Music in Gayndah
A History by those who were there
A transcription of the conversation with Vi Rackermann held in Bundaberg, 23/09/22
Geoff
This is a conversation with Vi Rackerman held at her house in Bundaberg twenty-third of September, 2022. Vi I wonder if you wouldn’t mind starting of by letting us know what year you were born in and where abouts you were born.
Vi
Yes, I born in 1942 at the Biggenden Hospital. I was a twin daughter to my mum and dad with my sister Joy.
Geoff
When did you start getting involved in music?
Vi
Probably, music was always part of our family. My Mum played piano and my Dad played mouth organ and my Grandfather had a button accordion so lots of time there was a piano in the home so lots of time we had the opportunity to get involved in music so it probably started at a very early age, especially in those early years when I started school. Because I had fiddled on the piano at home I often played the march to go int school. So in those early years I had the opportunity to progress.
Geoff
Did you have early piano lessons?
Vi
Yes well we had the opportunity, a man called Mr Percy Anderson, he was able to come out with the cream lorry to the Coalstoun Lakes Hall twice a week. We went on a Monday and that was regular, probably for a few years. He had a lot of students and my mother and I were among those students.
Geoff
Was he anything to do with the Andersons from Bundaberg?
Vi
Very music so. From the Andersons that were very musical. Wonderful man who could play any instrument and that’s why he had so many students. They came with string instruments, accordions of all sorts and piano.
Geoff
Was that the family that started the music store in Bundaberg?
Vi
His brothers I believe. In those days we bought sheet music with Anderson’s name on the front. It was a very well known name in music.
Geoff
When you played the marches to go into school, can you remember the name of any of the songs you played to march to?
Vi
Yes. There was one in particular. That was the Repas Band. That was the marching song. Off the top of my head I can’t remember the name of the other songs but I remember the Repas Band.
Geoff
Did you play any other instruments besides the piano?
Vi
I play the piano accordion which I enjoy but no other instruments.
Geoff
When did you start playing for dance bands?
Vi
It was by coincidence really. Living at Coalstoun Lakes where we lived on a dairy farm, they used to have Easter Saturday a sports day and a dance night. It just so happened that one particular time the band didn’t turn up and it was me that was asked “Did I think I could play for that dance that night?” And it was through our teacher Mr Anderson who said he would get some drums. My mum played the drums, my brother played accordion, Mr Wilmer, an old friend played saxophone and I played piano. That was probably 1955/56.
Geoff
You had been attending before that?
Vi
Oh yes. Old time dances at that time was the Friday and Saturday night entertainment right through out the district.
Geoff
Where abouts were the cancer that you attended?
Vi
They were at a little place called Baroolba those days, Biggenden, Teebar, Woodmillar Hall, Reids Creek, Gayndah itself and of course Biggenden.
Geoff
So you would have had to travel a fair distance to get out to Woodmillar Hall then?
Vi
Yes. In those days it would have seem like a fair distance but I was very fortunate to be able to do those things.
Geoff
Before you were playing for dances, would you have gone out to Woodmillar to dance?
Vi
Yes. We enjoyed dancing. Our whole family were dancers and we certainly enjoyed those dances.
Geoff
Can you remember the names of any of the band of that time?
Vi
Yes I can. I remember the Burnettairs. They were all Gayndah people. The Silver Comets, the Goldtones, a chappie came from Gympie. I also played with Irwin Evans, a lovely man. He played drums and his son played saxophone, Bruce McGilvery, I played with Bruce.
Geoff
You said a man came from Gympie. Who was that?
Vi
I can’t remember his name. It was all old time dancing in those days. Rob and Beryl Yappa. They were Gayndah people at the time. They were good entertainers. Vincie Schmierer was another very good trumpet player.
Geoff
What was the name of the first band you played in?
Vi
Stiabs Orchestra. Mum, the drummer, brother on the accordion, Mr Wilmer on the sax and myself on the piano.
