The Armidale City Band is the oldest brass band in NSW, possibly Australia. For nearly a century and a half, their music has been a soundtrack to our lives, accompanying both soldiers and school fetes.
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This Saturday afternoon, the band will celebrate its 140th anniversary with a concert at the Bowling Club, playing popular items, movie themes, and concert pieces.
"The brass band is part of the history of Armidale, and we'd just like to share our music with everybody who can come," president Ken Peter said.
The 25 members, from 12 to over 80 years old, will be joined by bands from Coffs Harbour, Maxwell, and Tamworth to bolster numbers.
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The band was founded in December 1878, and was aligned with military forces from 1886 to 1958. It was associated with the 33rd Battalion, "New England's Own", from 1916 to 1930, and then with the 12/16th Hunter River Lancers.
These days, the band plays mainly at official functions like Australia Day and ANZAC Day, as well as HMAS Armidale; at school and hospital fetes; and enters contests at state or national level when the band and its finances are strong enough.
The longest-serving bandmaster, David Brown, retired in 2015, but still plays - a great asset to the band, Mr Peter said.
Three historical uniforms will be on display on Saturday, belonging to Jack Spinks, drum-major of both the Armidale City Band and the 12/16th band; Jeff Wells, bandmaster from 1958 to 1970; and George Charlton, the longest-serving member, from the early 1930s to the 1980s.
The public can also see the band's history in photographs at its Dumaresq Street band-room, where they have been based since 1982. The old band-room, on the corner of Dangar and Moore Streets, was demolished to make way for the Kmart complex.
The band hope to encourage Armidale's young people to form a junior band, with the help of their new musical director Vanessa Bartley-Heterick.
The city last had a junior band in 1992, and got to A grade in contest standard - "very good for a little country town like Armidale," Mr Peter said. Since then, however, it has been difficult to recruit school students to the band. Ms Bartley-Heterick will hopefully have more access to young people willing to learn a brass instrument.
The band's major fundraiser is its Christmas raffle in the Central Shopping Centre. It also raises funds through its pancake Breakfast with the Band, held on Saturday, March 16, as part of the New England Festival, with the help of the Armidale Servies.
140th Anniversary Celebration Concert, Armidale City Bowling Club, Saturday, March 2, 4.30 to 6.30pm. Entry $10 per person. Tickets available from the Bowling Club, or at the door. For all enquiries, call Ken Peter on 0417 675 800.