POPULAR CONCERT

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 4, 4 July 1940, Page 17

POPULAR CONCERT

HELP FOR SICK AND WOUNDED FUND

Eight brass bands, four pipe bands, and assisting artists presented a popular concert at the Town Hall last evening under the auspices of the Wellington Bands' Association in aid of the Sick, Wounded, and Distress Fund. The concert deserved a larger audience than that present, but there was no lack of enthusiasm on the part of all concerned, and the stage manager and chairman, Mr. Gladstone Hill, imparted a happy informal atmosphere to the proceedings.

The bands participating marched together from Courtenay Place to the Town Hall before the concert. They were the Tramways Band, Port Nicholson Band, Boys' Institute Band, the Legion of Frontiersmen Band, the Artillery Band, the First Battalion Band, the Lower Hutt Civic Band, the Lower Hutt Municipal Band, the Caledonian Society Pipe Band, the Pipes and Drums of the First Battalion, the City of Wellington Pipe Band, the Scots College Pipe Band, and the Hutt Valley Pipe Band. The brass ' bands played as massed bands during the concert under the baton of various bandmasters, their principal effort being Handel's "Largo." with accompaniment on the grand organ by Mr. Clement How"c. Other items which were warmly applauded were several hymns, a waltz, a march, "God Defend New Zealand," and popular tunes with vocal refrains sung by three bandsmen.

Others who contributed to a wellbalanced and entertaining programme were the Bohemians' Male Choir, Miss Ena Rapley, who sang four solos, and Taylor's Novelty Band. Each of the pipe bands also gave a performance. During the evening Mr. Hill auctioned two articles for the benefit of the fund. A memento of the visit of the barque Penang to Dunedin for repairs after being damaged in a storm (a compass card signed by the members of the crew) was knocked down to a bandsman for 255, and a box of chocolates brought 21s.