Geoff
Staib was your surname?
Vi
Yes
Geoff
How long did that go for?
Vi
It went until early 1961, from the mid 50s, about 6 years until I married and moved to Gayndah, Reids Creek. I married Geoff Rackerman and eventually had a family at Reids Creek.
Geoff
Did you do any more playing after that?
Vi
Yes I did. I played with Mr Augistine’s band, with Mr Evans, Bruce McGilvrey. 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 everybod’s weekend I think.
Geoff
Can your remember the name of any of those bands?
Vi
I thine Mr Evans’ band was Evans Band and Mr Augistine, that we Augustine’s Band, Mr Morris from up on Bonjour Plateau, I played with his group sometimes. Not a lot of names, people just knew you played. I played with Mr White in Biggenden. Some names I have almost forgotten.
Geoff
Did people follow you around?
Vi
Yes they came from far and beyond really. S lot of people just followed the band from one weekend to the next weekend. You’d announce where you’s be playing next weekend. Local families were very supported of local orchestras.
Geoff
How would a dance night go. You would start at eight o’clock?
Vi
Mostly we started right on eight o’clock and there was no stopping at midnight. By the time we packed up we would be very fortunate to leave the hall by three o’clock in the morning. But the nights just seemed to fly away.
Geoff
Would you stop for a super?
Vi
Oh yes. Supper was very much a specialty really. 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. Tea and coffee were made in the big jugs and taken around and the beautiful cakes and sandwiches were always very much appreciated.
Geoff
They were made on the spot.
Vi
Yes by some lovely ladies getting supper ready.
Geoff
What time in the evening would that have bee?
Vi
That would probably been bout half past nine. A lot of families had small children and they went to sleep underneath the stools that you sat on around the hall. So many wonderful friendships were made during those days. It was a lovely way to spend your weekend.
Geoff
How did one dance set go, say for instance a Gypsy Tap? Did you pt together three or four songs?
Vi
Yes normally three and there was alway a great array of clapping and saying “More” sort of thing. Probably the oil Gypsy Tat, The Barn Dance, the Pride of Erin, Military Two Step. I can remember them dancing up and down the hall and even the floor moving at times.
Geoff
How would you have got to know what songs go with what dances for instances?
Vi
Yes well I have probably not really thought about that a lot but it was probably knowing the beat of 3/4 and 6/8 and all those things that make those dances. I am not quite sure. But I guess because we were dancers ourselves, a lot of people sang the songs as they danced. You just got to know what went with those dances.
Geoff
Did you go and listen to other people?
Vi
Oh yes. Always appreciated other people’s music. It was good.
Geoff
If you weren’t working that night you would be out listening to some one else.
Vi
Yes out dancing for them. Yes it was a very happy time to be out and about.
Geoff
Did you have singers in the band.
Vi
Yes well Mum and I often sang because we knew all the songs we were playing anyway and sometimes my brother sang. There were always MCs that organised how the dances were put together. I remember very clearly Jack Marshall, like people with lovely clear voice, Mervyn Kimber, Bill Seymour - Bill Seymour was very much, his dear old wife is still with us today and over one hundred years old. They were special people because they kept everything in order. I have quite a list of all those MCs that helped out. Organisations like the Tennis Club, the Ambulance Committee, the balls that they had, Show Balls like that, they were all part of the circuit that we played in. RSL at Gayndah and Biggenden. It was a great way of raising money. Our local church at Coalstoun Lakes had many a ball. It gave young people a chance to be nicely dressed in ballerina and evening frocks and things.
Geoff
How would you go about getting music, the actual dots?
Vi
Yes. We wrote out a lot so that we all had a copy of what we were playing but most times, I don’t ever remember photocopiers so if you wanted extras you had to do it yourself. Even today I have music everywhere.
Geoff
Were the 1001 books around then?
Vi
The big books. Yes some of those were. You just got to know some things sounded better in a different key.
Geoff
Were there different books for the piano and different books for the saxophone?
