David Polain
Above: Young Dave making a start on his musical career
Above: A drummer in the making on Dad Bill's drums
Above: A young trombone champion
Above: Ready to make his presence felt at the start of another street march
Above: In the heyday of Enfield City Band with some other faces still familiar to this day
Above: The passing of the Enfield Baton from the legendary Ron Arthur to a young and keen Dave P.
Above: With his brothers in the mid-nineties.
Above: Conducting Tanunda Town Band with a pretty decent trumpet player in the background!
Above: DP in the engine room driving the Tanunda Oompah Band.
Above: Conducting Tanunda at Melodienacht with good mate Todd Martin in Elvis mode up front.
Above: Two peas in a pod, Dave and Mikey Magin.
Above: The Polain boys, Back l-r Brett, Joel, Dave and in front Bill and Brad.
Above: Dave in Tanunda Bandroom with trombone superstar Peter Moore and Bruce Raymond.
Above: Dave Superpolain with his Lois Lane aka Rachel Beck.
Above: Olivia Newton-John enjoying Dave's company.
Above: Hugh Jackman standing with his mentor!
Above: Dave enjoying a cocktail in the pool with his long-time mate Todd Martin whilst waiting for his ham and pineapple pizza with extra pineapple to be served!
Introduction:
David Polain is not bland.
The style marking for his life-score should be marked “Appassionato”. In 2022 the word passionate is used often and freely, barbeque techniques, relationships, footy, fishing, alcoholic beverages …... the list goes on! Dave Polain’s “passions” include all of the above and music. He makes bold statements through his trombone, his arrangements and from the conductor’s podium. His stance on what a brass band should and could sound like is as potentially polarising and stimulating as whether pineapple should go on pizza! During our 5,855-word conversation the bit that stimulated me most had to do with arranging for brass band with or without a rhythm section, an area that I found particularly pertinent.
David has been raised well, he has genuine depth of character and talent. He is strong enough to be honest in both his criticisms and compliments, he doesn’t suffer fools willingly but treats those with less ability than him with respect and compassion.
Being around people who don’t mind telling what they really think about you and your musical efforts is highly beneficial providing you have a reserve of resilience on which to call. Thankfully Colin and Barbara Meikle gave me that so I have been able to benefit from my days with DP. The other side of this coin is that when David Polain and Bob Hower (another ‘tell it like it is’ merchant of the Adelaide music scene) pay you a compliment you know you’re not just getting smoke blown up your rear end ….. so to speak! One of my personal music checks before presenting anything in public is “would I be embarrassed to do this in front of DP?”
Please enjoy reading about the musical journey of a good bloke and muso …. David Polain.
Geoff Meikle, 2022
David Polain, Brass Band Profile
Interview Transcript, 12 July 2022
Geoffrey Meikle; “I’m here with David Polain, the one and only and we’re doing his inter… (DP; ‘Nah, there is another!’), haha …. view for Bonded by Brass. So, what’s your name David?”
David Polain; “David Polain, no ‘e’ on the end of Polain... (GM; ‘How about that! and you were born?’)… in Adelaide, there is an ‘e’ on the end of Adelaide!”
GM; “Good and there’s an ‘e’ on the end of Charmaine, that’s your mum’s name, I notice as well, (DP; ‘Yes, that’s right’) .... Bill and Charmaine, a wonderful couple they are too. Right, instruments?”
DP; “I started my music life on drums because Dad always had a drum kit set up at home. So from when I could sit up by myself, I was playing the drums and he would sometimes use an old speaker cabinet with magazines on top if his drums were set up at a venue …. (GM; ‘That’s where you learned to triple stroke roll!’)...haha, yes that’s right, ratamacue…..and yes, then in high school, second year, I started on the trombone.”
GM; “So you didn’t start trombone until you were 14?”
DP; “Yeah, 13 ½ or something, let me do my sums…. it was early 1978. My teacher was Irving Rosenthall at school but I couldn’t play two notes without Dad assisting at home and also sometimes John Pettigrew would have a listen because he was on the way through to Tanunda band practice.”
GM; “And you play tuba and bass trombone in the Police band now?”
DP: “Tuba – I used to just muck around on, and then when the Police Band were looking for a tuba player, I er… don’t know whether I should tell this story or not! ….. I’ll tell it because it’s hilarious. I rang Yamaha Music who used to have a travelling roadshow of all their instruments and said there was a brass band (GM; ’Is this when you were working at Allans?’) ... sorry yes, context. I told them there was a brass band in South Australia who were looking to buy a tuba and I wanted to steer them towards Yamaha rather than a Sovereign, so they sent it over and I did an audition on that for the Police Band and eventually got in but it took a while because of the way that the department works, which I know very well these days…….. I think it was about fifteen months between when I played and when I started, maybe eighteen.”
GM; “Well if the Police Department is anything like the Education Department it’s probably a cumbersome bureaucracy.”
DP; “Yes, it is, because it’s so big. Then when Stephen Boyle left in 1998, I moved to bass trombone, which I really enjoy.”
GM; “Ok, that’s got your instruments sorted out so who were your first influences and who gave you your first lessons?”
DP; “Well Dad was always practising at home after dinner, so I guess he was a big influence. My first official lesson was with Irving Rosenthall at Marden High School, as well as that Dad used to have records playing …. sometimes brass band music or big band music ... Buddy Rich because of the drumming side of it, Woody Herman and Don Lusher a little bit, Urbie Green which was a little bit out there….. err another guy, I can’t remember his name, he passed away a couple of years ago... (GM; ‘Trombone player?….Bill Watrous?’) Oh, that’s right Bill Watrous was the weird one, Urbie Green was more my style of listening.”
GM; “I remember talking to Bill (Polain) a few years ago and he said that he used like listening to Oscar Peterson and playing along with that stuff too.”
DP; “Yeah and of course Frank Sinatra, who was big on the playlist.”
GM; “Well they all sound like pretty good influences. What bands have you played in?”
DP; “Well I started with the Klemzig Junior Band back in 1975 ... and I think it was about the time that Peter Trotta left the band, he was a bass trombonist there, he left sometime during 1978 to go to Sydney and be a professional….”
GM; “Are you sure about that date? (DP; ‘Nooo..’) It’s just that I reckon I started College with Peter Trotta in 1980 and think it may have been just after that he went to Sydney with Bob Johnson and Daly-Wilson etc ….. It doesn’t matter it’s not all that important.”
DP; “..Yeah….there was a reason that all of a sudden I had to play bass trombone on a King 3B with Enfield Band in 1978 because Peter wasn’t there .... it may have been with his heart operation. Then I started with the City of Enfield Band until 1983, then I started playing with the State Opera…. yeah, you’re right, end of ‘81 Peter left I reckon ... because he rang me and said “give State Opera a call because I’m leaving and you should audition for them.” So, 1982, which was my first year out of high school. I nailed that job! I was 17 when I got it and turned 18 during that year. Then later that year, the ASO were having auditions for a casual trombone position. Percy Partington was retiring and had a year of sick leave. I auditioned for that; I got the excerpts and I think it was Jim Dempsey, who knew my dad, and knew that I was playing in the State Opera …. That’s how I got that audition. They rang me – I didn’t even know it was on.
