Music in Gayndah
A History by those who were there
Vin Schmierer's Story
Vin Schmierer was born ion Gayndah in 1944 into a family who encouraged his involvement in music. His grandfather played in a brass band in Brisbane and so it seemed logical that Vin should follow in his foot steps. He joined the Gayndah brass band when he was about twelve years old and they supplied him with a cornet.
They gave me a cornet and I took to it like anything and learned to play up and down the scale. I think the first song I ever leaned to play was God Save the Queen . . . The brass band gave us an exercise book. I learnt to play from that.
He originally started with two or three other young lads who went along the the band master once a week. The ain was clearly to build up the local brass band. The band master was a highly respected musician and produced a very successful band which travelled widely.
It was a pretty good brass band. We did a lot of travelling, played at the Monto Dairy Festival and at the opening of the new Biggenden Show Hall and different functions around town. We used to get on the back of a council truck and drive around Gayndah playing Christmas carols under the streel lights. So that was a lot of fun as a young fellow back then.
As was usual, Vin started off playing third cornet in the band but soon progressed to second cornet and then to solo cornet. He remembers there being four cornets in the band. The brass band fun stopped when the band master left town for work commitments, which meant that the band did not continue. What was even worse, the powers that be gave the instruments to another town organisation. Because Vin enjoyed the music, he continued to play but he needed to get himself an instrument. Fortunately, a salesman from one of the bigger music stores in Queensland, Palings, came to Gayndah and opened up in one of the local shops.
They had on display trombones, saxophones, guitars, drums and the trumpet. I had just started to work so I went and bought a trumpet . . . The first trumpet I bought was a Selmer. Then with wear and tear later, I used a Yamaha, a very good brand.
The word got around that Vin was playing trumpet and the members of a local dance band called The Rockets invited him and another young man who played saxophone to join their band. I think the first song I played at a dance was Under the Bridges of Paris, a waltz and then Spring Time in the Rockies.
He was about seventeen at this time and as time went on their band improved to the point where they were getting work at dances all around the Central Burnett. Towns in the area all used to have a show ball and a deb ball and they played for them all. All in all, Vin is proud to remember that he played for about thirteen Gayndah Orange Festival Balls. A little mathematics would confirm that he must have been playing in his dance band for close to thirty years. After that band closed down, he continued playing for a dance band in the South Burnett called The Hotshots for a further three years.
Initially the dance bands included drums, keyboard, guitar, trumpet and saxophone. Many of the players also added the required vocals. A little further on a bass guitar was added. Being in the seventies, touch dancing was in vogue so most of what they played was what was then, and is now, referred to old time dance music. Most dances would start at eight o’clock and they would keep playing while there were people still there, most often, well after midnight.
In those days it was Gypsy Taps, Pride of Erin, Oxford Waltz, Evening Three Step, Barn Dance and all of those kind of things . . . Big crowds used to go to those old time dances way back in the seventies and eighties. We had different set programs for different parts of the night. It was very enjoyable and the big thing was watching the people enjoy themselves dancing.
When his band first started, they used rehearse once a week. This was important not only to improve their playing but also to learn new tunes for different dances. As the years went on however, given their experience on stages around the area, they didn’t have to rehearse because they knew what they were doing. Vin could do the whole night playing without any music. He learnt all the required songs off by heart. It also helped to be surrounded by some very good musicians.
Most dances followed what could be considered format. They would start at eight o’clock often with mostly women in the hall. The men would often join the crowd after the local hotel closed. If there was no hotel in the area, they would often have their supply of alcohol in a car out the back. At some time during the evening a supper was supplied. This generally consisted of sandwiches which had been freshly made by the women and carried around to the crowd, sometimes in a galvanised bath tub. Tea and coffee was distributed from pots handled by the men. Originally, alcohol didn’t play any part in the inside running of the dance until later when groups were get a licence to sell alcohol. That changed thing somewhat.