Music in Gayndah
A History by those who were there
Bob Spencer Story
Bob Spencer was born in Gayndah in 1943 and is proud to still live in Gayndah. His father was a share farmer and so as a child he moved about the area, going to many of the schools in the region, most of which are not around any more. He stated that “the only high school he went to was a little school on high blocks.”
Much of his younger days were on farms that had no electricity. In 1955 his father bought a wind up gramophone on which he used to enjoy playing seventy-eight records. In 1959, they moved to a farm with electricity and that was the time to buy a radiogram. He thought that the ability to play forty-fives was even better.
In 1959, his friend Vinnie Schmierer asked if he wanted to join the town band. He agreed to do so and was given a trombone because that was the only instrument they had left. He basically taught himself to play it but obviously was given great help by the town band and its members. He was taught treble clef which was the standard for brass bands at the time.
When I first started there was no trombone player in the area so it was hard to really learn the sounds. I used to play records like Tommy Dorsey. I reckon he has the sweetest tone there is. Glenn Miller was a good player but a better arranger. I still have a few of Tommy Dorsey’s records.
It wasn’t all that long before Bob was playing with the Gayndah Town Band. He remembers playing in the main street, not sure whether it was a Friday or Saturday night. A collection plate was sent around the assembled crowd and money was collected to go to the band’s coffers.
While Bob was in the town band, a gentleman by the name of Norm Langtree was the band master. He was actually the band master for a couple of years before he joined and a couple of years after. Doug Bennett, a cornet player, took over as band master after Norm left. Doug was the dozer driver for the council. It seems that a good number of the band members were employed by the council.
The town band used to rehearse once a week in the School of Arts building, across the road from the Museum. There is a now a homestead in the allotment in which the School of Arts used to stand. Band practise had taken place in the School of Arts for many years, Prior to Norm Langtree being the band master, a gentleman by the name of Mr Wilkie directed the Gayndah town band.Bob remembers that behind the School of Arts, there was a little hut where they used to teach boxing. He used to go and watch his brother train.
As was the tradition in those days, an annual Queensland Brass Band Competition was held and the Gayndah Town band attended many of them. Bob remembers attending one of the competitions which was held in Maryborough the year he attended. The competition has held at the Maryborough Showgrounds. Doug Bennett was the band master for that trip and it was very cold. Bob remembers that Gayndah was a B grade band, but the photographs show that they were actually an E grade Band. Bob enjoyed his trip and was disappointed in a following year he could not attend the contest because he had to work on Saturday.
I was on the farm then . . . but when they had the band contest in 1962/3 I think, I couldn’t go because I had to work that Saturday. I was a cream carrier. They wouldn’t let me off. They were going to come and pick me up. Norm Langtree said “We will come and pick you up”. Then I got a telegram that said “No we rented a player.”
It was traditional at that time for bands which may have been short of players to “rent” players from other bands to fill the gap.
As some time in the future, the town band ceased to be functional and the instruments, which were owned by the Gayndah Council went to Monto where they were stored in the attic of a house which burned down.
Vinnie and Bob joined The Rockets dance band and played at local and not so local dances for a couple of years. Bob remembers Ronny Shay as a saxophone player, Ian Gordon, who played guitar and was referred to as “Snow”. Terry Jones was also a very good trumpet player. They played at local dances, at the Gayndah Town Hall, including the Show Ball, the RSL Hall, Woodmiller Hall, Reid’s Creek Hall. There was also Mundubbera Town Hall, the Boyne, and Riverlee.
The Boyne was a good place. We used to go up in the car, one car with all the instruments on the hood rack. When it rained the hood rack came off . . . There was Bob and Beryl , they started the band. Beryl was the piano player. I don’t know how she played some of those pianos they were so out of tune. Oh she had to bash on keys to get a tune out of it but she did. Bob was the drum player, I was the trombone player, Vinnie was the trumpet player and Ian Gordon was the guitar player. That was the main ones really for a few years.
Often the Rockets would play two nights a week. The gig would start at 8pm and continue till around 11 when it was cup of tea time. The local ladies always put on quite a spread with tarts and sandwiches and lots else. Then the band would start up again and often play till 2am. Then it was time to go home.
At that time, Bob was working for the Butter Factory.
I was there at five in the mornings. You would start at five and by the time that you picked up the bread and the meat and everything it is half past five and you would be on the run. Sometimes I would get home at lunch time and be out like a light. Sometimes you would have another job that night.
Bob remembers another band starting up which included Bobby, Meryl Robertson and him. It didn’t last very long because it didn’t function very well and wasn’t very good. Ollie Robertson was in charge of it and made the members join the Musical Union. Four or five years later he received a bill from the Union for $100. He went to a solicitor and the bill was cut down to $50 but the solicitor’s fee was $50. Bob didn’t like unions after that.
With the Rockets, we used to go out Bobby App’s farm out there once a week to practise . . . Beryl taught me a few things . . . She was a cutie and a lovely person. Nothing ever phased her. We used to play at the cabarets. It was discos after that. But we did pretty good at cabarets. If you had a guitar player, it was just amplified but before that if he wasn’t there we had no amplifiers at all . . . Vinnie used to sing.
The Rockets used to be paid three pound for a dance and four pound for a ball. Bob was pretty happy with that. He didn’t have a family at that time but when he was married and the kids came along, he didn’t continue. He remembers that Vinnie started up the Crescendos which included Owen Turner, Kevin Embury and maybe Ian Gordon.
Dances were very important to the community in those days, they were places where many people met their life partner. One would go and ask a girl to dance and you enjoyed her company. Transport was not easy to come by often because the banks wouldn’t lend money for a car. With no TV, Saturday night dances were the places to be. Woodmillar Hall was always totally crowded.
Alcohol didn’t have much affect on dances in those days. It was never served inside and was always consumed outside with supplies stored in the car. There were very few fights inside, though probably some outside the hall.
Some time later, when the Instrumental Music program started in local schools, Bob became friends with the instrumental music teacher who came to town one day a week. He was also a trombone player and Bob enjoyed learning from him. He joined the school program and enjoyed attending rehearsals each Wednesday evening with the instrumental music teacher as the bandmaster. The teacher used to travel to Monto to teach and Bob was invited to go up there. He enjoyed the extra rehearsals and joined that band as well, a big band that he thought was pretty good. He played at the Monto Dairy Festival with that band as well.
Bob stopped playing music after he married and had family to look after. He doesn’t play much now but wishes he still did because he enjoyed it.