I got the excerpts and nothing was making any sense, so I went to Des Blundell on the way to the audition ... I went from my place to Des’s and had a lesson ... he said ‘No, you’re not breathing through it, think of the whole phrase’. It was the Thievish Magpie and I was sort of breathing each note if you know what I mean …. so I went straight to the audition with all that fresh in my mind and kinda nailed it. If I hadn’t done that, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here .... (GM; ‘I think we would!’) …. but that was the opportunity for me to get into the professional thing with the ASO. I did two and a half years over four years, because of the way it happened. Howard (Parkinson), who was a massive influence on my trombone playing, was stepping down from first trombone and Dennis Freeman moved up from second trombone to first and I filled the second chair. So I did that for all of ‘83 and auditioned again at the end of that year…. Sticks (Ian Denbigh) and I had a tie so we got six months each, that was before he went to the Trust Orchestra. Then in 1985 Warwick Tyrell came on the scene, Dennis was back on second. Then in the following year, ’86, Dennis went to Melbourne so I auditioned again for the second trombone job, which I got, so I did all of ‘86.”
GM; “Well there was a bit of experience there. These days you’re arranging for orchestras and stuff so sitting in that orchestra for a few years must have……”
DP; “Oh yeah absolutely, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of that if hadn’t had that experience. I have to say that when I was first in there I was so green! ... it was a little bit above me. I got into it eventually, but when I first joined, I was eighteen years old and still wet behind the ears.”
GM; “But you always had a great sound and were rhythmically accurate. One of the things Adrienne (Meikle) says about you is that she feels that you are the best conductor around… (DP; ‘Thanks Adrienne!!’) because of the tempos that you set and the way you go about rehearsing the band … that early drumming experience must have had a bit to do with that”
DP; “Yep, there was that thing with tempos ... I did my first drumming gig ... professional, at fourteen. Dad had two gigs at one time so I did the first hour for him at the Pizza Palace on ANZAC Highway with Norm Koch and Blair Schwarz ... so I filled in for the first hour, got paid in pizza, which you know I was skinny before that!! Working with those guys, Brian Green on Sousaphone and Normie, they’d be really strict on tempos. They would just turn around if I was behind or ahead and give me a ‘here it is’ kind of thing (GM; ‘You can’t beat on the job training can you’)…. Absolutely, if you’ve got someone who is patient enough to deal with that.”
GM; “So, brass bands?”
DP; “Yep brass bands. I joined Tanunda in 1983, which lasted until ‘89 or’88 and then I went back and helped Ron in his last year as conductor at Enfield and then took over from him. It must have been ’89, I think, that I conducted the first contest there. I went back to Tanunda in 1994 as a player for a year and then started conducting (Tanunda) in’95.”
GM; “That Enfield conducting phase, how do you view that now with the benefit and wisdom of hindsight?”
DP; “I was very much of the opinion that brass bands should be competing and we should be playing competition music all the time, which is 180 degrees from where I am now, it really is! With that in mind, I think I was too tough on players who weren’t there for that ... they were there to play and have a good time (GM; ‘I’m hearing you!’) …. you don’t have to win all the time.”
GM; “I know when I conducted Salisbury for those 14 years from’98 to 2012 I went through a ‘Bull in a China Shop’ phase …. and you end up, metaphorically speaking, flogging the guts out of little old ladies trying to make them play A-grade test pieces and spoiling people’s fun. It’s one of the reasons that I’ve brought professionals like yourself in on this. I’m interested in that point where professional music-making and amateur music-making intersect and the tension that’s created there and how it can be managed. I don’t know that it’s been managed all that well in some ways. I don’t know how you feel about that.”
DP; “Certainly in my early years I was just rah, rah, rah ... should be doing this ...and maybe a little of that when I first joined Tanunda because there was a bit of a turnover of players when I first conducted them because I think I demanded a lot more than Nev Alderslade and not everyone wanted that. It started me thinking about what’s the point of trying for this if people don’t want it and if they don’t want it they don’t come ... (GM; ‘You end up having to drag in whoever…’) ... in professional (terms) the difference between community bands and professional bands is that there are no professional band championships, they’re no such thing. You play music for the sake of playing music and it’s not judged.”
GM; “So Enfield, Tanunda and then…?”
DP; “The Police Band in ‘95”
GM; “What grade are they in?!!”
DP; “Hehe!”
GM; “Haha! .... Right, a point of tension...Contesting, is it worth the effort?”
DP; “When I first started I would have said yes because, with The Klemzig Junior Band especially, we were a good band back then and we used to do a lot of competing, going interstate to do things and all that … (GM; ‘It was just the norm wasn’t it. You didn’t question whether it was good, bad or indifferent because you were with your mates etc.’) …. yeah that’s right. The important thing about contesting for me is the journey from when you play that test piece for the first time ‘til when you play it on the contest stage. If you play it better on the contest platform – better than you’ve played it before that – mission accomplished. You can’t control anything after that. Adjudicators look for different things, which is why I think contesting is just garbage. It depends on whether they want something that’s accurate or more fluidity so ‘slight blemish bar three’ doesn’t matter…. to some it does, the accuracy is important, to others it’s about the whole performance…. Does it move you?…. you know!”
GM; “It’s a contentious issue, Glenn Madden in his interview said he’s ok with contesting but there should be just 1st, 2nd and 3rd places given, no points awarded. Jimbo (Jim Dempsey) used to say about contesting, ‘If you win, everything’s fine. But if you lose, the adjudicator is shithouse!’.”
DP; “Haha exactly right, I know a guy like that…. he says that a lot! (GM;’So it’s worth it to improve the standard of the band’) ….. but not the actual result. Results mean nothing. Just go up and do exactly what you do but don’t have an adjudicator listening to it ... that’s me (GM; ‘Just try to play nice music’). That’s the thing, some of the music that’s chosen is utter trash, I remember doing a thing in my first year at Tanunda, ‘Theme and Variations’ by Joe Horowitz and it was just garbage, the theme was ‘dar da da da dump!’ and everything else was built out of that, everyone hated it.”
GM; “There have been a few ordinary ones ... what’s that one ‘Dar rat dat dar darat darat dar’… (DP; ‘Oh yeah, Royal Parks third movement, the first two movements are glorious then that on the end!’).
Alright. What awards, prizes and achievements have made you glad that you made the effort?”
DP; “...Umm... again awards… that’s kind of… I got the tenor trombone first prize a couple of times. More recently I did a master of music degree in conducting and I got it! That was a lot of effort with Luke Dolman at the Con and I’ve just recently finishing paying off the HECS debt, it was forty-three grand or something (GM; ‘Bloody Hell!’), yeah so that was worth the effort. I’m in the role of Acting Conductor at the SAPOL Band at the moment, they haven’t auditioned for it yet. Doing the Master’s Degree took every bit of brain space I had, but... (GM; ‘You’re already a good conductor’) ... not in that realm, I was trying to elevate ... and not for doing Tchaikovsky or any of those, I don’t have that knowledge it’s more the …. (GM; ‘John Williams’) ….. yeah exactly. If the orchestra all of a sudden need a conductor to do a John Williams concert, I know it all and I’ve got stick technique enough to do it. It was also to do things like the other day when I did the ABBA show. So that was kinda ‘Mission Accomplished’ but I need to do about another forty of them to pay and make it worthwhile monetarily. Actually, the most favourite thing I did in the whole two years with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra was doing ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ live to the movie back in 2019. As part of the Masters with the orchestra, I got to conduct The Empire Strikes Back, that was a dream, an absolute dream. I was assistant conductor that week in the orchestra – not that I got to do anything – and if Nick Buck had fallen over, I wouldn’t have been able to fill in. He was the guy who was conducting the actual performance, he’s an Aussie guy from the Eastern Seaboard who is now working for whoever puts those shows on around the world. I can’t remember the name of the company he works for but they do all of John Williams’ music, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and all that stuff.’’
