NATIONAL BAND MEMBERS :

This page provides  a short  description of all the National Bands that our members have selected for over the years.  The material has been provided by the actual Band Members that toured with the respective bands.

To the best of our knowledge the first National Band New Zealand  that Our members were selected for was  in 1962 and we were very proud to have had two members  selected for this band. They were Norman Goffin and Gilbert Evans who flew the flag for the "Onslow Band"

It is a great honour to be in one of  these bands  and we are very proud of all our members that have been selected over the years.

To see a full list of all the members of our band that have played in a National Band please click below :

Click here to see full list

The following is a brief description of each National Band. 

1962  National Band NZ : Submitted by Gil Evans.

This Band was made up of 40 players and 2 Members of the NZBBA.

It  was Conducted by K.G.L.Smith MBE with the President of the NZBBA and as Manager Ray Mowat.   Drum Major was Keith Manning

There were 2 members from the Evening Post Band in Gil Evans and  Norman Goffin.

Achievements: 

World Concourse Music, Limburg 1962

Winners Brass Band Section 337 points out of 340

Pieces played were Rhapsody In Brass, Black Friars, The Sea.

Edinburgh Festival Brass Band Contest 1962

Winners Both Hymn & Test Selection,

Pieces played were Hymn The Rosette Hues Of The Early Dawn (Neville Hildreth, Test Rhapsody in Brass.

The Band extensively toured Holland England & Scotland and I guess one of the highlights would have been to play at the Queens Garden Party at Buckingham Palace , and the many stories told with the many billets we were put up with.

All in all a Marvelous experience.

1970 National Band : Submitted by Ian Marriner 

This is a brief summary of the 1970 National Bands overseas tour.  The Band

consisted of  53 brass players, a Maori concert party lead by Wayne Panapa, managed by P M Brooker and the Secretary was Mark Blackie. 

The musical Director was Elgar Clayton and deputy music Director was Lloyd Thorne.  In amongst the172 concerts we played we also managed to travel some 50,000 miles by all means possible even to the point of traveling by a special train put on by British Rail between Edinburgh and Teeside near Newcastle on Tyne .

The contesting results for the tour were; 

First place Brass Band Section, at the World Music Concourse, Kerkrade , Holland .

First place at the same event at the same contest.

Second place in the Display marching at the same contest at Kerkrade . 

Official Band New Zealand day Expo 1970 Osaka , Japan . We also manager a 14 day concert  series at the Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh during the 1970 Commonwealth Games.  We also managed to see some of the Games events. Amongst the strange places and Cities we visited was Moscow , no concert just a three day "in transit" break from travel.  These are just a few items from the early part of the tour.  

1974 National Band : (No summary provided yet) 

But we do have a photo of Onslow Members provided by Don Bly :

Members from left to right :

Don Bly,  Brad Clements,  Ken Jackson, 

Norman Goffin,  Neville Cudby,  Merv Allison,  Peter Ryan.

1976 National Band:  Submitted by Ian Marriner  (Internal New Zealand Tour). 

The Band assembled on Saturday 21st August 1976 in Auckland , and started training on the same afternoon.

Our first concert was given in Auckland the following Thursday night just 5 days later. The next concert was held in Whangarei the following night.  Subsequent concerts were held in Hamilton ,

Whakatane (lunch time), and Gisborne that evening. 

The final North Island concert was held in Wellington and the next day we all departed by Ferry  for Picton and a  lunchtime show at Blenheim followed by an evening concert at Nelson.  The next day we set off for Greymouth then to Haast where we “overnighted” followed by a days travel to Invercargill. 

The next day’s journey was to Gore and hence to Dunedin for an evening concert. Next days concert was a lunchtime affair at Oamaru followed by an evening performance at Timaru.  By 8th September we had reached Ashburton for an evening concert then on to Christchurch for our final evening concert.  Friday 10th September was spent in Christchurch recording radio programmes for Radio New Zealand .  Saturday the 11th  September was our final day when we disbanded and set off for home. 

After fourteen evening concerts and six lunchtime shows we felt we had earned our pennies.  Between 26th August and 9th September we performed twenty concerts and travelled from Whangarei to Invercargill by Bus, a distance of   approximately 2,500 Kilometers plus a few kilometers by ferry.

In addition we played the number “The Accursed Huntsman” by Cesar Franck thirteen times by the conclusion to our evening concerts.

Musical Director was Mervyn J Waters (dec’d) Guest artist Ossie Cheesman, Manager Alan Brieseman, Drum major, Tony Cowan and Secretary E.J. Ormrod.