Music in Gayndah
A History by those who were there
Following is a transcription of a conversation with Rod Bryant held at his house in Bundaberg on August 6, 2022.
Geoff
Rod would you start off by letting us know the year you born and where you were born.
Rod
1945, 29th of the eleventh in Bundaberg.
Geoff
In Bundaberg, not in Gayndah.
Rod
No not in Gayndah. I only went to Gayndah for one thing and I bought her home with me.
Geoff
When did you start getting involved in music?
Rod
Well, not till I was about 14 I suppose. My father was in the Railway and we were all over the place. We ended up with my grand parents on a farm at ??? Plateau. Like everyone else, we had the old gramophone going, Slim Dusty songs and that sort of thing. But I never really worried about music but the uncle down the road played guitar. We played a few chords those days so I never started till I left school.. My grand father on Mum’s side was a brass band player. I didn’t know him because he died before I knew him. That all came later on.
Geoff
How did you become involved in music in Gayndah, the brass band?
Rod
I went to school at St Brendan’s up in Yeppoon and when I left school and came back to Gayndah and my grand father on my dad’s side was a train driver there in the railway, and I knew a few people like Vinnie Schmierer and s few of them and they were in the brass band. They were only young and that’s where I got started off in the brass band. That was about 1961.
Geoff
Did someone invite you in?
Rod
Oh yes they said come along and have a blow and I started on a cornet actually but went over on to the eupho after about 12 months. The cornet was pretty hard to play. But the bloody eupho was very had to play. So that’s how I started with the brass band in Gayndah.
Geoff
Did someone teach you?
Rod
No. I just grabbed the cornet and went over the Vinnie’s place and go through the scales and then we would sit there and do harmony songs. It was quite good actually. We would write harmony and we would do like little dance band sort of stuff at his house. But the brass band, it was a good band actually. The band master, Norm Langtree, he was there for four or five years before I knew him. Damn good chap. He worked for the council. That’s where I worked actually. I was a nipper boy, I boiled the billy and follow the grader. I was 15 or 16.
Geoff
Did the council give the band master a job specifically to get to Gayndah
Rod
Oh yes. He was a roustabout at the council yard, the depot,
Geoff
That was one of the tings the council did to make the band work.
Rod
Yes. We used to go out and play on Saturday nights. I think Bob was saying the other day. We would go around on a truck to play a few carols, festivals. The first trip we went away was to the dDairy Festival at Monto. That was a fantastic weekend. We had a bloke who was a car salesman and he had a son in the band, a young fellow, and he would go around with a bucked, around the streets and he would fill that bucket up with coins. That’s how we make our money. We just all worked together but the festival was fantastic. I forget where we stayed. We stayed somewhere, could have been at the Showgrounds. No we stayed in a motel. We had enough money in the bucket.
Geoff
How would you get up there, by bus
Rod
Yes. Our Drum Major, Wally Hunter, old Walter, he used to drive Ron Trotts bus up there. Ron used to give us a bus. Yeah. We did a couple of the Biggenden Rose Festivals, we did a couple of those I think. Then this band, 1963 we went away to Bundaberg. I missed the Maryborough one but at Bundaberg, we stayed at the Showgrounds. The Army put all bunks up for us.
Geoff
In tents
Rod
No in the Pavilion. We had a fantastic festival. I think we were only C grade, no E Grade, Iwe went right down. I hear Bob say something about B grade but no we were E grade. Sorry Bob. Every Easter there was the Queensland Championships. The whole state would gather, you would have thirty odd bands or more, A grade right down the E.
Geoff
How did the competition work
Rod
Well we have a hymn, a march and a selection, a diagram march, we didn’t do that cause we were too stupid. We had a top cornet player.
Geoff
What was his name
Rod
Terry, Terry Jones. Poor beggar, he died of cancer young, He was with Vinnie and them playing in the dance band. He was a terrific player. Some of the bass players, they were brilliant too. All in all it was great.