GM; “I’ve often thought, with trying to make money from playing music and even conducting, although, when you get into that upper echelon, it would be very well paid of course. Especially after spending thirty eight years as a schoolteacher where I was quite nicely rewarded I thought if you were to try to do the same thing with playing ….. if I took my teacher’s salary and you took you’re policeman’s salary and divided it by 52 then worked out how many gigs a week you would have to do ... then you would need to factor in holidays, long service leave, sick leave and all that other stuff, it doesn’t make sense really does it? It’s a love job at the end of the day (DP; ‘Absolutely, absolutely’) ... Anyhow ... your preferred styles of music?”
DP; “I don’t really have a favourite. Actually, yes, I do, soundtracks music. Film soundtracks would be my fave (GM; ‘When I think of David Polain, that would be the first thing I’d think of, John Williams and all that stuff’). John Williams and I were mates long before I knew because I used to watch ‘Lost in Space’, which he wrote the music for. It actually took me ages to realise that we were mates, not that he knows! There are also some ballet scores that are just exquisite too, the Prokofiev ‘Romeo and Juliet’….. (GM; ‘I remember having a crack at that at Enfield’) that’s right ‘Death of Juliet’ as well as ‘Montagues and Capulets’... as well there’s a lot of opera that is excellent .. Pucini…”
GM; “You and I had a couple of years together in the State Opera Orchestra, I was there from the end of ‘83 through ‘84 and ’85 ... (DP; ‘That’s right, bloody ‘ell!’) ... favourite musicians, bands and musical associates? You wouldn’t even have to move out of your own blood group for that with Bradley and Bill.”
DP; “They’re big in there of course, especially what Brad’s doing with The Hindley Street Country Club (GM; ‘Oh yeah, especially when he sings, I reckon he sounds better than the original when he sings those Sting things’) ... He describes his voice as high and whiney! I think he’s underselling himself a little hehe.”
GM; “That’s a very un-generous description I’d say. What about Charmaine, we hear all about Brad and Bill. What was Charmaine like?”
DP; “Well, she learnt piano as part of her schooling, at one stage wherever they were, maybe Quorn, she was in a Catholic school or a church school of some kind because her teacher was Sister Emaculata. Unfortunately whoever taught her early on …. she used to play fingers out rather than the proper style (GM; ‘Thelonius Monk style!!) …. so she couldn’t do a lot of the intricate stuff but she would play for her own enjoyment.”
GM; “She accompanied all the kids for their solos. Stephen John remembers her really fondly.”
DP; “Yeah, yeah, her great ability was to follow the soloist, if they jumped a line she just went bang! ... on it, I hadn’t heard anyone else do that.”
GM; “A little bit like Jeannie Magin. When I interviewed Jean, she said that sometimes if the kids made a mistake, she would make a mistake on purpose so they didn’t feel too bad ... isn’t that such a lovely motherly thing to do!”
DP; “Yeah, yeah that’s right, as Mum’s Parkinsons got worse she couldn’t play anymore, she used to try but it, yeah, didn’t work.”
GM; “Who else have you played with that you thought was pretty good?”
DP; “My favourite MD that I ever worked with was during a Cabaret Festival and it was the partner and MD of Lorna Luft. Lorna’s the other daughter of Judy Garland, not Liza Minelli. She was over here doing a Cabaret Show and I was in the horn section for that. Her MD was using sound bytes and was sitting like we are now but sitting further away because there was a grand piano between us and a saxophone row. It was all eyes on him because he was cueing us with his eyes, and also, because of the run of the show and various technical difficulties, we didn’t get to do a full run of the show before the opening night. So, the last three songs or so we were flying blind. We had music to read, but there were lots of pauses and .... (GM; ‘Recitatives?)… not so much recitatives but voice-overs. It was telling the story of Lorna Luft, so he was playing, looking at us and cueing us with his eyes, hit his MAC to trigger the sound, stop, back at us and bang here we go ... it was just so easy because of him. If there was anyone else in the job who wasn’t up to that it wouldn’t have worked ... so that’s the sort of clarity that I try to provide when I conduct. Some of the things you only get one rehearsal, a sound check then you’re on at nine, and if it’s new music for everyone you’ve just got to be on the ball ... just slightly one step ahead.
I’d also like to mention Nicholas Braithwaite who has been enormously helpful and guided me along my conducting pathway, especially in my early years. Plus, he is a fantastic bloke and wonderful musician. It’s fair to say I wouldn’t be where I am today without his guidance.”
GM; “It’s a bit of a contentious issue …. when I interviewed Jim (Dempsey) and Greg (Frick) in particular, and maybe a little bit with Whish (Peter Whish-Wilson), they didn’t get too carried away with canning conductors, but you could just tell that some are OK and some are not so good. It does make a hell of a difference if they are good. Jim said that one indicator was that the players would get to the concert early and be practising because they wanted to get it right. Any rate ... What would you do differently?”
DP; “I kinda like where I am now (GM; ‘You look like you’re coasting along quite well doing all these nice gigs and playing really well’) …. I’m not playing well at the moment because I haven’t played much in the last couple of years because of the conducting thing. I don’t have the time or inclination when I get home ... I’ve written another show as well - a ‘Shirley Bassey Tribute Show’ for an amazing talent from Queensland, so pretty much the last twelve months I’ve been writing when I get home …. these holidays I’ve had nothing to write and it’s been really nice, get home and I don’t have to rush.”
GM; “So we’ll say that everything is perfect! What effect has banding had on your family life?
DP; “When I started with Tanunda the second time, that’s when Judy really had to pull my weight as well, know what I mean with the kids and all that stuff? Especially when I took on the conducting thing in 2000; she really did the over-and-above to allow me to do that. I couldn’t have done that without her support. With Thursday nights, and sometimes Tuesday night rehearsals, I didn’t get to put them to bed when they were little, although by the time I finished, they were still up when I got home ... (GM; ‘They’re in their twenties now aren’t they?’) ….. and then some – Deanna turns thirty one this year and Joel thirty four.”
GM; “Has banding influenced your social life?”
DP; “Yes … when I first joined Klemzig Band I was really, really shy – like ultra-shy; I had all these things that I wanted to do but I was too shy to do them ….. (However) being in that environment and seeing other people do them and nothing bad happening…. I started getting a little more ‘out there’ to what I am now, so I don’t know whether that’s good or not ... haha ... but yeah, it’s a massive positive effect and each group is like a family. You have your little squabbles now and then, but you absolutely come back to it.”
GM; “Gordon Alderslade said that he regards the members of the band as his second family and we’re the same at Salisbury. The proof of the pudding was the other night at Jim’s (Dempsey) wake when we all came together.
Right. What are your other interests?”
DP; “I enjoy fishing ... big time! ... (GM; ‘You are your father’s son!’) ... absolutely! Trombone and fishing; I’m following in his footsteps. I also really enjoy film editing, old family films and that sort of stuff. Putting them together and improving the vision and all that. I’m so far really crap at it but I’ve got the gear to do it, it’s just a matter of sitting in front of the computer. I do the occasional composition; I generally average about one composition every three years so I’m not quite prolific yet! …. but yeah, I enjoy that and I’m certainly influenced by the structure of film soundtracks.”
GM; “What lies ahead for you?”