Vi
No not really. Every body use the same music.
Geoff
The saxophone player would transpose everything?
Vi
Yes he would. He was wonderful. We accumulated, and I’ve accumulated lots more. I still play around aged care facilities and family gatherings and things.
Geoff
Edith’s name has come up once or twice.
Vi
Oh Edith, she was really great. I played with Edith on many occasions for concerts. We enjoyed practises of an afternoon. She would come to my place. I kind of miss those little get togethers really
Geoff
When did you stop playing for dances?
Vi
Probably when I left home. I was married in 1961. It was probably early in that year. We were married in the August, probably in June or so that year. I still have the book that my dear old Dad wrote all our bookings in, where we were playing and when we were playing.
Geoff
Do you remember how much you were paid for playing in those days?
Vi
Yes I can remember it very clearly. It was three pounds for the whole band.
Geoff
For the whole band?
Vi
No that was each. We really thought we are doing alright. I was probably mostly for enjoyment. Dad used to always take us. He was the chauffeur. We all got three pound and we didn’t grumble about that.
Geoff
So all the equipment fitted in his car.
Vi
Yes it did, including the drums. And Mr Wilmer always had his car so he bought his little bits and pieces with him.
Geoff
How well in tune were the pianos in those days?
Vi
They were kept fairly well. There were piano tuners that came around right up until five or six years ago. The Coalstoun Lakes Pino was regularly tuned. These days, I can remember going back to Woowonga and the piano there was long gone in a state that you could play it. A lot of people bought key boards to. 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.
Geoff
In the early days, what about PA systems?
Vi
PA systems were very rare. I can’t ever remember playing with one. We made enough noise without one. There were probably small ones perhaps for the MC. It was quite amazing really. People would be ready for the next dance. People danced with everybody. It wasn’t like today the a lot of people have the same partner. In those days you danced with everybody and had lots of fun. We were fortunate to be able to do it for that many years and our Dad was well enough to take us. And being on a dairy farm, Dallarnil was another place we played, I can remember coming home from dances, it was better to go and milk the cows and go to bed afterwards.
Geoff
Yes if you left the hall at three o’clock
Vi
Yes and even the cows even knew to come home to the yards.
Geoff
How many cows did you milk in those days.
Vi
We didn’t have a big diary but there could have been sixty or so. I don’t think we would have had eighty or ninety at the time. It was fifty or sixty.
Geoff
Was it for milk or cream?
Vi
Well it started off for milk for the cheese factory and then changed to cream for the Biggenden butter factory.
Geoff
You would have had machinery to help?
Vi
Yes our little cheese factory won many prizes, exam at the Exhibition. There were two cheese factories, one at Dundara and one at Coalstoun Lakes, just down the valley a bit. That gives a bit of an idea as to how many people were dairy farmers. That was the life of the community really.
Geoff
Were the numbers in town bigger that they are now?
Vi
Oh yes. There is only one family that had beautiful Illawarra cattle, the Radel family, and they are the only dairy farm in the whole district. But they still struggle through.
Geoff
Which school did you go to?
Vi
Coalstoun Lakes.
Geoff
Was it bigger that what it is now?
Vi
It was, certainly bigger then because people come as share farmers on dairy farms so there was a lot more kids going to the school. Still a good little school today. I m sure the kids have lots of fun like we did. I don’t know what happened to the piano that was in the school. Our school at the time, he really encouraged music in the school. On the Monday and Friday, students were allowed to go when it was their turn for the music lesson.
Geoff
Was there official class room music at that time?
Vi
No not really and I think sometimes that’s a shame. We had lots of local concerts where kids could perform and show their talents.
Geoff
No recorders?
Vi
No I can’t recall a recorder band but later on when our kids went to school, there were recorders. I really enjoyed the recorders. I think they are lovely. I guess once you play music it will always be part of your life.
Geoff
Alright we will close it up there thanks very much for you time and your memories.