Music in Gayndah
A History by those who were there
The Rod Bryant Story
Rod Bryant was born in Bundaberg in 1945. His father was in the Railway and as a result the family moved around as a result of his work requirement. He didn’t start getting involved in music until he was fourteen or so years old. Prior to that he was aware of Slim Dusty songs being played on the family gramophone and also remembers an uncle who played guitar with whom he played a few chords and thus a few songs. His grandfather on his mother’s side played in a brass band but he never got to know him because he died before Rod had a chance to know him.
Rod went to school at St Brendan’s in Yeppoon and after leaving school he came to Gayndah where he met up with people his own age, like Vin Schmierer, who played in the local brass band, probably around 1961. They invited Rod to join the band. They said "come along and have a blow and I started on a cornet actually but went over to the eupho (euphonium) after about twelve months. The cornet was pretty hard to play. But the bloody eupho was very hard to play. So thats how I started in the brass band in Gayndah.
He didn’t receive any formal lessons but went to Vin’s place where they would each go through the scales required to play the instrument and then work on playing some harmony songs. The band master of the Gayndah brass band was Norm Langtree who had been with the band for five years prior to Rod’s membership of the band. Rod thought very highly of Norm – he was a “damn good chap”. At that point in time both Norm and Rod worked for the local council. Rod was a “nipper boy” whose job was to boil the billy and follow the grader. It is understood that one of the council’s commitment to the maintenance of the town band was to ensure that the band master had a job. Rod remembers Norm as being a “roustabout in council depot.”
The high points for Rod of being in the brass band were the trips, many local and some away. The first away trip that he remembers was to the Monto Dairy Festival. The father of one of the band members used to travel with the band and work hard to raise money for the band. He walked around the audience with a bucket, encouraging the audience members to throw in some money. Rod remembers the band making enough money to stay in a motel over night at the Monto Dairy Festival. Travel to away centres required the use of a bus and a driver. The band drum major, Wally (Walter)that the band played at. But the biggest excitement came with trips to the Queensland Band Championships. Rod remembers the 1963 trip to Bundaberg where they stayed in the Showgrounds pavilion.
Bands were divided into several levels, from A to E and each band was to perform a hymn, a selection and a diagram march suitable for their section. This year the Gayndah band did not do the the diagram march but completed the other two sections. Rod remembers some outstanding players who came through the Gayndah Brass Band. Terry Jones was with the band at this stage and also played with Vin Schmierer in the dance bands. Norm Langtree was an extremely good brass player who conducted the band from the front without an instrument in his hand. However, when the band was on the march he joined the band to “give the boys a bit of guts”. For the competition, the hymn and the diagram march were selected by the band but the selection was set by the competition.
I can’t remember the selection we played. You had your own hymn and you had your own 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 . . . Nearly every Friday night we would go out and play in the courtyard near the baker’s shop. We would all get out and play and then go to the pub afterwards.
The band had a uniform that was black pants and a white shirt. They usually attracted a crowd, many of whom went to the pictures afterwards. But not before the “old man with the bucket” did his thing.
Rod didn’t do a whole lot in the dance bands of the era. He and Vin Schmierer joined with a friend who played piano accordion and a teacher from Mundubbera who played the drums and formed a band called the VeeJays. Their “fame” spread around the area, even to Kingaroy where they went over for an interview on the radio and got to play a couple of tunes.
They also played around Gayndah, sometimes in a vacant shop and other times at the Grand Hotel. He remembers from this period of his life one of the better guitar players he heard, Ian Gordon, or Snowy Gordon as he was referred to by his mates. Ian wen on to bigger and better things in the country music industry, including playing with Barry Thorton who spent much of his life playing in Slim Dusty’s band.
For Rod, the brass band was the backbone of his music in Gayndah. He remembers Meryl Robinson and Owen Turner (piano accordion) with whom he formed a band. By this time he was playing drums but it didn’t go too far because “I was too wrapped up in football”. The brass band basically folded up when Norm left town.
Norm left and my old mate Dougie Bennett, he played double B bass, he took the band on and it was just a social sort of thing. I 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 as did a lot of young ones . . . The council owned the instruments. They owned everything. When it closed down I think the instruments went to Monto. They got burned down I heard. There were some very new instruments in the band. It was a brand spanking new eupho when I was there . . . The town band made a big difference in the community . . . Every Orange Festival they would have the band there up and down the street . . . I remember when we went away to Bundaberg, we were all in the bus and were going through the main street and then old Wally said “We’ll turn around and go back and give them a wave”. So up the main street with people cheering us on. I can still remember that.