Brassbanned speaks with Chris, president of Darebin City Brass, and probably the nicest guy in Australian Brass Banding.
Chris talks about nationals preparation, the structure of Darebin City Brass’ 3 ensembles and the good support of the local council.
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
[Music] hello once again loyal brassband internet viewers tonight we’re here with the president of the daraban city brass is that the name of the deran city brass Mr Chris Le Chris how are you going I’m good thanks team how are you I’m really well thank you very much for asking now Chris how’s Dar been tracking for Nationals look we’re really really enjoying ourselves we’re loving the pieces that we’re playing and um yeah look we’re we’re just we’re just glad that it’s in
Mobile we don’t have to travel M it really helps doesn’t it yes it does much better and you’re getting full turnout to all your rehearsals yeah attendance has been great um we’ve been lucky enough to have a lot of the Juniors um slowly make their way through the ranks and um uh yeah we we’re we’re just lucky to have as many people as we’ve got so we’re we we’re pleased we’re very pleased that’s great so you guys are a real community band you’re not getting any highflying overseas people to come and bolster up any sections you just sort of steady as it goes no we
We don’t have the cash for that um no yeah look we’ve we’ve got one or two people that have coming from into state to help us out but yeah so we’re very lucky to have them but it’s it’s mostly people that are you know from from daraban around here and tell me more about the Junior band is it
Northern brass you guys have up here that’s right we’ve got two uh two programs we have a junior development program run by Mr Jack Kelly um who is a LIF member of just about every band in Melbourne Y and um he’s been doing that for for many many years um we’ve also got our our CGR band which is currently run by
Andrew power and uh that’s been going on for about six years now as a competing band um and yeah and it’s it’s acting sort of now as we’d hoped as we’d envisioned six years ago as a sort of a Feed Band to our a grade band so so how many sort of participants would you have in all the bands combined over the three programs um
Jack just told me tonight that he’s sort of overflowing with Juniors I there’s there’s around there there’s got to be around 90 uh people at least that are consistently here week in week out that have you know something to do with some one of the three bands that we’ve got going on so there’s a lot of people involved and that program have you sort of gone out and copied someone else’s the pathways they’re having or have you sort of grown this organically yourselves um not to my knowledge
I think we just saw um that Jack was running something great and uh we needed somewhere for those kids that were um sort of getting you know a bit bit past that sort of junior level and uh they just didn’t have anything and we had a lot of people that were also in the agade band that weren’t too keen on uh the pressures of of a and what that you know requires of people um so it just sort of made sense to make another band and we’ve been lucky enough to you know keep that going and it’s just been winning lots of things and and
And it’s really good fun to be part of yeah yeah I I can’t really think of any bigger organizations going around in Victoria at least having sort of 90 members com and out every week I think that’s a really good effort tell me do you get much support from the local government do you get sort of funding and all that or is that yeah we do we get a we get a considerable
Grant from the Daran city council right and we have for for quite a number of years um we’re really hoping that that can continue um because without that we just wouldn’t survive um we’re very lucky to have a great band hall and you know some instruments that uh you know are comparatively better I suppose than some of the other bands around but you know not yet um but yeah we we’re always in need of funds so fundraising is a big part of the organization as well great exent and back to
Nationals this year can you tell us and us and all the loyal brassband viewers what are you guys playing for your own choice our own choice is Red Priest i’ okay pH will be and how’s that going is that sort of a traditional piece with nice melodies or something a bit new age and kind of scary to listen to
How would you um how would you describe it I really enjoy it I think it’s based on a lot of verie stuff um pronounce that right um so yeah I I I suppose it’s really fun for the band to play there are a lot of little motifs that keep popping up that you know anyone would recognize and um we’re having a lot of fun playing it it’s a it’s a challenge but it’s uh it’s a beautiful piece of music and that was just composed last year or the year before for one of the big
UK competitions is that right I think it was test piece for the British Open last year I think and our conductor was was there at the competition and was inspired so we bought it then and there and and decided that’s what we were going to play fantastic and who conducts staran City brass our conductor at the moment is
Mr Tom pauland great and how did you come to have him as your conductor uh Tom’s been around the traps for for a number of years um he’s only just sort of recently returned from the UK and um prior to that he was uh in in in Melbourne for quite some time the Preston band was actually the first band to get
Tom to come out from the UK and uh and and start conducting and playing um and since then I think Tom’s been around to quite a number of a grade bands as well and he’s found his way back here and we’re very glad to have him excellent so you confident you’re going to be sort of top three top four or just see how it goes for
Nationals no look I think we’re really Keen to build on uh our fourth place I think last year so top five is something well within our grasp I think but um look it’s competing it’s it’s Anything Could Happen absolutely and tell us a bit more so it’s Preston band it’s staban band were there two bands that merged or is there just a lot of names for the one
Organization no originally it was the Preston band um uh what happened eventually when it became when Preston became daraban city um Daran City obviously sponsor us so they asked that we include that in our name so uh we are the Daran City brass but we have you know our three organizations Preston band because there’s a lot of history to do with
Preston and um so we kept that name as well was not too confusing and is there a website or somewhere people should check out if they’re interested in joining or finding out more about the band right behind us at www. Dar D City brass supposed to be a do com there I don’t think we could afford the do um we need a bigger
Grant from the Council next year I think I think so but yes that’s U that’s our website and uh we’ve got a lot of uh uh things happening on Facebook as well so it seems to be sort of the thing that everyone’s it’s it’s much easier for people to go to Facebook Facebook and check us out there so there’s a lot of things happening there as well and aside from
Nationals do you have any other big plans for the band for this year any big concerts or things people should look out for yeah um we’ve got a gig up in bright in a couple of weeks or it’s I think two weeks after at the Chalet is it uh a few us might be staying at the shallot yes but um we’ve had a long association with the people in bright um
Mr Jack K as a former member of the band and we had very strong ties with him so we go up there every year and perform the uh the jacket Memorial concert and uh for the people bright it’s it’s a good when’s that it’s a very good question check it on the website I’m sure it’ll be there it’ll be there somewhere yeah well
Chris thanks very much for joining us thanks for having me team [Music]
