.
No, but I really like the way you made this course. It is very exciting.
(23:37):
Do you think we've gone too far, though? Have we got, you know,
should we be putting a bit more room in there now? You know,
should it be a bit more fun?
Well, I feel like sometimes I wonder if we could stage like a Days of Your Band
sort of, you know, afternoon TV drama episode. Yeah, a video.
What results? Filmed in a day. These results?
(24:02):
Because how much time is the right amount of time for the last band to play,
everyone to come in and get together, have that camaraderie and patience in
the hall, be entertained by someone playing a very high note?
They always need to bring out a table. There's always a little table.
There's always a table? There's trophies on it. Yeah.
They have to bring out a table. Adrian, are you responsible for the trophies
(24:24):
or is that someone else's job?
Well, that's technically the executive officer of the NBCA.
That's someone else. someone else you
read the scores you have to be your bit that's my
bit i mean yeah get just just getting all the
silverware back you know in the one room from all around the
country is it's an undertaking in itself
(24:46):
really you know and i saw my favorite photo
sorry gone oh yeah sorry i think
my favorite i guess is like you know where's the fireman's helmet is it here
you'd start you start hearing rumors you know it's been seen at the airport
port someone's got it it's it's landed it's in a hotel room somewhere it's it's
here it's in the city you know it's it's like tracking santa claus or something
(25:09):
it's like you know he's getting closer,
and so it eventually turns up it's like oh yeah okay yeah it is here awesome
yeah do they pre-polish it before they bring it back or do you polish it no no.
Who polishes the fireman's helmet? Looked shiny in that last photo I've seen of it.
(25:29):
Yeah, well, we had a bit of a polishing session in between results.
This is the stuff where we, this is the goss we need, the polishing session.
So you grab a whole lot of the executive, the NBCBA thing.
You all sit around with your silver load and your little rags and you polish the fireman's helmet.
(25:49):
It yeah someone someone went out and bought a bottle of of grasso and then we
got some nice polishing cloths from the trade stand and we're just there going
well you know let's see what we can do here let's let's you know just get these
all tidied up and yeah there was there was a bit of that going on but it's it's
kind of like well we can't present these what are we going to do.
(26:10):
They've all kissed it too many times i think we drank out of the b-grade trophy
once I hope we watched it before we gave it back I'm sure many bands have I
have a question I saw on Facebook that the winner of the Champion of Champions,
Kevin Hickman from New Zealand, I saw him with a photo of the Champion of Champions
trophy and I think he was in New Zealand with it Do Australians,
(26:35):
do we allow trophies for our competition to go back to the winner's country
if they're from not Australia?
Yeah, because Because I was at the New Zealand Pipe Band Championships,
because I love bagpipes, and the band won the grade three section,
(26:56):
which is like C grade, and that band was from Melbourne.
And they got the trophy, and they could have the trophy for about 30 minutes
after the results, and they immediately had to give the trophy back.
They weren't allowed to take the trophy home with them.
Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, that's like. Those pipe bands have strict rules,
yeah. I feel like there's drama in the past there somewhere.
(27:19):
That's like hard quiz. Everybody plays for the big brass mug,
but you don't get to take it. Yeah, exactly.
No, you just sort of leave it there. It's not even brass. It's not even brass. No.
But, no, the silverware is allowed to travel and has done it.
And comes back. And, yeah, I mean. You have to send it back on a thing.
(27:39):
Yeah. Yeah, it's always turned up. Yeah, our big brass moat,
our helmet's 50 years old now.
You're a historian. Why is it a fireman's helmet? Is that weird?
Like I've always, I've never wondered.
Yeah, I do, yeah. It's a donation from the Melbourne Fire Brigade Band.
(28:03):
When they, I'm not sure if they folded, they amalgamated, but they basically
donated the fireman's helmet in 1973 and that's when it became the trophy.
So it used to be an actual helmet, but how did they make it silver?
Yeah. They plated a real helmet with silver. Yeah.
(28:25):
Yeah. Yeah. And it's from Melbourne. So there you go. Who had an idea,
let's make the trophy a fireman's helmet? Isn't that kind of?
That's cool. That's super cool. I want to find out who made that idea.
Like, it's awesome. It's better than a boring normal trophy, right?
Well, I think that. What was the trophy before that?
I don't know. In fact, I don't know if they were necessarily perpetual.
(28:48):
I think they were just, you know, and this is what we're playing for this year.
I could have gone by the wayside.
But I think it was the VBL that had, and I'm sure someone can correct me here,
but it wasn't, did you play for a clock?
Wasn't there a clock was one of the trophies? I can't remember. That is familiar.
(29:11):
Oh, that does sound familiar. Yeah, maybe in Victoria we just have a weird trophy thing. Yeah. Yeah.
