Category: Band News

Newport is a very significant part of our banding history. Newport RSL ANZAC service is a very special part of our day.

Seems very fitting that our first event after COVID lockdowns was an ANZAC service at Oakleigh RSL. The RSL Hall was as full as permitted.

  After lockdown, Oakleigh Band was so excited to be part of Anzac Day again after 2020’s COVID safe dawn service in our gardens. We started our preparation for ANZAC 2021 by creating new sets of march cards – readable and waterproof. Band member helped to transcribe our favourite marches, collate sets of cards, fill plastic envelopes. Marching is not the easiest activity, but it is made much harder when you can’t actually read the notes.  

Oakleigh Hall is undergoing renovations so Oakleigh Brass is on the move. Fortunately, we haven’t had to travel far! We are using the wonderful Senior Citizens Hall, right next to Oakleigh Hall. The first rehearsal of 2020 was great, the second was somewhat damp, with heavy rain cutting out the lights. Prompt work by the Council team to restore electricity meant that we still could rehearse – in the library foyer! Not too sure how long we will be in this new venue, but we are ready for the challenge.

  Oakleigh Brass is celebrating the arrival of their new jackets, by marching in the Melbourne Anzac parade. Brass bands are a traditional form of community music, and it seems we have a traditional problem! We were amused to find this snippet from 1918 Annual General meeting minutes: We again wish the committee to take into consideration the matter of uniforms for those members in need of them, and others who have only part of their uniform. They are truly a motley array. Oakleigh AGM 1918 So, when we found ourselves in a similar position, we knew we needed to...

This is exciting…. the wonderful people in our Welcome Project are graduating, and joining the main band. During 2018, Oakleigh Brass members Dan and Claire shared their musical expertise to encourage new ensemble skills. We asked our new graduates about their experience: “I first joined the Welcome Project at Oakleigh Brass Band in February 2018.  Prior to joining, I had never played a brass instrument or played music in a band.   The Welcome Project has been a wonderful opportunity for me to learn a new instrument, in a friendly, non-intimidating environment and I’ve been able to appreciate music from a...

Thanks to a great idea from one of our members, we are striving to reduce the amount of material that Oakleigh Brass sends to landfill.   We are still taking a break during rehearsals for welcome cup of tea and a biscuit, but now ask members to bring their own mug! It’s a small step to take – but one that means we are not sending 1,200 + used polystyrene cups to landfill each year.   We’re busy encouraging other green measures with lift sharing, as well as trying to recycle everything we can.

Thanks to TROVE’s wonderful project to digitise local newspapers Oakleigh Brass has discovered that it is older than it knew. In the mid 1980’s, Norm Best, then Secretary of the band, performed extensive research, and discovered that Oakleigh and District Brass Band was rehearsing in 1910. Norm carefully documented his findings in a book “A history of Oakleigh City Band : old bandsmen never die – they just blow away”, available at the Victorian State Library (and from the band). Casual searching on TROVE lead us to an earlier news article, asking for support to start a band in 1892....

Happy Christmas for 2016 Click on the Santa hat to hear one of our carols! Or look for “Oakleigh Brass” on You Tube. Happy Christmas – and look out for us throughout 2017 as we celebrate 125 years of Brass in Oakleigh.

Oakleigh Brass is very excited to announce that we are now able to welcome members with restricted mobility. We are rehearsing downstairs, in the Main Hall, Drummond Street, Oakleigh. This new rehearsal venue from February 2016 has great access. One of our newest players is ready for rehearsal as he no longer needs to climb any steps. If you have restricted mobility but thought this would prevent you from playing music in a band, would you like to join us? Great – just follow the link: Join Oakleigh Brass