Autumn Festival

Armidale is celebrating its annual Autumn Festival. It's a curious mixture of events, with cultural attractions, a street parade, and a fun-fair. We had to miss the parade yesterday because of other appointments, which was a pity as it's usually a lengthy multicultural affair.

However, we were treated to some pipe bands practising in the mall just outside the post office. Armidale has Scottish ancestry and so do quite a few other towns in Northern NSW. Many have pipe bands and yesterday morning some came together for an impromptu practice. It was very pleasant watching over 50 people playing the bagpipes and collectively they made an impressive sound. Where would one find that number outside of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo?

We gave the fun-fair a miss in the evening and headed to the Ex-Services club of which Dot and I are members. We'd heard that the Australian Army Band was going to give a performance and I imagined we'd listen to endless military marches by various well-known composers.

Nothing could have been further from the truth, apart from a rendition of Crown Imperial and an impressive arrangement of Waltzing Matilda. The rest of the two hours was devoted to an amazing array of big-band numbers from the 30s/40s, jazz and rhythm and blues, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, and various musicals including Phantom of the Opera. Band members sang a heap of well known songs and they even brought along three more bag-pipers to accompany the brass / wind band in Amazing Grace and others. There was an interesting duet for a combination of instruments I'd never heard before: Tuba and Piccolo. The Tuba was played standing up by a female member of the band and I had visions her dropping it. Finally, one number was for four saxaphones, and one of the players reminded of Bill Clinton!

The performances were highly professional and players were all dressed in white military uniforms (except of course for the pipers). All the instruments were wind apart for drums and an oddity - a violin, which accompanied the pipers. It was highly entertaining.

AS