Geoff
Was the band master a good player
Rod
Oh yes. He would straighten out the old cornet.
Geoff
Did he conduct and play
Rod
No. Only conducted. But on the march he would play, give the boys a bit of guts. It was a good festival, I can remember that.
Geoff
Did the competition set the hymn to play
Rod
Yes it was a set piece. Oh no, it was only the selection. I can’t think of the selection we played. You had your own hymn, you had your march. When you went and saw the A graders, they were good stuff. A few years later I was up with the A boys and the music was great. When you hear a good A grade band the music is good. But the town band was great.
Geoff
Good for Gayndah
Rod
Oh yes. Nearly every Friday night we would go out and play in the court yard near the baker’s shop. We would all get out and play and go to the pub afterwards.
Geoff
Did you have uniforms
Rod
Just had black pants and white shirts. Good social outings. I enjoyed it.
Geoff
Did you get a crowd
Rod
Oh yes. And they would go to the pictures afterwards. Then the old man with the bucket. I enjoyed it. My background was all brass banding but I didn’t really know cause I never say my granddad. It changed when I went to Bundy.
Geoff
You got into brass banding when you went to Bundy.
Rod
Oh yes.
Geoff
Which band did you go to here
Rod
The Federal Band. That was Pop’s band. He started it off and they were a pretty good band but over the years, the other band, they got better players. I went away then, I went out west and cam back and joined the Municipal Band. This other band was going down hill. And that’s when we had a terrific band.
Geoff
So Kev Ballantyne would have been in that band.
Rod
Kev Ballantyne. “What are you doing mate?” “Nothing mate”. He was a card wasn’t he, playing the drums. And Ray Peek and his brother Kevin Peek. He played the trombone.
Geoff
I knew Ray pretty well but I didn’t know Kevin.
Rod
And there were the Stringer brothers. They played cornet, good players. Then we had one of the best players I ever heard, Clem Soppa. He is 90 year old now and he plays saxophone in the band with me now when we go out around and playing the clubs. A three piece band, not bad for old blokes. He is brilliant, one of the best I ever heard.
Geoff
He played cornet
Rod
He would play anything but he mostly played tenor horn. He would be laying on the ground playing sax and I would say “Get up”.
Geoff
You still playing eupho
Rod
No I was on double E, I couldn’t carry a double B. We had a big string of basses, three double Es and a couple of double Bs, a beautiful bass end. Bill Latimer, he used to play piano, he was a bass player.
Geoff
Getting back to Gayndah. Did you ever get into any of the dance band playing in Gayndah
Rod
I didn’t get much into the dance bands. Vince and I used to get together. We had a mate who played piano accordion and the drummer was a school teacher up at Mundubbera used to come down. We had a little band, the VeeJays. You ask Vince about the VeeJays. I remember Kingaroy rang us up and we got over there for an interview on the radio. Jimmie Burns I think hi name was. So we went over there one Sunday and he gave us a bit of a run down on the thing and we played a few tunes on our cornets, or we had trumpets by then. We used to play during the week sometimes, go over to a vacant shop sometimes and play there. We had a few followers and we used to play at the Grand Hotel I think it is. He let us play there. I used to play a little drums. But the main thing I did was with a guitar player, Snowy Gordon, Ian Gordon. He was one of the best guitars I heard. We would get together and that is how I started off there.
Geoff
So you started playing guitar while you were in Gayndah.
Rod
Just a little bit. It was mainly country style and Ian always said “I wanted to be like Barry Thornton”. And he was. Thirty years after that I went over and said “Still want to be like Barry Thornton” and he said “Yes and I am playing with Barry Thornton”. He was a number one guitarist. Ke had a bit of mental stuff, you know, poor beggar. But I was the only one that could get him out of it. But he was a beautiful muse. He played with Vince on their band, Bobby Yappa and his wife, she played piano, Bob played Drums. Bloke ver there played sax, a salesman at ??? Motors. He was excellent. He left town in the late 60s.