I think there is a clock. I don't know. I probably haven't won it enough to know.
Or won it enough. I've won it a bit, but not enough. Good on you,
Robin. Enough ever? Yeah.
Is there ever enough winning of trophies though, Robin? I haven't had enough.
(29:35):
Well, not the ones you have to give back. Like you should get to keep one and
one to give back. We've got a trophy cabinet.
Trivia about Burundara Brass, we share a band room with Glenferry Brass and
we each get a trophy cabinet.
And their trophy cabinet's way more interesting than ours. We just haven't been
bothered putting trophies in it.
But like the trophies we get, we have to give back and then there's nothing
to put in the cabinet. Yeah.
(29:56):
But I think you sometimes get a trophy to keep, don't you? Do you?
In some competitions, you definitely get a trophy. Yeah.
Like this year, Little Clarks went out as well because, you know,
all those winners of the perpetual trophies. It's like you've got to have a little keepsake.
You've got to have something that you can say, yeah. They're not as impressive as the big trophies.
You've got to give that back. Yeah. I suppose it would cost the competition
(30:17):
a lot of money if they had to make beautiful gold trophies every year,
didn't they, and not plastic ones.
We've got to be practical here, guys. I'm just airing my thoughts. Yeah.
Can I just make a little public service announcement? If anyone does win the
B-grade trophy, probably shouldn't drink out of it. No.
I'll just leave it there. It was thinking it had this, like, metallic-y thing.
(30:44):
It was a bit brasso-y or something. It was a bit brasso-y. Probably had cobwebs
in the middle. Yeah, that's a good.
They've taken it back to New Zealand this year. The New Zealand band won B grade.
Did they take it to New Zealand? Did you see them?
Everyone's looking at me blankly. We'll find out.
We had better warn them not to drink from the B-grade trophy.
(31:06):
Probably more sensible people just would know that and don't have to be warned. Do you think?
But, yeah, when it's the, you know. New Zealanders are very sensible.
It was really great to have the Marlborough. It was Marlborough District that
came over. Marlborough.
Marlborough. Oh, my goodness. They had gloves to marching and hats.
Yeah, they had feathers.
And shiny shoes. I really like their style as a brass band that's based in one
(31:30):
of New Zealand's premier wine regions to come across to one of Australia's premier
wine regions to do a contest and spend a few days and then go back again.
I think they're doing life all right.
That was good. It's always good to have our Kiwi friends over, isn't it?
It is. And Robin, are you coming to New Zealand Nationals, Robin?
(31:52):
I keep on asking and you keep saying, oh.
No, I told you I have children. They can come too. They can come too.
I'm not saying it's different. I am seriously considering it. Good.
My world is mixing with people. I think it's a goer. So, yeah, watch this space.
(32:14):
We want to have lots of crossover between Australia and New Zealand banding,
whatever we can do to make that happen. It's fun. It's a good thing.
Super fun. The open, the free trade agreement.
All right. Should we ask, I'll ask you some brass band cast questions, Adrian, now.
Okay. Are you ready? As if I haven't been asking you random enough questions already, as it is.
(32:34):
I feel like I've been talking way too much, but anyway. No, not at all. Not at all.
Voice of the people. Voice of the people. Yeah, Tim's sick, so he can't talk
so much. You are talking a bit, aren't you?
I said, Tim, you could just smile and let me do the talking,
but he cannot do that, can you? Even with your soul voice.
(32:55):
Okay, Adrian, this is still my favourite question provided by Jared McCunney.
Have you got anything in your house that maybe, maybe might belong to your band or maybe the NCBCA?
Like a stolen thing. Yeah. Time to come clean.
Something illicit. Well, I'm a corner player, so there's always an array of mutes.
(33:20):
Um yeah i can't say i've ever
bought a mute so they clearly don't belong
to me but yeah you do you know one
does collect things the band's fault for not engraving them band's fault as
soon as you buy them you engrave them right with the no name it's open right
yeah so there is a plethora of mutes in a in a bag from a variety of bands over
(33:43):
the years and and a mute stand as well,
And I must say, and this is my claim to fame, in my 40 years,
I've never bought a bottle of valve oil.
I had to buy one last year. One just miraculously appears when it's required
and it doesn't appear to be anyone's.
(34:06):
It doesn't appear to be anyone's, so now it's mine.
Mine now. Look at these. They don't seem to be anyone's now. They're mine.
Yes, I am a thief of valve oil.
