Band audience won by Embassy efforts

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33672, 23 October 1974, Page 3

Band audience won by Embassy efforts

(N.Z.P.A. Stall Correspondent) WASHINGTON, October 22. A critical review of the promotion of North American tours by the New Zealand National Band seems justified after the visit now being made by the band to the United States. Only last-minute efforts made by the publicity branch of the New Zealand Embassy in Washington saved the band’s performance in the United States capital from being a flop. No major criticism could

have been made of the stan- ] dard of the band, but New ’ Zealand diplomats and music lovers in the United States capital feared that without a , major publicity drive the ; band would simply not att- 1 ract a big audience. ; As a result, the Embassy I press officer (Mr M. Chilton) set up a publicity drive. His office obtained a list of supporters of the United States Navy Band, and got ; in touch with about 2000 of ’ them. 1 It arranged for a represeni tative of the band and the - Maori dancing group trav- > elling with it to appear on local radio shows at peak I listening hours. The end result was an audience of about 2000, who revelled in the quality of the music provided by the band and in the dances of the Maori troupe. In Washington the lack of advance publicity was notable until Mr Chilton and the Embassy took action. But New Zealand diplomatic missions are not in the normal course of duties expected to act as promotional centres for commercial ventures. They are expected, as in this case, to act when it becomes apparent that an organisation of national importance is threatened with a problem which the mission may be able to resolve. A number of bandsmen in the party suggested yesterday that on future tours the band should be called a “brass sinfonia” or least have a name which does not include the word “band.” Their reason for suggesting this was a belief that often audiences had not been as large as they should have been because Americans believed that a band consisted of school children whose regular performances took

place at football games and town carnivals. Mr A. F. Brieseman, the band’s manager, said he believed this American image of a band as a noisy college group had been responsible for poor advance bookings at the forum in Madison Square Garden, in New York. The poor bookings caused the management of the garden to cancel the band’s scheduled five-night run at the forum.