COMPLIMENT TO BAND

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30940, 22 December 1965, Page 14

COMPLIMENT TO BAND

Better Than “The Beatles”

The greatest compliment paid to the Notional Band of New Zealand, which this year toured Canada and the United States, was that “it was better than the Beetles,” said Mr W. J. Sinton, of Dunedin, who toured with it.

Addressing the ChristTin Hat Club last evening, he said the compliment was paid by the Cathedral High School Band of Hamilton, Ontario,” in Toronto. “Believe me in this day and age it is the highest compliment of them all.

Mr Sinton gave an account of the band’s tour and some of the more humorous highlights. He said one reason for the band’s success was that Americans were not used to hearing a 60-man brass band. “Most of their bands are woodwind or reed bands, the brass providing the etnbeiMshment.” Drove for Beer Throughout the tour, former members of John Philip Sousa’s band whom they met had nothing but praise for the New Zealanders. “When we went over there we were GO ambassadors for New Zealand. We have returned as 60 ambassadors for the United States,” he said. Hospitality throughout the tour was tremendous, said Mr Sinton. One example was when the band played in a town in a 90-degree heat. “There was no beer in the town and one or two of the more hardened bandsmen were feeling pretty glum at the prospect of nothing to drink after the concert However, the traffic cops on motor-cycles who accompanied us to and from the place where we played escorted our two coaches with sirens wailing over the State border to the next town, where beer was available.”