Westgate on Tour
Touring, both interstate and internationally, has always been a highlight on the Westgate calendar. Trips to Queensland were frequent throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. Of course, organising a bunch of youths to undertake such an endeavour was no small feat. Westgate initially utilised the service of ‘Geographical Educational Tours’ to coordinate their itineraries and accommodation, while painstakingly locking in a series of performances along the way themselves. A long and tiresome bus ride was also the primary means of travel for the youth band, but air travel quickly became an alternative and gained greater popularity as the band matured and time-off from work became a factor in planning the trip.
“One of our memorable visits was to Roy’s Aunties who were in a retirement village up there somewhere and we played at their retirement, that was worth a memory. Plus that incident at Pacific Fair. They were all successful the trips up there. Rain or shine, we had the privilege of playing inside most of the time in various shopping centres up there, except for Pacific Fair - we played outside there. But no, they were all great trips, they really were. The band always gave a good name for themselves. And we played in Cavil Mall and we played a Mariachi band. And we had two guys sitting down with big sombreros on them, shoulder blankets, playing trumpets, like two Mexicans, and things like that come to mind.”
As Derek recounts above, Westgate Concert Band found themselves playing at numerous shopping centres and public venues on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. Although not all band members were always able to attend, the different section configurations challenged players in a positive way, by requiring them to perform in positions they were perhaps less familiar with thus increasing their confidence and skill. While these playouts were no doubt a welcome opportunity to perform and promote the band, the true value of such interstate trips lay in the social bonds they forged. Similar to the Saturday night shenanigans undertaken at weekend rehearsal camps at Doxa or Anglesea, much of what goes on at these trips, particularly those of a beverage-fuelled, late-night or practical joke variety, are forever immortalised in a special (and somewhat secretive VIP) place for many Westgaters. After dinner sing-a-longs, early morning breakfast calls and a variety of collective hangover cures weave a tight-knit tether that extends beyond our already enviable community vibe.
“My memories of the band trips (5 Gold Coast, 3 Sunshine Coast, 1 Hawaii, 1 Adelaide and 1 Tasmania) are of practical jokes and getting to know other band members in a close but relaxed environment… the best events occurred either on the beach (Toga, Toga, Toga) or around the dinner table (park bench, sing-a-longs, card games – not always honestly conducted)… No one trip has been better than the others as the social dynamics mean each journey is unique and is savoured for itself (now THAT’S Zen). To close with a quote, “you’ll never, never know if you never, never go”
Of all the past Westgate Concert Band tours, the one that is still recalled most fondly today is perhaps our trip to Hawaii back in 1988. While Westgate Concert Band’s participation in the Pacific Basin Band Festival was no doubt a remarkable experience in itself, it was surely the incredible efforts the band went to in order to achieve this common goal that solidified the group and made the trip one for the records books.
Westgate Concert Band raised a whopping $34,611.94 (about $83,044.32 today) through donations, performances, raffles and every fundraising avenue you can imagine, from lamingtons to wine to a disco and a bush ball. With this effort, a band 49-members strong few to Honolulu, along with Derek, Roy and additional support crew, for a six-day intensive festival. Plenty of rehearsal time was scheduled in for the Band, with sectional clinics run at the Iolani School, while our conductors also attended Conductors Forums and Seminars. Of course, there was also time for sightseeing, with trips to Pearl Harbour, Sea Life Park and Hanauma Bay.
Westgate Concert Band received a ‘Silver Award’ for the Festival as well as the ‘Most Spirited Band Award’. Although such tours became less frequent in the late 1990s and into the 2000s, member enthusiasm and dedication still sees Westgate Concert Band intermittently returning to Queensland, last visiting in 2012. Sounds like we’re overdue for another trip!
“Hawaii, that was something to be believed. To have got there in the first place… I went into Melbourne one morning very early to be interviewed by the two guys who ran this festival, Pacific Basin Band Festival it was known, and they wanted the band to go, and I said, “Well, for us, this is going to be a mammoth task, but we’ll endeavour to do it.” And we did. We played out numerous times. Chocolate deals and wine deals, I think we had. Beer. We even sold Westgate Band drinking glasses - I’ve got a couple in the cupboard over there still. And we were given a grant by the Queen Elizabeth something-or-other I think it was, of so many thousands dollars. But in the end we accumulated enough money to do that trip to Hawaii. The band over there was an absolute, what should I say, success? More than a success! …We were a very popular band all the time we were there and I think in fact at the end of that trip we were voted the friendliest band of the group that went there. You know, so, we made a good name for ourselves there.”