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concert disasters

To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: concert disasters
From: Rolf.Miezitis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 1996 11:10:00 +1000
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

OK,

since everybody else has had a go, I'll give you a taste of some of our
history.

1. Our band was doing a soundtrack for a locally produced movie (live,
ala silent films) and at the grand gala opening when the local important
people were all invited, the band started the opening credits to the
tune of the Dam Busters and as the lights dimmed (including the ones in
the pit) the music faded out as well. A hurried restart was made (after
slapping the lighting technician around) and things went off relatively
smoothly after that. The movie was  by the way.

2. Marching competition (compulsory in the Australian Nationals until
recently) we were doing our final rehearsal for the own choice display
in a car park, which included  five cornet players standing out the
front doing the "Chicken Dance" while their cornets are slung around
their necks on strings. Yes, you guessed it, principal cornet players
string broke and made the first valve unmovable. On the way to the
competition ground, we stopped off at one of the Besson resellers
stalls, borrowed a cornet for the competition (didn't tell them what we
were going to be doing with it) and performed our march display without
a hitch.

3. Entertainment competition. We had an elaborate story telling
programme which told the satirical life story of Ken McDonald (the
adjudicator of that competition and quite famous in Banding circles in
Australia). One section involved our flugel player playing the electric
guitar and the rest of the band dancing around in a scene reminiscent of
the free love sixties. As soon as he started into some typical
heavy-metal type chords, all the lights in the auditorium went out. Of
course, he thought he had blown a fuse, but it turned out that a possum
had been caught in the local substation and taken out the power to most
of the city. While the band waited patiently in the dark, they played
silent night and sang Bohemian Rhapsody. On an aside, the band
secretary's son was videoing the event and thought that he had broken
the camera until he took the eye-piece away from his face. When the
lights finally came back on, the resumed from the place they left off,
received tumultuous applause and won the competition. The possum
survived the ordeal incidentally.

On a more sombre note, I would like to pass on my most heartfelt
commiserations to any friends and relatives of Eric de Cloe on behalf of
myself and the Tasmanian Bands League. I would also like to second the
idea of Martin Taylor, for the playing of "In Memoriam" from "Royal
Parks".

Rolf Miezitis
First Baritone
Glenorchy City Concert Brass


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