Andy Yule conducting a practice session for the Lilac City Brass Band on Monday night (1 July) at the Salvation Army Hall. He is still calling for more musicians of all abilities to join. Photo: John Thistleton.
These musicians are focussed on creating a town identity, a common bond under the banner of the new Lilac City Brass Band.
Some members are seasoned professionals. Others are raw beginners. They have all answered founder and conductor Andy Yule’s call to build a community asset from their shared passion for making music.
Currawang resident Dr Geoff Grey said he was involved in community music since he was six years old, when his entire family was part of a brass band. “It was great when the Lilac City Band started just a few weeks ago, where I could reconnect with that first passion in music,” he said.
The wide variety of abilities in the band didn’t matter because everyone was so friendly, he said. “It’s exciting, because it’s the humanity of music, not the professionalism of music.”
Cornet player Rob Currie joined the Nowra Band for about 16 years after a 30-year break from music, came to Goulburn about a year ago to be closer to his grandchildren and answered the call from Andy.
“I love the discipline of it; it’s good,” Rob said. “It means you are all coming together as a team to present an item,” he said. “A community with a brass band has an identity, because the band is usually present at events like Anzac Day or in Goulburn’s case, the Lilac City Festival.”
Gayle Langston, who moved from Wollongong to Bungonia three years ago has been playing the tenor horn since she was nine. After a 30-year break from playing she has resumed thanks to Andy’s call.
“For me it’s reminiscing of friendships, connections and bonding for the band and also the community,” Gayle said.
Andy has 15, sometimes more people turning up each week.
“We have been lucky enough to have been loaned some music and given some music,” he said.
They are rehearsing light music that people recognise, from a traditional march to Waltzing Matilda, I still Call Australia Home, a couple of Queen numbers through to the 1980s Baggy Trousers hits.
Two new members, both percussionists, came and listened to the band to see if they would fit in and returned the following week.
Band founder Andy Yule, Lions Club of Goulburn City president Prue Rickard and Lions Club member Lou Smetkowski, with a replica $2000 cheque the club has donated to help pay for the band’s insurance. Photo: Rosemary Chapman.
“I am pushing the band to get enough charts learnt so that we can go and do a performance,” Andy said. “It won’t be the best performance you have ever heard, but it needs to be a performance that we feel represents where we are,” he said.
The players, who each pay a $120 membership fee to help cover costs, are grateful the Goulburn City Lions Club donated $2000. A GoFundMe page raised $850 and they have done a Bunnings sausage sizzle to raise money.
“We have nothing,” Andy said. “People bring their own instruments; the music we have is begged, borrowed, stolen.”
They are still seeking a major sponsor and any other support.
“Would we like someone to say, ‘OK, I’ll buy you 25 polo shirts with your logo on’? Yes, we would love that,” he said.
“We need to start to think about how the band is going to buy its first instruments, especially in the future when we start our training band or junior band; those people aren’t going to have instruments,” he said.
“We just need the biggest business in Goulburn to put their name on our shirts,” he said.
They have been booked for the Lilac Time procession in October but plan to have a public performance before then.
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