A special visit from an Australian Army band had students from Tenterfield High School dancing in the aisles recently.
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The Band of the 1st Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery were in town on Thursday, March 21, to run workshops and deliver a couple of performances. One light-hearted show for students during the day and a traditional military band concert during the evening.
The Tenterfield shows were a southern stop on a nine-day tour that started in Bundaberg and also took in Dalby, Kingaroy, Warwick and Coffs Harbour.
Based in Brisbane, the Band of the 1st Regiment are in their 66th year and are made up of Army Reserve musicians.
Bandmaster, Warrant Officer Class One Sean O'Toole, said the band regularly performs at military parades, ceremonies, concerts, and public events while also supporting and representing the Australian Defence Force.
WO O'Toole said the band mostly play the Top 40 hits for their school concerts.
"Certainly the school show performances that we do are aimed at fully entertaining the kids," he said.
"We played Dance the Night from Barbie and we did a Macklemore tune which they all get up and dance to.
"It's really about showing them the other side of what an army musician can do."
For the second evening concert, the 25-piece band perform marches, movie themes and a tribute to servicemen and women to close the show.
The Band of the 1st Regiment raised more than $7,000 for Legacy while on the tour, including $400 from gold coin donations from the Tenterfield concert. All proceeds from the Tenterfield show went to the local Legacy branch.
WO O'Toole has been a full-time military musician for 32 years and with the Band of the 1st Regiment for the past two years.
"I've done overseas deployments with events to entertain troops whilst they've been in Iraq, Solomon Islands, Bougainville, those kinds of places, as well as performing all over Australia with different artists and different military bands as well," he said.
"One of the more sombre parts of the job is to play memorial services and funerals for people that have been killed whilst in service overseas."
In recent years the band has also conducted a number of exercises in Cape York supporting many indigenous and Far North Queensland communities.
Ben Carr
Starting out as a reporter in Lightning Ridge in 2005, I returned to journalism in 2023 after 15 years spent in event production and technical services. Passionate about community news, contact me on ben.carr@austcommunitymedia.com.au or ph: 0484 524 000
Starting out as a reporter in Lightning Ridge in 2005, I returned to journalism in 2023 after 15 years spent in event production and technical services. Passionate about community news, contact me on ben.carr@austcommunitymedia.com.au or ph: 0484 524 000