DP; “Umm ... pretty much the same hopefully; more things like the ABBA show, for example. I stepped in last year in July for the Pink Floyd Orchestrated Show with the Southern Cross Symphony Orchestra. There was going to be a conductor from Sydney do that, Matthew Wood, who I did the Symphony Australia conducting course with in 2000. He got a job in the UK and there was something to do with the timing and having to be in isolation because of COVID meant that he wouldn’t be able to do the show, so I got called in at the last minute ... I picked up the music on the Wednesday and we did the show on the Saturday.”
GM; “I reckon it says something about contemporary pop music in the fact that people like the Hindley Street Country Club can dig up all this old stuff and perform it really beautifully and be very successful …. Pink Floyd, Led Zep …. I remember when I was school teaching in the early days I used a tape made by Eric Brice about the history of rock and pop. The young kids would know who Pink Floyd and Led Zep were because they’d heard their parents listening to it …..They don’t mind playing ‘Dreams’ by Fleetwood Mac because it’s just nice music.”
DP; “Exactly, I had no idea ‘cos I arranged a Led Zeppelin Show as well a couple of years ago. About the strength of their ballad writing – it was just fantastic, amazing and it was the same with Floyd. I didn’t arrange that but I had to look deeply into it. It’s just awesome.”
GM; “I’ve got respect for Floyd, their compositions and musicianship but their sound is a bit over-processed for me, a bit too electronic ... (DP; ‘Yeah they were prog rock.’) …. that’s right lots of people love them.
Ok Dave, so we’ve done the first part of the interview and because you’re a pro we’ll move on to the professional supplement. How would you characterise you’re approach to playing your instrument now compared with your early brass band days?”
DP; “I have a warm-up routine, but it depends on whether I’m warming up to do a show or warming up to do a day’s practise. If I’m doing a day’s practise, I’ll do a 45-minute gentle starting warm-up where I cover all the basics, and then I’ll rest for probably 30 minutes before I start on whatever I’m going to work on that day. Having said that, I don’t do that much anymore because currently I’m conducting mostly, so my time is devoted to looking at scores and working out how I’m going to approach that, seeing if there are any nasty corners that I have to get right so the band know what’s happening, that kind of thing.”
GM; “Is there any difference between the pressure you feel as a pro and the pressure you felt on the brass band contest stage?”
DP; “Yes, the pressure as a pro is very different to the contest, but to me is far more real because it has consequences. If you make a blue you won’t lose a gig but if you keep making mistakes under pressure then you’ll lose your job; not so much in the Police Band because you’re part of the Police Force and you’re sworn, but if I’m doing a gig on the outside I want to be really prepared. For example, a guy called George Ellis came over and did a Greek concert a couple of months ago. He’s coming over in a couple of weeks’ time to do a Queen Orchestrated concert – he did Hooked on Classics back in 2020. I was asked if I would like to be bass trombone in that ... I said ‘Yes’ and that’s the first time I’d played since COVID started, the first gig in over a year. So, I did prep for that as best I could, looked at the parts, practised them, tried to get them out of the way, did the rehearsal and thought ‘that was pretty good’ ... I’m ready for tonight. Got to the gig played the first thing ‘Also Spracht Zarathustra’ no problems, the next piece was ‘Hooked on Rodgers and Hammerstein’ I remember it ….. at the start of the second line there was a D major run starting on a B, whatever mode that is ... and I played a C natural instead of a C sharp and because I hadn’t played for so long it really threw me. I second-guessed myself through the rest of the show. I played like what I felt was shit, no-one else seemed to notice. I came off there and I was at the point of putting it down and never playing again …. (GM; ‘I’m sure you didn’t sound that bad Dave.’) ...it wasn’t so much sounding bad but making mistakes and missing things which I don’t normally do, but because I did and I hadn’t played for so long, I had no bank to call on to help me get through.”
GM; “It’s funny because Whish (Peter Whish-Wilson) said there was far more pressure playing in a brass band and Glenn (Madden) said the same thing. They said that there was something about the expectation if you’re coming into a brass band as a pro ….. as opposed to just playing in a band you’ve played in for years ... It’s a bit hard to say.”
DP; “I think for those two guys in particular, they would get to play a lot more in a brass band than they would in an orchestral concert, and the stuff that Whish would get to play on tuba is constant and so often mind-blowingly difficult .. (GM; ‘He seems to handle it alright!’) ... oh, he does, same as Glenn he can get over anything.”
GM; “Is there one particular quality that a musician needs to become a pro, or is there a cocktail of qualities you need to be able to perform professionally?”
DP; “Yeah everything…. across styles, you need to be across your own playing, resilience, stamina, flexibility ... you need to be able to handle pressure, certainly …”
GM; “Continuing on the cocktail theme. How many cocktails would you advise someone to consume before they perform?”
DP; “...Sometimes I have a beer before I play, not in the Police Band of course. If I’m conducting I don’t because I just need every faculty available. If I’m playing it depends on how hard the book is, if it’s an easy book I’ll have a beer or wine an hour and a half before the show.”
GM; “I found that I could have one beer before say the Bay Big Band gigs or jazz gigs, but if I got a few in me before a gig I found I just couldn’t play. Once the gig was under way I found I could sip on a beer, it’s as though you were working it off as you play ...”
DP; “... Absolutely, I found that when I played drums for the Gourmet Weekend at Kellermeister Wines. Because it was drums, I would get up there early to set up the kit ... I usually had them set up by 9 o’clock, then I’d have my first glass of wine and because I was playing drums all day you just keep working it off, like you say.”
GM; “The next two questions are multiple choice. Do you play for free when asked by a brass band? A; yes, B; No, please explain and C; only if they provide free cocktails!”
DP; “Is a Martini a cocktail? .... I suppose it is, isn’t it haha…. Ummm ... I dunno? …. depends what it entailed. If it was just a rehearsal and a show that’s fine but I wouldn’t do a contest because I have no interest in playing for a contest ….. so ‘Yes’ with that caveat.”
GM; “So the last question. Do you still enjoy being part of the brass band scene. A; Yes, B; No, please explain and C; Only if it involves a vast quantity of cocktails!”
DP; “B. No, I don’t actually enjoy the sound of a brass band anymore. When I was doing Tanunda, they gave me….err ... (GM; ‘Carte blanche?’) …. Yeah to make my ideal band sound which is not a traditional ‘English’ sound it’s more ‘Brass Band of Battle Creek’ sound …. I think they are spectacular, I don’t listen to ... if I hear Black Dyke play, just that vibrato etc. doesn’t do it for me anymore, when it used to be the only thing that I’d do. I much prefer the sound of a concert band. My favourite ensemble is a large brass ensemble, not brass band but brass ensemble, that’s the ultimate for me.”
GM; “When we went to England and sat in with various bands, what struck me was the difference between the sound of the whole band, which was invariably quite powerful as opposed to the sound of the individual players, especially the cornet players who still have that wobbly vibrato thing going on. But as an ensemble…. especially these days with these monster test pieces which are written in a way that tries to make the band play too loud ... (DP; ‘Yeah, I’d agree with that”). Then there’s this contentious point about introducing rhythm sections, which you did during your career. At what point does a brass band stop becoming a brass band? Just recently I’ve arranged music for a small brass band, sort of a ‘Street band’ type set-up and I’ve tried to make it sound full without using rhythm instruments backing our singer etc. Bruce (Raymond) wanted to use a couple of my arrangements but wanted rhythm parts so I had to think about whether the brass parts for the brass ensemble would work with rhythm as well. It did cause some confusion in my own mind …. I mean my stuff is down here and your stuff is up there but the thinking behind it is the same I reckon.”