Geoff
How would you describe the music scene in Gayndah when you were there. Was there lots happening
Rod
Yes. There was some thing happening with different people getting together. Meryl Robinson, that was another one. We got together and started a little band. I played drums and the bloke on the piano accordion, Owen Turner. We would do a few little gigs but I was too wrapped up in my football. The brass band was the back bone of my music cause once you started reading, it was good for you. So that was brass banding. I play guitar now
Geoff
Did the band fold up while you were still associated with it.
Rod
Yes it folded up. Norm left and my old mate Dougie Bennett, he played double B bass, he took the band on and it ws just a social sort of thing. It never sort of went anywhere. We would still do a little play out but it wasn’t like it was. A lot of players left town as did a lot of the young ones. Oh no it was great.
Geoff
Were they mostly mature age people
Rod
Oh no. In the brass band, I have the photo in front of me. I can see them now. There was about ten there under fourteen. With the band master Norm and a few older players. But the band master before Norm, it wasn’t a Wilkie but it could have been a Wilkie from Maryborough. The Wilkies were in Gayndah and they were in the Municipal Band in Maryborough. Not the Municipal band, one of the bands in Maryborough. There was two cornet players and a trombone.
Geoff
I think there was one of them who played in the Symphony Orchestra.
Rod
I think there was. That Band Master ended up in Bundaberg where I was for a while. Leo Carey. My uncle in the fifties, played trombone with them. Vic Bryant, he taught all of this boys, they were brilliant.
Geoff
Leo Carey was not the most popular guy around
Rod
Oh he was not. I used to have arguments with him, you know. We had a bloke in the brass band, God bless him, he is in heaven now and he played bass with me. He was sort of slow player and he used to pick on him all the time and I said “Hey cut that out. Pick on someone else.” He was a very hard man, very hard. His son was a good player but Leo was very hard. He was a good soprano player, beautiful soprano player.
Geoff
They are like gold if you can find one. So did you have a soprano player in this band
Rod
I don’t think there was. No there wasn’t, just the cornets. We had a top one here in the Municipal band. The local dentist. I can’t think of his name.
Geoff
Yes I know him. Daryl.
Rod
Yes Daryl.
Geoff
What’s his last name. I knew him fairly well.
Rod
Yes Daryl. He was such a clean player. He was from Maryborough I think.
Geoff
Hoffman. Daryl Hoffman.
Rod
Daryl Hoffman. He doesn’t play any more. Like Clem said the other day, “Hey Rod, you and I are the only ones left from the brass band out of our mob”. And we are. I remember Clem. I went to a concert at the Moncrieff. I had left the band then and they wanted him to play a selection on the cornet for them. He said “No I will play the clarinet”. And he just got out and played the clarinet with the brass band behind him, no music, brilliant. I could tell you some stories about old Clem. He was such a player. But going back to Gayndah, we had a ton of fun. In those days you could have a to of fun.
Geoff
So the money to fund it was made mostly by donations.
Rod
Oh yes. You would go out and play and go around with he hat. That what they did.
Geoff
So the council owned the instruments.
Rod
Yes they owned everything. When it closed down I think they went to Monto. They got burned down I heard. They’re was some very new instruments in the band. It was a brand new spanking eupho when I was there.
Geoff
They are not cheap
Rod
No. At the Municipal Band, a couple of years after I was there, they got a whole set of new instruments. Man that cost a lot of money. You had to keep the clean.. My old mate used to take his down to the carwash. Some of the lads in the Gayndah band were good little players but not many of them went on with it.
Geoff
Someone mentioned a guy who is now at the wrecking yard out there.
Rod
Johnny Neeby. Johnny Neeby wasn’t there when I was there. Robert Neeby, they were cousins, Ken Neeby, another cousin. There were three cousins and they were all good cornet players. Johnny went to the Airforce. Was he in the Airforce Band, I think so. Robbie left town for work and he was a good player too. But the best was this Terry. Wen we came over to Bundaberg, I heard a lot of people say “Where’d you get that boy from.” He was brilliant. Lovely man who died young. But that is what life does to you. He would sit there in the brass band and half the time he didn’t even have his music in front of him. He took the bank on for a little while. I can remember that. He come out the front when Norm went.
