Leeston

When I proposed to my Kiwi husband, Stephen, he said, “Yes, as long as our children can grow up in New Zealand.” So, we came to New Zealand from Rugby, England – the home of the great game – in 2005, when our youngest daughter was two. We had only recently moved when I stumbled upon the gorgeous Ellesmere Brass Band Hall. I turned up at rehearsals with my clarinet, not having played for some years, and that was the beginning of my involvement with the band and the hall.

The Ellesmere Big Band started in 1902 as a brass band but, when numbers were dropping, late in the 20th century they decided to add piano, rhythm and other instruments, transforming it into more of a concert band. I joined in that evolutionary stage, and we played mostly popular music. It was another seven years before we really established ourselves as a big band.

I was wholeheartedly welcomed into the band, like all new members are. Initially, I played with the tenor horns, but over time I have mixed playing clarinet, tenor and alto saxophone. And, when suddenly there were one too many alto players and never enough trombones, I decided to teach myself the trombone!

I knew I wanted to be a clarinettist from a very young age. When I told my parents, my father played me Peter and the Wolf to see if I could pick out the clarinet, which I did, and that was that.

The thing about the Ellesmere Big Band is that it has always been a community band. We do have some professional musicians, ex-Army band people and music teachers, but we always emphasise that we are a community band. Our most important gigs are Anzac Day and the local A&P show.

The hall, constructed from weatherboard and tin, was built by the original band in the late 1920s. It looks great from the outside, but inside it’s even more amazing– painted in period colours of buttermilk yellow with green trims. It’s full of memorabilia, including photos, prizes and certificates from earlier band periods that included members who fought in the First and Second World Wars.

A spiral staircase at the back of the hall leads to a little mezzanine floor where we store our brass band music and instruments. For the last eighteen years, I’d been looking at a broken clock up there; then I read an article in the local paper, The Ellesmere Echo, about a clockmaker who was a band member. I checked the clock and, sure enough, his name was on it. So, over the summer break – as well as unscrewing all the chairs and re-upholstering them with nobody knowing – I got the clock working! Now it hangs in the hall again.

The hall is a historic building, but the members of the band contribute the most to its upkeep. We’ve had sewing and cleaning bees, and we fundraise to pay insurance, heating and travel costs when we play gigs like the Christchurch Big Band Festival and Harbour Street Jazz and Blues Festival. For a while, our tenor saxophone player mowed the grass in the parking area, and we’ve got a retired signwriter in the band who has done stand banners for us and painted the kitchen. The president, Alex Hayward, lives in Leeston, and every Anzac Day he gets out his long ladder so we can fly the flag. Everyone pitches in, which is how local community things should be.

We recently created a fundraising event at the nearby Rolleston Community Centre. I volunteered to make around 150 scones, bought two litres of cream and made four jars of raspberry jam, while someone else organised the savouries. The band played two sets, we had three people in the kitchen doing the food, and my husband was at the door checking tickets. It was a huge success, but a lot of work!

It’s been lovely seeing kids growing up in the band, and the older people who have picked up instruments later in life, flourish. Our oldest member is eighty-three and our youngest is fourteen! Everybody is kind to everybody else, and it is such a happy place, which really shows in the music. If I hadn’t had the band for the last nineteen years, I would have had a very boring life.

I care so much about the band and the hall. In three years, we’ll be celebrating 125 years of the Ellesmere Big Band and, as the joke goes, “We have no original members” – we are that old.