DP; “I agree, I don’t think you can hand the tuba part to the bass player and have them both play the same line. A bass guitar has groove, but if you give a walking bass line to a Bb tuba it sounds terrible and that’s why I use a rhythm section – because we are doing more of the vocal stuff – you need the piano just so the band isn’t playing all the time because it is very physically demanding.”
GM; “I clearly remember those Melodienacht shows being a real endurance test! …. unlike this interview Dave, which has been real pleasure.
Cheers mate.”
David Polain is not bland.
The style marking for his life-score should be marked “Appassionato”. In 2022 the word passionate is used often and freely, barbeque techniques, relationships, footy, fishing, alcoholic beverages …... the list goes on! Dave Polain’s “passions” include all of the above and music. He makes bold statements through his trombone, his arrangements and from the conductor’s podium. His stance on what a brass band should and could sound like is as potentially polarising and stimulating as whether pineapple should go on pizza! During our 5,855-word conversation the bit that stimulated me most had to do with arranging for brass band with or without a rhythm section, an area that I found particularly pertinent.
David has been raised well, he has genuine depth of character and talent. He is strong enough to be honest in both his criticisms and compliments, he doesn’t suffer fools willingly but treats those with less ability than him with respect and compassion.
Being around people who don’t mind telling what they really think about you and your musical efforts is highly beneficial providing you have a reserve of resilience on which to call. Thankfully Colin and Barbara Meikle gave me that so I have been able to benefit from my days with DP. The other side of this coin is that when David Polain and Bob Hower (another ‘tell it like it is’ merchant of the Adelaide music scene) pay you a compliment you know you’re not just getting smoke blown up your rear end ….. so to speak! One of my personal music checks before presenting anything in public is “would I be embarrassed to do this in front of DP?”
Please enjoy reading about the musical journey of a good bloke and muso …. David Polain.
Geoff Meikle, 2022
David Polain, Brass Band Profile
Interview Transcript, 12 July 2022
Geoffrey Meikle; “I’m here with David Polain, the one and only and we’re doing his inter… (DP; ‘Nah, there is another!’), haha …. view for Bonded by Brass. So, what’s your name David?”
David Polain; “David Polain, no ‘e’ on the end of Polain... (GM; ‘How about that! and you were born?’)… in Adelaide, there is an ‘e’ on the end of Adelaide!”
GM; “Good and there’s an ‘e’ on the end of Charmaine, that’s your mum’s name, I notice as well, (DP; ‘Yes, that’s right’) .... Bill and Charmaine, a wonderful couple they are too. Right, instruments?”
DP; “I started my music life on drums because Dad always had a drum kit set up at home. So from when I could sit up by myself, I was playing the drums and he would sometimes use an old speaker cabinet with magazines on top if his drums were set up at a venue …. (GM; ‘That’s where you learned to triple stroke roll!’)...haha, yes that’s right, ratamacue…..and yes, then in high school, second year, I started on the trombone.”
GM; “So you didn’t start trombone until you were 14?”
DP; “Yeah, 13 ½ or something, let me do my sums…. it was early 1978. My teacher was Irving Rosenthall at school but I couldn’t play two notes without Dad assisting at home and also sometimes John Pettigrew would have a listen because he was on the way through to Tanunda band practice.”
GM; “And you play tuba and bass trombone in the Police band now?”
DP: “Tuba – I used to just muck around on, and then when the Police Band were looking for a tuba player, I er… don’t know whether I should tell this story or not! ….. I’ll tell it because it’s hilarious. I rang Yamaha Music who used to have a travelling roadshow of all their instruments and said there was a brass band (GM; ’Is this when you were working at Allans?’) ... sorry yes, context. I told them there was a brass band in South Australia who were looking to buy a tuba and I wanted to steer them towards Yamaha rather than a Sovereign, so they sent it over and I did an audition on that for the Police Band and eventually got in but it took a while because of the way that the department works, which I know very well these days…….. I think it was about fifteen months between when I played and when I started, maybe eighteen.”
GM; “Well if the Police Department is anything like the Education Department it’s probably a cumbersome bureaucracy.”
DP; “Yes, it is, because it’s so big. Then when Stephen Boyle left in 1998, I moved to bass trombone, which I really enjoy.”
GM; “Ok, that’s got your instruments sorted out so who were your first influences and who gave you your first lessons?”
DP; “Well Dad was always practising at home after dinner, so I guess he was a big influence. My first official lesson was with Irving Rosenthall at Marden High School, as well as that Dad used to have records playing …. sometimes brass band music or big band music ... Buddy Rich because of the drumming side of it, Woody Herman and Don Lusher a little bit, Urbie Green which was a little bit out there….. err another guy, I can’t remember his name, he passed away a couple of years ago... (GM; ‘Trombone player?….Bill Watrous?’) Oh, that’s right Bill Watrous was the weird one, Urbie Green was more my style of listening.”
GM; “I remember talking to Bill (Polain) a few years ago and he said that he used like listening to Oscar Peterson and playing along with that stuff too.”
DP; “Yeah and of course Frank Sinatra, who was big on the playlist.”
GM; “Well they all sound like pretty good influences. What bands have you played in?”
DP; “Well I started with the Klemzig Junior Band back in 1975 ... and I think it was about the time that Peter Trotta left the band, he was a bass trombonist there, he left sometime during 1978 to go to Sydney and be a professional….”
GM; “Are you sure about that date? (DP; ‘Nooo..’) It’s just that I reckon I started College with Peter Trotta in 1980 and think it may have been just after that he went to Sydney with Bob Johnson and Daly-Wilson etc ….. It doesn’t matter it’s not all that important.”
DP; “..Yeah….there was a reason that all of a sudden I had to play bass trombone on a King 3B with Enfield Band in 1978 because Peter wasn’t there .... it may have been with his heart operation. Then I started with the City of Enfield Band until 1983, then I started playing with the State Opera…. yeah, you’re right, end of ‘81 Peter left I reckon ... because he rang me and said “give State Opera a call because I’m leaving and you should audition for them.” So, 1982, which was my first year out of high school. I nailed that job! I was 17 when I got it and turned 18 during that year. Then later that year, the ASO were having auditions for a casual trombone position. Percy Partington was retiring and had a year of sick leave. I auditioned for that; I got the excerpts and I think it was Jim Dempsey, who knew my dad, and knew that I was playing in the State Opera …. That’s how I got that audition. They rang me – I didn’t even know it was on.
I got the excerpts and nothing was making any sense, so I went to Des Blundell on the way to the audition ... I went from my place to Des’s and had a lesson ... he said ‘No, you’re not breathing through it, think of the whole phrase’. It was the Thievish Magpie and I was sort of breathing each note if you know what I mean …. so I went straight to the audition with all that fresh in my mind and kinda nailed it. If I hadn’t done that, we probably wouldn’t be sitting here .... (GM; ‘I think we would!’) …. but that was the opportunity for me to get into the professional thing with the ASO. I did two and a half years over four years, because of the way it happened. Howard (Parkinson), who was a massive influence on my trombone playing, was stepping down from first trombone and Dennis Freeman moved up from second trombone to first and I filled the second chair. So I did that for all of ‘83 and auditioned again at the end of that year…. Sticks (Ian Denbigh) and I had a tie so we got six months each, that was before he went to the Trust Orchestra. Then in 1985 Warwick Tyrell came on the scene, Dennis was back on second. Then in the following year, ’86, Dennis went to Melbourne so I auditioned again for the second trombone job, which I got, so I did all of ‘86.”