Geoff
How would they decide who was to be the band master. Would someone say “I’ll go and do it”
Rod
If you had the guts to get up and do it. That’s how it went. Sometimes I used to get up in front of the band too. I would practise with the Federal Band and come to the Municipal too. We all did that to give them a hand. From memory, Terry did take the band and Doug. Then it just folded up.
Geoff
Folded up - lack of leadership
Rod
Yes, but mainly players I think. These boys were school age and they were going away to school and that sort of thing. That’s where we lost a lot of them. The old bass drummer. He had never played the drum before in his life but he said “I will play the bass drum for you”. Noel Kekkemei.
Geoff
So that is the band master sitting in the front.
Rod
That is him. Norm Langtree. A couple of young blokes on the euphos there. They could blow, fill it up.
Geoff
So you weren’t there for that photo
Rod
Yes. I am there in the back. I am. Playing cornet.
Geoff
So there was some outstanding players there.
Rod
Oh yea. There was some good little players. The lad in the centre there used to work in the railway with me. I was a lad porter in the railway. Mickey Mahoney. He played beautiful eupho. You only had to have one good one in each section and the others would just follow. We had a lack of trombones but Bob couldn’t make this one. I think this chap is from Apple Tree Creek
Geoff
And the outstanding cornet player you mentioned.
Rod
Yes, Terry, Terry Jones. And Vinnie, Vinnie was next to him. He was playing second cornet but in the marches you had to play first cornet to get the guts out. You have heard Vinnie play hav you. He just fills that thing up.
Geoff
Did you do many marches
Rod
Yes. March up the street. On Anzac Day and other functions and festivals. That’s what I liked about the band, the comradie. We were all under age in those days but it was still good.
Geoff
Do you think it made much difference to the Gayndah community
Rod
Oh yes, your own town band. When we went away to Bundaberg, we were all in the bus and were going through the main street and the old Wally said “We’ll turn around and go back and give them a wave, hey”. So up the main street with people cheering us on. I can still remember that.
Geoff
Strangely enough, I have seen almost no news articles in the local newspapers.
Rod
Yes that is very strange. What did they used to call the paper then
Geoff
The Burnett Advocate.
Rod
Every Orange Festival you would have the band there up and down the street. I remember when the band folded, the kilty band came over from Maryborough and I think the other Maryborough Brass Band came over. It was in flood and half the band couldn’t get through. Half the kilty band got through with no drummers. In the mean time, one bloke rang me up and asked can you play drums. I said yes and he said marching drums and I said yes. He just wanted a bass drum for four pipes. That was the band down the dress in Gayndah. It was in flood that year and a lot of people couldn’t get through. It was good to have a brass band in town. Monto had one, Apple Tree Creek had one, Apple Tree Creek / Childers. A lot of elderly people in those days. But now, the schools. The guy who took over the Municipal Band was a tutor. He had five or six trombones. You re teaching them and they come in the band.
Geoff
Do you still read treble clef. Ever learn to read bass clef.
Rod
Yes and no I never worried about bass clef. You see over here, my mate Dave Reynolds, he was in the Airforce Band and he came up here and took on the Municipal Band. He had all the beautiful girls, big family, a couple of them played instruments and he had the concert band and it was going really well. He said “I need a bit of guts in the band Rod. Can you bring your E flat bass in”. “I said I don’r do bass clef”. He said “Forget it, bring it in”. And all I had to do was change one note, like a sharp and that brought it into the bass clef. SO I just played it straight out like that. Two or three of us used to do that.
Geoff
Is Dave still around
Rod
No he passed away twenty years ago. He was a heavy smoker.
Geoff
We might finish now unless you have anything else to say.