Their Moving Music..

Radio Record, 27 May 1938, Page 14

Their Moving Music..

A Bicycle Band That Died in 1910 — But Its Soul Goes Pedalling On

Special to the "Record"

by

ERIC

BAKER

PP HOUGH they pedalled along bumpy roads they always hit the note-those bicycle bandsmen of Christchurch thirty years ago. Very literally they played moving music, and here is their story. , The famous Bicycle Band--there was nothing else like it in the world-was an offshoot of the Christchurch Professional Brass Band, which was formed in 1892 by Mr. Fred Painter and Mr. Thomas Dalton. Mr. Painter organised the Bicycle Band about 1895. He was a well-known distance rider, aud the holder of more than one record for the "high bike." He was also a skilled trick rider. The older generation in Christchurch will remember the tine when the announcement, "The bicycle band is coming," was the signal for everybody to rush into the street. Naturally, even to-duy, when cycles are fitted with every mod-con., one might reasonably ask how the men could play while riding, They could, and they did. They held their instruments with one hand and steered with the other.

The big drum was slung from the handlebars of one cycle and the drummer played with one hand. The side drum needed two hands, so the man who played it rode tandem behind another rider. Conerete or hitumen roads did not exist, and a player was ever

liable to encounter 2 bump or a rut in the middle of an intricate pianissimo passage. [But nobody cared, and the band got along "very nicely, thank you." ()CCASIONALLY the band made a distance trip, as far as Kaiapoi, or even Amberley. Totels showered hospital: ity on the players and few hostelries were passed without a visit. Braye old days! Like the troubadours of old. the players were welcomed for the music they brought. For some time before tuking to the road the members practised mounting and dismounting, and, before they achieved perfection, many a fine piece of brass and many a head took a dent or two. When the band first took to the road on a Sunday, @ woman cyclist rode out of a gateway in Caledonian Road, just seraped the back wheel of a cycle in the front row, and cume a cropper. Lhe man in front of

whom she fell, so the story goes, kept his balance. The eallants stopped to see if any damage nad been done to the lady, but all was well, and off went the band again. After several creditable trips into country districts. during which the bandsmen met head winds, storms and punctures, it was decided to go in for a little publicity. so parades were held in the city streets. ‘They caused a sensation! The crowds took to them, in a kindly way. and their success as a two-wheeled musical combination was assured, ABITUES of the old Opera 7 House. now the St. James

Theafre, Chrstehureh. will remember the band’s first appearance on the stage. The players rode on from the wings, did a figtire-of-eight, and then repeated the stunt, but this time with their instruments. Which serves to indicate that stunt publicity is no new thing. A trip to Reknin was soe

strenuous that one member collapsed on the way home. Tle rested for a while and then sought out oa farmhouse, where the farmer's wife cooked him a fine large steak. He returned to the ranks a new Imau and they say, the other bandsmen could hardly keep up with him on the way home. Naturally, many people outside Christchureh were seeptical when they heard of the bicyele band. One man wrote down from Wellington asking for a photograph. He had had a wager about it, and wanted definite proof. He got it, and won the wager. Ou nnother occasion a man who was walking round the world -they still do this sort of thing now and then---ar-rived in Christchurch. He was told about the band but did not believe a word of it. The next Sunday morning the band took him out with them. Photographs of the stuut were used by Australian and English newspapers, and oue picture won a prize in a novelty competition, (CO. on p. 44.)

VEN if, strictly speaking, this story is out of order in a series devoted to the history of broadcasting bands, we can’t resist the temptation to print it. If Christchurch’s bicycle band had been alive to- fey it certainly WOULD have broadcast. . . | ne |

Their Moving Music

(Continued from ‘page 14). HH history of the bicycle band, of course, is bound up with that of the Professional Brass Band, for the two were really the same, The professional band was open to engagement at all functions with "satisfaction guaranteed," according to advertisement. For many years it played at race meetings in and around Christehurch, The band’s function was to keep the people entertained in the evenings. I* was a great attraction and exceedingly popular until, on one occasion, it decided to parade through the sleeping quarters at mid-night imitating bagpipes! The Bicycle Band’s next long trip wags to Kaikoura, gq little township that had never heard a band before. Its popularity was’ terrific. A sports meeting was held and the band played from the top of a bullock dray. And so the world’s most novel band bumped its way along stony paths for seyeral years, scattering the seeds of musie and reaping the henefits of fine publicity. Both bands, however. went , out of active work in 1910, or there- ’ abouts,