GM; “Well there was a bit of experience there. These days you’re arranging for orchestras and stuff so sitting in that orchestra for a few years must have……”
DP; “Oh yeah absolutely, I wouldn’t have been able to do any of that if hadn’t had that experience. I have to say that when I was first in there I was so green! ... it was a little bit above me. I got into it eventually, but when I first joined, I was eighteen years old and still wet behind the ears.”
GM; “But you always had a great sound and were rhythmically accurate. One of the things Adrienne (Meikle) says about you is that she feels that you are the best conductor around… (DP; ‘Thanks Adrienne!!’) because of the tempos that you set and the way you go about rehearsing the band … that early drumming experience must have had a bit to do with that”
DP; “Yep, there was that thing with tempos ... I did my first drumming gig ... professional, at fourteen. Dad had two gigs at one time so I did the first hour for him at the Pizza Palace on ANZAC Highway with Norm Koch and Blair Schwarz ... so I filled in for the first hour, got paid in pizza, which you know I was skinny before that!! Working with those guys, Brian Green on Sousaphone and Normie, they’d be really strict on tempos. They would just turn around if I was behind or ahead and give me a ‘here it is’ kind of thing (GM; ‘You can’t beat on the job training can you’)…. Absolutely, if you’ve got someone who is patient enough to deal with that.”
GM; “So, brass bands?”
DP; “Yep brass bands. I joined Tanunda in 1983, which lasted until ‘89 or’88 and then I went back and helped Ron in his last year as conductor at Enfield and then took over from him. It must have been ’89, I think, that I conducted the first contest there. I went back to Tanunda in 1994 as a player for a year and then started conducting (Tanunda) in’95.”
GM; “That Enfield conducting phase, how do you view that now with the benefit and wisdom of hindsight?”
DP; “I was very much of the opinion that brass bands should be competing and we should be playing competition music all the time, which is 180 degrees from where I am now, it really is! With that in mind, I think I was too tough on players who weren’t there for that ... they were there to play and have a good time (GM; ‘I’m hearing you!’) …. you don’t have to win all the time.”
GM; “I know when I conducted Salisbury for those 14 years from’98 to 2012 I went through a ‘Bull in a China Shop’ phase …. and you end up, metaphorically speaking, flogging the guts out of little old ladies trying to make them play A-grade test pieces and spoiling people’s fun. It’s one of the reasons that I’ve brought professionals like yourself in on this. I’m interested in that point where professional music-making and amateur music-making intersect and the tension that’s created there and how it can be managed. I don’t know that it’s been managed all that well in some ways. I don’t know how you feel about that.”
DP; “Certainly in my early years I was just rah, rah, rah ... should be doing this ...and maybe a little of that when I first joined Tanunda because there was a bit of a turnover of players when I first conducted them because I think I demanded a lot more than Nev Alderslade and not everyone wanted that. It started me thinking about what’s the point of trying for this if people don’t want it and if they don’t want it they don’t come ... (GM; ‘You end up having to drag in whoever…’) ... in professional (terms) the difference between community bands and professional bands is that there are no professional band championships, they’re no such thing. You play music for the sake of playing music and it’s not judged.”
GM; “So Enfield, Tanunda and then…?”
DP; “The Police Band in ‘95”
GM; “What grade are they in?!!”
DP; “Hehe!”
GM; “Haha! .... Right, a point of tension...Contesting, is it worth the effort?”
DP; “When I first started I would have said yes because, with The Klemzig Junior Band especially, we were a good band back then and we used to do a lot of competing, going interstate to do things and all that … (GM; ‘It was just the norm wasn’t it. You didn’t question whether it was good, bad or indifferent because you were with your mates etc.’) …. yeah that’s right. The important thing about contesting for me is the journey from when you play that test piece for the first time ‘til when you play it on the contest stage. If you play it better on the contest platform – better than you’ve played it before that – mission accomplished. You can’t control anything after that. Adjudicators look for different things, which is why I think contesting is just garbage. It depends on whether they want something that’s accurate or more fluidity so ‘slight blemish bar three’ doesn’t matter…. to some it does, the accuracy is important, to others it’s about the whole performance…. Does it move you?…. you know!”
GM; “It’s a contentious issue, Glenn Madden in his interview said he’s ok with contesting but there should be just 1st, 2nd and 3rd places given, no points awarded. Jimbo (Jim Dempsey) used to say about contesting, ‘If you win, everything’s fine. But if you lose, the adjudicator is shithouse!’.”
DP; “Haha exactly right, I know a guy like that…. he says that a lot! (GM;’So it’s worth it to improve the standard of the band’) ….. but not the actual result. Results mean nothing. Just go up and do exactly what you do but don’t have an adjudicator listening to it ... that’s me (GM; ‘Just try to play nice music’). That’s the thing, some of the music that’s chosen is utter trash, I remember doing a thing in my first year at Tanunda, ‘Theme and Variations’ by Joe Horowitz and it was just garbage, the theme was ‘dar da da da dump!’ and everything else was built out of that, everyone hated it.”
GM; “There have been a few ordinary ones ... what’s that one ‘Dar rat dat dar darat darat dar’… (DP; ‘Oh yeah, Royal Parks third movement, the first two movements are glorious then that on the end!’).
Alright. What awards, prizes and achievements have made you glad that you made the effort?”
DP; “...Umm... again awards… that’s kind of… I got the tenor trombone first prize a couple of times. More recently I did a master of music degree in conducting and I got it! That was a lot of effort with Luke Dolman at the Con and I’ve just recently finishing paying off the HECS debt, it was forty-three grand or something (GM; ‘Bloody Hell!’), yeah so that was worth the effort. I’m in the role of Acting Conductor at the SAPOL Band at the moment, they haven’t auditioned for it yet. Doing the Master’s Degree took every bit of brain space I had, but... (GM; ‘You’re already a good conductor’) ... not in that realm, I was trying to elevate ... and not for doing Tchaikovsky or any of those, I don’t have that knowledge it’s more the …. (GM; ‘John Williams’) ….. yeah exactly. If the orchestra all of a sudden need a conductor to do a John Williams concert, I know it all and I’ve got stick technique enough to do it. It was also to do things like the other day when I did the ABBA show. So that was kinda ‘Mission Accomplished’ but I need to do about another forty of them to pay and make it worthwhile monetarily. Actually, the most favourite thing I did in the whole two years with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra was doing ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ live to the movie back in 2019. As part of the Masters with the orchestra, I got to conduct The Empire Strikes Back, that was a dream, an absolute dream. I was assistant conductor that week in the orchestra – not that I got to do anything – and if Nick Buck had fallen over, I wouldn’t have been able to fill in. He was the guy who was conducting the actual performance, he’s an Aussie guy from the Eastern Seaboard who is now working for whoever puts those shows on around the world. I can’t remember the name of the company he works for but they do all of John Williams’ music, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones and all that stuff.’’
GM; “I’ve often thought, with trying to make money from playing music and even conducting, although, when you get into that upper echelon, it would be very well paid of course. Especially after spending thirty eight years as a schoolteacher where I was quite nicely rewarded I thought if you were to try to do the same thing with playing ….. if I took my teacher’s salary and you took you’re policeman’s salary and divided it by 52 then worked out how many gigs a week you would have to do ... then you would need to factor in holidays, long service leave, sick leave and all that other stuff, it doesn’t make sense really does it? It’s a love job at the end of the day (DP; ‘Absolutely, absolutely’) ... Anyhow ... your preferred styles of music?”