So but over the years i mean goodness there's
been all kinds of trophies that aren't mine
(34:27):
you know you know what i've been looking after the silverware because you
know you run a contest and then the trophies that don't get claimed they
have to they have to go somewhere and that happens they end up
you know in bedrooms and and on mantelpieces and
things you know tucked away ready for the next nationals so
yeah lots and lots that you will take back one day
(34:49):
right you'll take it off yeah oh it
all goes back it's kind of you know i have a
40-year arrangement whereby everything will go back like
you know like the the wardrobe full of uniforms and that
everybody has you know amazing love
it all right adrian what is your favorite instrument
but you can't say the one you
(35:11):
currently play okay i am probably the
world's most frustrated air guitarist you know
what i wouldn't use to play guitar but i
fail miserably absolutely miserable at it it just does not make sense to me
but but my you know i i am i am a sad frustrated guitarist in the inside and
(35:34):
a sad frustrated left-handed guitarist for some reason um can i play Did you
play power chords? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
And do you air guitar frequently? Not as frequently as I used to,
but, you know, when the mood strikes, I will solo away big time. Very nice.
I think more of that. I think that can be encouraged all around,
(35:55):
air guitar. Yes. Love it.
Absolutely. I think that's going to be my mission for the next week or so, is to air guitar.
It's time for the National Air Guitar Championships, I think. That is a pre-results.
Wow. Yeah. That is huge. This is a big concept, I think, that's just been unearthed.
Every band can put forward their best air guitarist. Yes.
(36:18):
On stage, and everyone's got an air guitar too. What song would they air guitar to?
Bohemian Rhapsody. No?
There's a bit of a single. Fantata.
Yeah. Isn't it like, no, it's a grass band version?
Oh, should we sing that at the end? That could be an outro.
(36:39):
Oh, Bohemian Rhapsody. That's a wonderful answer. Yeah.
Congratulations on your answer. And for not picking bassoon or bagpipes.
I think maybe, Adrian does listen to our podcast though, so he maybe knew some
of the answers. He's pre-thought about his answers.
No, I had a pretty fair idea. where, you know, what questions am I going to ask you?
(37:02):
I'm pre-warned. Oh, have you thought of one for falling over?
No one can think of this on the spot.
Has anything ever, what is the biggest, like, thing that's fallen over?
Or have you ever fallen off while reading the scores?
Or has your microphone fallen? Yeah.
No, no. Probably the biggest, most spectacular pratfall, if you like,
(37:23):
that ever happened in a concert.
No, it wasn't a concert. It was a contest. was a back row corner player.
I won't mention the band or the player for obvious reasons, but they'd gone
to do the mute change and they put in the mute. And someone had stolen their mute.
Well, yeah. Different story, different story. And then after I gave it back.
(37:44):
But they were doing the mute change and they did the little fumble,
you know, and it's like on the tips of the fingers.
Oh, yeah, and they're just catching it, catching it, catching it.
And it's like catching, catching it, moving further further and further forward
into the stand until they fell through the stand, landing in the tenor horn section.
So it was pretty spectacular.
(38:04):
No one was injured, only a lot of pride.
Nothing was dented, but it was spectacular because it involved chairs falling
over, music stands, and then the inevitable sight of the mute rolling towards the UFO section.
So, you know, it was very spectacular.
(38:25):
Does that count? It's amazing. Yes, that definitely counts. These are killer answers.
Because I could really visualise that, almost as much as the tubular bells falling off the riser.
Who was Jamie was telling us about? The locks not on.
Amazing. All right, so what have we got on for the week? Or what's coming up?
(38:45):
What's next? What's next for you, Adrian?
Just a lot of working, unfortunately. Unfortunately, there's not,
and there's still a little bit of post-Nationals mopping up and,
you know, putting some stuff on the website and whatnot, you know,
which is always good fun.
But, no, nothing terribly exciting on the horizon short of a trip to New Zealand, Tim. Yes.
(39:11):
New Zealand, let's go. I think we should do this. I can, you know,
I can get on that bandwagon.
That band playing we'll get we'll get over there and we'll
yeah a bit of a chat about how new zealand coming to australia
more australian bands going across to new zealand more it's gonna
be great we'll get maybe we can get like a bilateral banding agreement yeah
(39:33):
tim do you think we should put like throw out the challenge you know who else
would like to join us you know do we get get a posse you know who wants to come
on a trip who wants to come on a trip Who wants to go? Not to play, just to have fun.
Robin wants to come. I don't want to come. New Zealand's really cold.
No, I do like New Zealand. I like The Hobbits and that vampire show.
(39:59):
I like that. What else do you like about New Zealand, Robin?
The lovely people. Do you like the lovely people? I do like the lovely people.
Do they have the wind bands in their nationals?
No, but they've got the National Concert Band Association of New Zealand has
their festival in the first weekend
of August, which you can see sometimes live streamed on Brass Band.
So they're separate over there. They're separate and it's a very different wind
(40:23):
band scene in New Zealand.
Not yet as strong as the Brass Band scene. We're more together.
