Music in Gayndah
A History by those who were there
The Vi Rackermann Story
Vi Rackerman was born in the Biggenden Hospital in 1942, a twin daughter with her sister Joy. The Staib family lived on a dairy farm milking about sixty cows at Coalstoun Lakes, a small community between Biggenden and Gayndah. Music was always part of the family with her Mum playing Piano, he Dad playing a mouth organ and her grand father played the button accordion. So Vi’s time with the piano started very early in life and some time after she had started school, she was encouraged to play for the students marching into school from the morning parade. She remembers The Repas Band March as one of her favourite songs to play at that time.
Students from the Coalstoun Lakes School were well serviced with regards music lessons. Not only were they allowed to go to lessons during class times but they had a very good teacher who travelled to the township on Mondays and Fridays with the cream lorry. Mr Percy Anderson taught his lessons in the Coalstoun Lakes Hall which is situated across the road from the school. He had a lot of students in a program that went on for several years and Vi and her mother were among those students. Percy Anderson was associated with the very well known Anderson family from Bundaberg who had a music store in the city.
[He was] From the Anderson that were very musical. Wonderful man who could play anyinstrument and thats why he had so many students. They came with string instruments, accordions and piano . . . In those days we bought sheet music with Anderson’s name on the front. It was a very well known name in music.
Vi started playing in dance bands at a reasonably young age, mostly by coincidence, as she remembers it. The Coalstoun Lakes community held a sports day and dance night each Easter and as it happened one Easter about the middle of the 1950s, the band coulsn't turn up. That required some quick planning which started by asking Vi if she thought she could play for the dance that night. With a yes response, some drums were sourced through Mr Anderson, her brother played piano accordion and old friend Mr Wilmer played the saxophone. So the band was put together and they got through the night and, as they say the rest is history.
The Staib family members were dancers and Vi, her parents and iblings had been attending weekend dances for many years prior to beginning playing for them. Dances at Biggenden, Teebar, Woodmillar Hall and Reids Creek were among the dances the family regularly attended. So moving on to playing for them was a logical step. Their band was known as The Staib Orchestra. There were other bands around during her time.
I remember the Burnettairs, they were Gayndah people, The Silver Comets, The Goldentones, a chappie came from Gympie. I also played with Irwin Evans, a lovely man. He played drums and his son played saxophone. I also played with Bruce McGilvery . . . It was all old time dancing in those days. Rob and Beryl Yappa. They were Gayndah people at the time and very good entertainers. Vincie Schmierer was another very good trumpet player . . . I played with Mr Augistine’s band, with Mr Evans. I can remember going through back roads to play at Mount Perry. It was good times. We all enjoyed it. Music was very much part of everybody’s weekend I think . . . Mr Evans band was the Evans' Band and Mr Augistine's was the Augistine’s Band. I played with Mr Morris from up on Binjour Plateau sometimes. Not a lot of names, people just knew where you played. I played with Mr White in Biggenden. Lots of people just followed the band from one weekend to the next. You’d announce where you were playing next weekend and local families were very supportive of local orchestras.
Most dance nights were organised by an MC among whose jobs it was to get the dance going right on eight o’clock. It would also be his job to select the order of dances dance and announce them. It was then the band's job to select songs for the dance. That usually consisted of a set of three or maybe four songs per dance. Often, for the more popular dances like the Gypsy Tap, The Barn Dance, The Pride of Erin or the Military Two Step, there was often a calling for “More” along with associated clapping. At about nine-thirty, it was time for supper.
Supper was very much a speciality. There seemed to be a lot of good cooks in a lot of the districts. The cups were taken around in a big old wash tub. For tea and coffee, the billy was boiled outside the hall and tea and coffee were made in the big jugs and taken around. The beautiful cakes and sandwiches were always very much appreciated . . . A lot of families had small children and they went to sleep underneath the stools that you used to sit on around the hall. So many wonderful friendships were made during those days. It was a lovely way to spend your weekend.
One of the things that helped Vi know what songs to play with what dances was the fact that all her family were dancers. If they weren’t playing for a dance on a Saturday night, most often they would be out attending a dance somewhere else and listening to what was played. She also took note of the MCs. She especially remembers people like Jack Marshall, Mervyn Kimber and Bill Seymour. They were always well organised and had strong clear voices. Often, dances were run by local groups like the Tennis Club, The Ambulance Committee, Show Balls and the RSL in Gayndah and Biggenden. Even the local church in Coalstoun Lakes ran many a ball. “It was a great way of raising money and gave many young people a chance to be nicely dressed in ballerina and evening frocks and things.”
Given that most of the dance venues were some distance away from where the Staibs lived, transport was an important part of the organisation. Vi’s father was the chauffeur and was able to fit everything needed fpr a night's music in his car, including the drums. Mr Wilmer travelled in his own car and brought little bits and pieces with him. Regular payment for a night’s music was around £3. While one can imagine a dance starting at 8pm and ending at 12 midnight, that we not the case at most venues. While there was still people wanting to dance, the Staibs kept on playing, often not getting out of the hall before 3am. “I can remember coming home from dances, it was better to go and milk the cows and go to bed afterwards."
Vi’s father kept a diary of all the places at which they played and how much they were paid. The focus for dance band playing in these days was the piano as it was for most music making at the time. So bands were at the mercy of the hall piano. Vi remembers that in most cases they were not a problem. "They were kept fairly well. There were piano tuners that came around right up until five or six years ago. The Coalstoun Lakesd piano was regularly tuned . . . A lot of people bought keyboards. I’ve actually got one myself and that made it easy to play in other places because you could pack it up and take it with you".
While most of us in the music industry these days make regular use of photocopiers, Vi doesn’t ever remember a photocopier being used to create copies of music. Any copies that were made were done by hand. A very useful set of books for more modern dance band players include the “1001 Hit Songs De-luxe Edition” published in Australia by Albert Publications. What makes this series most valuable is that they are available in keys suitable for various instruments of a dance band. For example, the book suitable for piano, guitar, bass and any other C pitched instruments included the words, chords and music for 1001 songs. For B flat pitched instruments like the tenor Saxophone and the trumpet was suitably transposed and included the music and the chords while for the E flat pitched instruments, a suitably transposed version for that instruments was available. Vi does not remember any such books. “Everybody used the same music.” That means that the saxophone and trumpey had to transpose on sight, not an insignificant skill to master.
Electronics had not entered the presentation of dances in Vi’s day either. She can’t ever remember playing with one. There may have been a small one for the MC sometimes but other than that they were able to get their message across to the whole hall, with dancers ready when ever the band was prepared to play.
Vi was married in August 1961 and it was a couple of months prior to that when she stopped playing in the dance band. She had really enjoyed the years she played music on the piano for many thousands of dancers.