Darebin City Brass: News

5th August 2008

Congratulations to the following Darebin City Brass players who performed at the Victorian State Solos:

* Chris Lee - placed 2nd Open Trombone

* Ben Milne - placed 3rd Open Trombone

* Aaron Gallagher (Northern ) - Placed 1st U 15 Baritone

16th July 2008

Preston Band performed in heat 3 of the 2008 ABC Brass Band Competition. Mark Ford stepped in as conductor, and a few friends of the band filled in some empty spots including Steve Ford, Gordon Linsay and Jason Mears. The band played four pieces -

Horizons by Paul Lovatt-Cooper

Mid All The Traffic by Leonard Ballantine

Dimitri Intro In To A Musical Fairytale

Maleguena arr. Sandy Smith

To hear the band's performance, click here .

You can vote for the band too!! - click here

The final of the competition will be held on Wednesday 6th August at the Iwaki Auditorium (ABC, Southbank). Tickets are free but you need to register to get one. Visit ABC 774 Melbourne's website for more information.

1st June 2008

Northern Brass headed to the Bendigo Eisteddfod to compete in C Grade for the first time. They were victorious by 7 points!! Scores from C Grade were as follows:

1st Northern Brass 87 + 41 + 42= 170

2nd Sunshine 83 + 40 + 40 =163

3rd Marist Bros 84 + 40 + 38 = 162

Greater Bendigo 82 + 39 + 40 =161

Maryborough 77 + 37 + 35 = 149

Congratulations to Andrew and the band!

27th April 2008

To finish off a busy weekend, Preston Band performed at the Doncaster Bowling Club on Sunday afternoon. The band puts a concert on for the club every year, and always plays to a large, appreciative audience!

This concert was also the last concert for Preston with Jason as Musical Director.

Jason was Musical director of Preston Band for approx four years, during which he took the band to numerous local and National competitions, as well as a trip overseas to compete in the New Zealand Championships. He has also conducted the band at various local and country gigs, including the popular Darebin City Brass cabarets.

He has made the decision to take a break from the stress and hard work of taking an A Grade Brass Band due to a number of factors, the main one being that he has some health issues, and will need to take some time to concentrate on getting his health back on track.

He will still continue to play principal cornet for Darebin’s second band, Northern Brass.

Below are some pictures from the concert.

To see more pictures, click here

25th April 2008

Darebin City Brass had a very busy day on Anzac Day. Northern Brass headed to Seymour to take part in the Anzac Day service while Preston Band headed further up the highway to Bright to take part in the proceedings there.

The weather was absolutely perfect, especially in Bright with all the autumn leaves.

Preston also had a guest player all the way from New Zealand - John McAdam from St Kilda Band travelled up to Bright with the band and took part in the perfomances. He also become a Geelong Supporter!

Pete Caldwell, John McAdam and Jason Mears

Preston Band then performed at the Bright Community Centre in the evening. The concert was in honour of Jack Kett, who was very much a part of Preston's history. It was great to see so many come along to hear the band, and to see Jack's family there.

Below is a letter from the Kett Family

OPEN LETTER TO THE DAREBIN CITY BRASS BAND

From

DR RUSSELL KETT (B.Ed, Phys .Ed,B. App Sci, B.Chiro)

Dear Band Members,

I hope I find you all in good health and fine tune.

I am writing to you on behalf of the entire Kett Family in order to express our heart felt thanks for your participation in the forthcoming Jack Kett Memorial Concert.

John (Jack) Francis Kett joined the then ‘Preston Band’ in the late1950’s, following his brother Tom who joined a few years earlier. Jack played euphonium at Preston for 30 years and was Musical Director of the Ringwood Municipal Band for a similar period. Both Jack and Tom achieved life memberships at Preston and Ringwood.

Jack was a pivotal influence in encouraging the Preston Band to return to Bright for Easter concerts and Anzac Day marches. The Preston Band was a regular and a welcomed attraction for both locals and tourists for decades.

Bright has always been more than a special place for the Kett Family. Jack met his wife Norma in Porepunkah and they eventually settled there until Jacks sudden death in 2004. Norma stayed on until just this year when she moved to Torque to be closer to family.

My earliest childhood memories are of Bright and the Preston Band marching down the main street amounst the Autumn leaves to the clock tower. The band concerts were always a great excitement. The Bright halls were filled to capacity and the chill of the night air was warmed with the melodious sounds from the stage and the thunderous of applause from the audience.

To the Kett Family, the sound of the Preston Band is the sound of our hero Jack Kett. The sound also reminds us of Tom Kett who is still playing in bands all over Melbourne. The sound of the Preston Band also reminds us of other great artists like Tom Paulin; Peter Caldwell , Arthur Withers, Bill Weatley, Fred Lenne, Ollie Clark , Alex Ferguson, Charlie Smith and others who crafted the sounds to a golden era in our lives.

With your kind and gracious appearance, this years’ Jack Kett Memorial Concert once again stirs the memories of those great days and those precious moments that we shared with Jack Kett and the Preston Band.

Once again, many thanks!

17th February 2008

Three members of Darebin City Brass travelled to the Ern Keller to perform as part of Prestige Brass.

Prestige Brass was a band put together especially for this competition and consisted of players from Australia and beyond. The concept was a success with Prestige Brass winning the competiton!

Pete Caldwell, Rob Ford and Jas Mears with the Ern Keller cups!

Prestige Brass

7th February 2008

Preston Band would like to welcome the following new players:

Nick Maturano

Jess Rodda

John Sedgewick

John Warren

Northern Brass would like to welcome the following new players:

Bonnie

25th November 2007

Congratulations to Geelong West Brass Band and Northern Brass for winning the 2007 Merv Simpson Band of the Year award! The announcement and presentation was made at the VBL Showcase concert on Sunday 25th November 2007.

Congratulations to both bands!

The shield will be shared by the two bands. It will spend the first six months with Geelong West and then will travel to Northern Brass!

Paul O'Toole (Geelong West) and Andrew Power (MD Northern Brass)