I always love giving a shout out to our wind band friends.
Definitely. Robin, what's coming up for you, Robin?
Oh, I already said the other day. Say it again. It's two days later.
(40:43):
Just hanging around. Lady band. I still haven't practiced. I told you I would,
but I didn't. Sorry, Marissa, if you're listening.
Yeah, that's about it. And just getting back in, got to pick some repertoire
for States, got to pick some fun songs. I'll win that clock.
Yeah, I think our band has got to work on hymns. I've decided we've got to get our hymns good.
(41:07):
I might get like one of the Salvos guys to come in and run a rehearsal.
I would love, I would love to hear someone play like a hymn medley.
Like eight bars of this, just like a hymn medley. Like I just want. I know what you said.
That hymn, that hymn, that hymn. Cause like, it's all like.
Yeah. They've all got like one line, don't they? Yeah. Yeah.
(41:27):
And then if you, especially if you've got like 80s drum kit,
shout out to Western Brass.
And then you just modulate up a semitone into the next one. Like it'd be pretty.
That would be amazing. Let's tell Jared. I think maybe I'm sicker than I thought I was everyone. Sorry.
Yeah. It'd be easy. You just get the red book and play through them and then
tell the band to put it up a semitone each time with a drum beat. Could be done.
(41:51):
Ooh. I don't know. Yeah, it must be getting too late. Our ideas are getting
terrible. But, yeah, so there's that.
How about you, Tim? You doing more resting?
Well, I meant to. I've got too much work, so I work too much today.
I don't know what to write. But the Footscray band, Footscray Areval City band,
is celebrating its 150th this year.
(42:13):
Yeah. And there's going to be a very big concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre,
which is going to be booked out for a brass band-only concert,
which is pretty exciting. And tickets are on sale and all that.
But apparently I'm on the subcommittee to help organise it.
And I have been for a while, but I haven't been to any meetings.
But there's a meeting tomorrow night, so I'm probably going to go to that to try and organise stuff.
Are you going to have a cake and blow out 150 candles? You should do that. Suggest that as an idea.
(42:38):
Because Boondar is having it. This sounds like we're such babies.
We're having our 25th anniversary next year. Like, yay, 25.
Everyone's like, my band's been running for 200,000 years or something. I don't know.
We're 25, but there's still, like, people in the band who have been in it from
the start. So that's saying something cool, isn't it?
(42:58):
25. What was your band age? Was that 100 and something?
What was yours? La Trobe. The mighty La Trobe Federal will be 150 next year,
yes, about this time. It's also same as Footscray.
Well, Footscray is this year. We were 69. Oh, okay. 1869. 1869.
1869. Okay. 1870? No, that's not 150. Maybe it's last year. I don't know.
(43:23):
We found an article in Trove saying that we were 1869, and it's on the website, so it must be real.
But I'm just saying it was a similar time you were established as the Latrobe
Federal Band then. Isn't that an interesting tidbit?
Go, Bandies. Yay. Oh, what a way to finish. All right. Well,
we need a closing song, don't we?
(43:44):
I've got a suggestion. Adrian, what's your favourite? Suggestion.
It would be totally remiss. You're the dragon?
No. No, no. We have to do my all-time fave, and, in fact, it's the piece where
my late wife had the moment where she crossed over into the dark side and thought,
I really like brass pants.
(44:04):
And that was at the 2000 Nationals in Launceston.
We were watching Q, and it was the mighty Mark Ford, you know,
Kung Fu Panda himself, there he was. Yes, yes.
And they launched into Devil in the Deep Blue Sea and there was just that moment
where it was like, wow, this is the best thing ever.
(44:25):
So I think that we should totally do the fast bit, you know. The fast bit. Okay.
The fast bit of Devil in the Deep Blue Sea.
Do you know this, Robin, or do you want Adrian to hum a bit of it first?
I think you need to hum it first. I've never actually played it.
Oh, really? Really? It's awesome. Ben's only 25 years old. Okay.
(44:46):
Okay. So you've got the two-bar introduction.
It was in Perth. It was Perth, was it? Perth Test Piece? It was Test Piece.
(45:07):
Yeah.
It's probably the only time I've sat there and listened to every A-grade band
because, you know, I heard all of the tests because it's just my absolute favourite piece.
But I must say Extreme Makeover is up there too, so, you know.
Oh, I do like, yeah, I've played Extreme Makeover and that's just like...
(45:30):
Or I remember it's those, like, notes. And the tooting with the bottles.
I remember the tooting with the bottles.
Yeah. Double a deep blue sink. Great piece of music. awesome piece but does
that singing count as the singing oh we're finished now do you want to do it
again I think that was fine ok ready bye,
(45:57):
bye bye bye bye bye.
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