DP; “I don’t really have a favourite. Actually, yes, I do, soundtracks music. Film soundtracks would be my fave (GM; ‘When I think of David Polain, that would be the first thing I’d think of, John Williams and all that stuff’). John Williams and I were mates long before I knew because I used to watch ‘Lost in Space’, which he wrote the music for. It actually took me ages to realise that we were mates, not that he knows! There are also some ballet scores that are just exquisite too, the Prokofiev ‘Romeo and Juliet’….. (GM; ‘I remember having a crack at that at Enfield’) that’s right ‘Death of Juliet’ as well as ‘Montagues and Capulets’... as well there’s a lot of opera that is excellent .. Pucini…”
GM; “You and I had a couple of years together in the State Opera Orchestra, I was there from the end of ‘83 through ‘84 and ’85 ... (DP; ‘That’s right, bloody ‘ell!’) ... favourite musicians, bands and musical associates? You wouldn’t even have to move out of your own blood group for that with Bradley and Bill.”
DP; “They’re big in there of course, especially what Brad’s doing with The Hindley Street Country Club (GM; ‘Oh yeah, especially when he sings, I reckon he sounds better than the original when he sings those Sting things’) ... He describes his voice as high and whiney! I think he’s underselling himself a little hehe.”
GM; “That’s a very un-generous description I’d say. What about Charmaine, we hear all about Brad and Bill. What was Charmaine like?”
DP; “Well, she learnt piano as part of her schooling, at one stage wherever they were, maybe Quorn, she was in a Catholic school or a church school of some kind because her teacher was Sister Emaculata. Unfortunately whoever taught her early on …. she used to play fingers out rather than the proper style (GM; ‘Thelonius Monk style!!) …. so she couldn’t do a lot of the intricate stuff but she would play for her own enjoyment.”
GM; “She accompanied all the kids for their solos. Stephen John remembers her really fondly.”
DP; “Yeah, yeah, her great ability was to follow the soloist, if they jumped a line she just went bang! ... on it, I hadn’t heard anyone else do that.”
GM; “A little bit like Jeannie Magin. When I interviewed Jean, she said that sometimes if the kids made a mistake, she would make a mistake on purpose so they didn’t feel too bad ... isn’t that such a lovely motherly thing to do!”
DP; “Yeah, yeah that’s right, as Mum’s Parkinsons got worse she couldn’t play anymore, she used to try but it, yeah, didn’t work.”
GM; “Who else have you played with that you thought was pretty good?”
DP; “My favourite MD that I ever worked with was during a Cabaret Festival and it was the partner and MD of Lorna Luft. Lorna’s the other daughter of Judy Garland, not Liza Minelli. She was over here doing a Cabaret Show and I was in the horn section for that. Her MD was using sound bytes and was sitting like we are now but sitting further away because there was a grand piano between us and a saxophone row. It was all eyes on him because he was cueing us with his eyes, and also, because of the run of the show and various technical difficulties, we didn’t get to do a full run of the show before the opening night. So, the last three songs or so we were flying blind. We had music to read, but there were lots of pauses and .... (GM; ‘Recitatives?)… not so much recitatives but voice-overs. It was telling the story of Lorna Luft, so he was playing, looking at us and cueing us with his eyes, hit his MAC to trigger the sound, stop, back at us and bang here we go ... it was just so easy because of him. If there was anyone else in the job who wasn’t up to that it wouldn’t have worked ... so that’s the sort of clarity that I try to provide when I conduct. Some of the things you only get one rehearsal, a sound check then you’re on at nine, and if it’s new music for everyone you’ve just got to be on the ball ... just slightly one step ahead.
I’d also like to mention Nicholas Braithwaite who has been enormously helpful and guided me along my conducting pathway, especially in my early years. Plus, he is a fantastic bloke and wonderful musician. It’s fair to say I wouldn’t be where I am today without his guidance.”
GM; “It’s a bit of a contentious issue …. when I interviewed Jim (Dempsey) and Greg (Frick) in particular, and maybe a little bit with Whish (Peter Whish-Wilson), they didn’t get too carried away with canning conductors, but you could just tell that some are OK and some are not so good. It does make a hell of a difference if they are good. Jim said that one indicator was that the players would get to the concert early and be practising because they wanted to get it right. Any rate ... What would you do differently?”
DP; “I kinda like where I am now (GM; ‘You look like you’re coasting along quite well doing all these nice gigs and playing really well’) …. I’m not playing well at the moment because I haven’t played much in the last couple of years because of the conducting thing. I don’t have the time or inclination when I get home ... I’ve written another show as well - a ‘Shirley Bassey Tribute Show’ for an amazing talent from Queensland, so pretty much the last twelve months I’ve been writing when I get home …. these holidays I’ve had nothing to write and it’s been really nice, get home and I don’t have to rush.”
GM; “So we’ll say that everything is perfect! What effect has banding had on your family life?
DP; “When I started with Tanunda the second time, that’s when Judy really had to pull my weight as well, know what I mean with the kids and all that stuff? Especially when I took on the conducting thing in 2000; she really did the over-and-above to allow me to do that. I couldn’t have done that without her support. With Thursday nights, and sometimes Tuesday night rehearsals, I didn’t get to put them to bed when they were little, although by the time I finished, they were still up when I got home ... (GM; ‘They’re in their twenties now aren’t they?’) ….. and then some – Deanna turns thirty one this year and Joel thirty four.”
GM; “Has banding influenced your social life?”
DP; “Yes … when I first joined Klemzig Band I was really, really shy – like ultra-shy; I had all these things that I wanted to do but I was too shy to do them ….. (However) being in that environment and seeing other people do them and nothing bad happening…. I started getting a little more ‘out there’ to what I am now, so I don’t know whether that’s good or not ... haha ... but yeah, it’s a massive positive effect and each group is like a family. You have your little squabbles now and then, but you absolutely come back to it.”
GM; “Gordon Alderslade said that he regards the members of the band as his second family and we’re the same at Salisbury. The proof of the pudding was the other night at Jim’s (Dempsey) wake when we all came together.
Right. What are your other interests?”
DP; “I enjoy fishing ... big time! ... (GM; ‘You are your father’s son!’) ... absolutely! Trombone and fishing; I’m following in his footsteps. I also really enjoy film editing, old family films and that sort of stuff. Putting them together and improving the vision and all that. I’m so far really crap at it but I’ve got the gear to do it, it’s just a matter of sitting in front of the computer. I do the occasional composition; I generally average about one composition every three years so I’m not quite prolific yet! …. but yeah, I enjoy that and I’m certainly influenced by the structure of film soundtracks.”
GM; “What lies ahead for you?”
DP; “Umm ... pretty much the same hopefully; more things like the ABBA show, for example. I stepped in last year in July for the Pink Floyd Orchestrated Show with the Southern Cross Symphony Orchestra. There was going to be a conductor from Sydney do that, Matthew Wood, who I did the Symphony Australia conducting course with in 2000. He got a job in the UK and there was something to do with the timing and having to be in isolation because of COVID meant that he wouldn’t be able to do the show, so I got called in at the last minute ... I picked up the music on the Wednesday and we did the show on the Saturday.”
GM; “I reckon it says something about contemporary pop music in the fact that people like the Hindley Street Country Club can dig up all this old stuff and perform it really beautifully and be very successful …. Pink Floyd, Led Zep …. I remember when I was school teaching in the early days I used a tape made by Eric Brice about the history of rock and pop. The young kids would know who Pink Floyd and Led Zep were because they’d heard their parents listening to it …..They don’t mind playing ‘Dreams’ by Fleetwood Mac because it’s just nice music.”
DP; “Exactly, I had no idea ‘cos I arranged a Led Zeppelin Show as well a couple of years ago. About the strength of their ballad writing – it was just fantastic, amazing and it was the same with Floyd. I didn’t arrange that but I had to look deeply into it. It’s just awesome.”
GM; “I’ve got respect for Floyd, their compositions and musicianship but their sound is a bit over-processed for me, a bit too electronic ... (DP; ‘Yeah they were prog rock.’) …. that’s right lots of people love them.
Ok Dave, so we’ve done the first part of the interview and because you’re a pro we’ll move on to the professional supplement. How would you characterise you’re approach to playing your instrument now compared with your early brass band days?”
DP; “I have a warm-up routine, but it depends on whether I’m warming up to do a show or warming up to do a day’s practise. If I’m doing a day’s practise, I’ll do a 45-minute gentle starting warm-up where I cover all the basics, and then I’ll rest for probably 30 minutes before I start on whatever I’m going to work on that day. Having said that, I don’t do that much anymore because currently I’m conducting mostly, so my time is devoted to looking at scores and working out how I’m going to approach that, seeing if there are any nasty corners that I have to get right so the band know what’s happening, that kind of thing.”
GM; “Is there any difference between the pressure you feel as a pro and the pressure you felt on the brass band contest stage?”
DP; “Yes, the pressure as a pro is very different to the contest, but to me is far more real because it has consequences. If you make a blue you won’t lose a gig but if you keep making mistakes under pressure then you’ll lose your job; not so much in the Police Band because you’re part of the Police Force and you’re sworn, but if I’m doing a gig on the outside I want to be really prepared. For example, a guy called George Ellis came over and did a Greek concert a couple of months ago. He’s coming over in a couple of weeks’ time to do a Queen Orchestrated concert – he did Hooked on Classics back in 2020. I was asked if I would like to be bass trombone in that ... I said ‘Yes’ and that’s the first time I’d played since COVID started, the first gig in over a year. So, I did prep for that as best I could, looked at the parts, practised them, tried to get them out of the way, did the rehearsal and thought ‘that was pretty good’ ... I’m ready for tonight. Got to the gig played the first thing ‘Also Spracht Zarathustra’ no problems, the next piece was ‘Hooked on Rodgers and Hammerstein’ I remember it ….. at the start of the second line there was a D major run starting on a B, whatever mode that is ... and I played a C natural instead of a C sharp and because I hadn’t played for so long it really threw me. I second-guessed myself through the rest of the show. I played like what I felt was shit, no-one else seemed to notice. I came off there and I was at the point of putting it down and never playing again …. (GM; ‘I’m sure you didn’t sound that bad Dave.’) ...it wasn’t so much sounding bad but making mistakes and missing things which I don’t normally do, but because I did and I hadn’t played for so long, I had no bank to call on to help me get through.”
GM; “It’s funny because Whish (Peter Whish-Wilson) said there was far more pressure playing in a brass band and Glenn (Madden) said the same thing. They said that there was something about the expectation if you’re coming into a brass band as a pro ….. as opposed to just playing in a band you’ve played in for years ... It’s a bit hard to say.”
DP; “I think for those two guys in particular, they would get to play a lot more in a brass band than they would in an orchestral concert, and the stuff that Whish would get to play on tuba is constant and so often mind-blowingly difficult .. (GM; ‘He seems to handle it alright!’) ... oh, he does, same as Glenn he can get over anything.”
GM; “Is there one particular quality that a musician needs to become a pro, or is there a cocktail of qualities you need to be able to perform professionally?”
DP; “Yeah everything…. across styles, you need to be across your own playing, resilience, stamina, flexibility ... you need to be able to handle pressure, certainly …”
GM; “Continuing on the cocktail theme. How many cocktails would you advise someone to consume before they perform?”
DP; “...Sometimes I have a beer before I play, not in the Police Band of course. If I’m conducting I don’t because I just need every faculty available. If I’m playing it depends on how hard the book is, if it’s an easy book I’ll have a beer or wine an hour and a half before the show.”
GM; “I found that I could have one beer before say the Bay Big Band gigs or jazz gigs, but if I got a few in me before a gig I found I just couldn’t play. Once the gig was under way I found I could sip on a beer, it’s as though you were working it off as you play ...”
DP; “... Absolutely, I found that when I played drums for the Gourmet Weekend at Kellermeister Wines. Because it was drums, I would get up there early to set up the kit ... I usually had them set up by 9 o’clock, then I’d have my first glass of wine and because I was playing drums all day you just keep working it off, like you say.”
GM; “The next two questions are multiple choice. Do you play for free when asked by a brass band? A; yes, B; No, please explain and C; only if they provide free cocktails!”
DP; “Is a Martini a cocktail? .... I suppose it is, isn’t it haha…. Ummm ... I dunno? …. depends what it entailed. If it was just a rehearsal and a show that’s fine but I wouldn’t do a contest because I have no interest in playing for a contest ….. so ‘Yes’ with that caveat.”
GM; “So the last question. Do you still enjoy being part of the brass band scene. A; Yes, B; No, please explain and C; Only if it involves a vast quantity of cocktails!”
DP; “B. No, I don’t actually enjoy the sound of a brass band anymore. When I was doing Tanunda, they gave me….err ... (GM; ‘Carte blanche?’) …. Yeah to make my ideal band sound which is not a traditional ‘English’ sound it’s more ‘Brass Band of Battle Creek’ sound …. I think they are spectacular, I don’t listen to ... if I hear Black Dyke play, just that vibrato etc. doesn’t do it for me anymore, when it used to be the only thing that I’d do. I much prefer the sound of a concert band. My favourite ensemble is a large brass ensemble, not brass band but brass ensemble, that’s the ultimate for me.”
GM; “When we went to England and sat in with various bands, what struck me was the difference between the sound of the whole band, which was invariably quite powerful as opposed to the sound of the individual players, especially the cornet players who still have that wobbly vibrato thing going on. But as an ensemble…. especially these days with these monster test pieces which are written in a way that tries to make the band play too loud ... (DP; ‘Yeah, I’d agree with that”). Then there’s this contentious point about introducing rhythm sections, which you did during your career. At what point does a brass band stop becoming a brass band? Just recently I’ve arranged music for a small brass band, sort of a ‘Street band’ type set-up and I’ve tried to make it sound full without using rhythm instruments backing our singer etc. Bruce (Raymond) wanted to use a couple of my arrangements but wanted rhythm parts so I had to think about whether the brass parts for the brass ensemble would work with rhythm as well. It did cause some confusion in my own mind …. I mean my stuff is down here and your stuff is up there but the thinking behind it is the same I reckon.”
DP; “I agree, I don’t think you can hand the tuba part to the bass player and have them both play the same line. A bass guitar has groove, but if you give a walking bass line to a Bb tuba it sounds terrible and that’s why I use a rhythm section – because we are doing more of the vocal stuff – you need the piano just so the band isn’t playing all the time because it is very physically demanding.”
GM; “I clearly remember those Melodienacht shows being a real endurance test! …. unlike this interview Dave, which has been real pleasure.
Cheers mate.”
