Mr Chifley’s baby is all grown up and making history

Today’s players, clockwise from top, Andrew Jefferies, Mami Iwashita, Sandra Cruikshank and Helena Maher. Canberra City Band started as a small brass band in 1925. Photo: Andrew Campbell.

By Elizabeth Kovacs

During the early days of constructing Canberra, a small brass band was formed by the workers in 1925.

With the inclusion of woodwind instruments in 1949, it is believed to be Australia’s oldest community concert band in Australia.

Canberra City Band (CCB), also known as “Canberra’s Official Band” from 1949 onwards, celebrates its centenary this year. 

Battling the Great Depression, two temporary pauses in rehearsals (from rebellion to pandemics) and five separate rehearsal locations, CCB has performed at some of Canberra’s greatest events. 

With its first appearance at the start of construction of the Causeway Hall, Kingston, in 1925, CCB was chosen the following year to play at the first Anzac Day ceremony on Camp Hill, at the rear of the Parliament House construction site. In those days, Duntroon did not yet have a military band. 

1929: The earliest known photograph of Canberra City Band at the Acton Racecourse. Photo: LJ Dwyer

After struggling through the Great Depression, the band hit a setback in 1937 when bandsmen refused to perform, demanding they be employed full time. 

Annoyed by this request, Prime Minister Joseph Lyons ordered all government assistance to the band cease and the instruments – all donated – were put into storage for 10 years. 

The band started up again in 1947 at the request of Prime Minister Ben Chifley, who had grown fond of bands after visiting Britain. 

On Chifley’s instructions CCB was restored, however with the stipulation it had to become a military band with the inclusion of woodwind instruments, as the prime minister had come to appreciate the sound of concert bands from his travels abroad. 

1948: The Canberra City Band plays at the Anzac Day ceremony at the Australian War memorial. Photo: AWM

From here, CCB played at the laying of the foundation stones for the Australian National University in 1949, played for Queen Elizabeth II when she visited Canberra after her coronation in 1954 (the first reigning monarch to do so) and even influenced the establishment of Stage 88 in 1988 after there were no suitable venues for outdoor performances. 

Now calling Hawker College on Murranji Street home for rehearsals, the CCB band falls under the Canberra City Band Inc. banner alongside three other bands with more than 100 members spread across the organisation. 

Despite losing government funding in 1992, CCB has continued to play, even going so far as to make solo appearances to play the Last Post during the first covid lockdown outside their homes on Anzac Day in 2020. 

A fierce loyalty continues to drive the band’s community, with many life members returning to rehearsals every week, forming a consistent 30-40 players in each rehearsal. 

The 1989 National Piccolo Flute Champion Bernadette Evans (nee Keenan) has played with CCB since 1978, and continues to sit at the front of the band with her flute and piccolo. 

“When I first joined in ‘78, it was a family affair,” she says. 

“My sister joined the band with me, and my mother, who didn’t want to wait around to pick us up, set up the library system.”

Initially starting in CCB’s junior band program, Bernadette travelled to Japan with the band as representatives of Australia for Expo 85 in Tsukuba.

Entering her 47th year in the band, she is now the librarian for the organisation, having taken over from her mother. 

Bernadette is one of several life members who continue to play with the band. 

In 2013, former bandmaster and celebrated music writer, the late Bill Hoffmann and former band member the late John Sharpe, meticulously compiled the history of CCB to celebrate its 88th anniversary in a book titled Mr Chifley’s Baby, in recognition of the prime minister’s affection for the band. 

Chifley is recognised as an honorary life member of the band. 

In the introduction, former Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says: “The band’s longevity is a remarkable achievement. It has survived the Great Depression, World War II and many ups and downs.”

More details at canberracityband.com

Reporter Elizabeth Kovacs has played flute and piccolo with the John Agnew Band since 2016.

2025: The Canberra City Band at this year’s national championships.

First published at Canberra City News, September 24, 2025

Pink Floyd's album and ode to Syd Barrett Wish You Were Here turns 50

By Matt Neal

Pink Floyd released one of the most successful albums of all time in 1973, and they had to follow it up in 1975. 
(Supplied: EMI)

The problem with creating an incredible work of art is that you're expected to do it again and again.

This was issue facing English rock band Pink Floyd in the wake of their massive 1973 album The Dark Side Of The Moon, which had suddenly made them the biggest band in the world.

Grappling with their new-found global fame, they began the slow, laborious process of making what would become Wish You Were Here — a record that simultaneously attacked the very industry that had made them stars, while honouring a man who'd helped them get there.

The cover of the 1975 Pink Floyd album, Wish You Were Here. Photo: Wikipedia

That man — the band's mercurial former frontman Syd Barrett, from whom they had recently split — would add to the growing mythos around Pink Floyd by making a strange visit to the studio during the making of Wish You Were Here, which was released 50 years ago this week.

Have a cigar, you're gonna go far

The story of Wish You Were Here, and indeed the story of Pink Floyd, begins with Barrett.

A uniquely talented songwriter and inventive guitarist, Barrett led Pink Floyd as it burst out of Cambridge in the mid-60s, penning most of the band's lauded debut album The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, released August 1967.

Less than 12 months later, Barrett's erratic behaviour — fuelled by a combination of LSD and undiagnosed mental health issues — had become too much for his band mates, who made the pragmatic decision to simply not pick him up on the way to a gig one night.

A photo from the brief time when Pink Floyd was a five-piece, including both Syd Barrett and David Gilmour.
Photo: Wikipedia

But the spectre of Barrett loomed large.

When the frontman officially parted ways with the group in March 1968, the band's management went with him, believing him to be the key creative force behind Pink Floyd.

The remaining members — Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Richard Wright and the newly added Dave Gilmour — began to forge a new direction, which would ultimately lead to the record-breaking success of The Dark Side Of The Moon in 1973.

Welcome to the machine

It's impossible to overstate how huge The Dark Side Of The Moon was (and is).

Believed to be one of only four albums to have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide, it has spent a record 990 weeks, the equivalent of about 19 years, in the US Billboard top 200 albums chart.

Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album cover, designed by Storm Thorgerson, 1973.

Upon release, Dark Side's success brought Pink Floyd success beyond its wildest dreams. Suddenly they were millionaires with country manors and luxury cars — ironic for a band that had sung that money was "the root of all evil today" on Dark Side's lead single Money.

But Dark Side's success capped off an exhausting stretch for the band.

They had released eight albums and played close to 750 shows in six years, and the added whirlwind of attention for Dark Side left them drained in new ways.

In a 2012 documentary about the making of Wish You Were Here, Waters said the band could "easily have split up" after Dark Side, but didn't because they were each too afraid to exist outside the financial and creative safety of Pink Floyd.

However, guitarist Gilmour said the period after Dark Side was an important moment of self-reflection.

"We were all having to assess what we were in this business for, why we were doing it, whether we were artists or business people,"  Gilmour said.

"Having achieved the sort of success and money … that could fulfil anyone's wildest teenage dreams, why we would still want to continue to do it?"

The band spent long, often fruitless periods in a rehearsal room, occasionally touring, and frequently feeling they were getting nowhere.

In the studio they were equally listless, spending whole days drinking, playing squash or shooting at a dartboard with an air rifle, recording in fits and starts between bouts of rumination and argument.

But out of this soul-searching, two clear ideas emerged, directed largely by Waters: a distaste for the record industry vultures who had preyed on their success, and a yearning for their friend and former band mate Syd Barrett, who had been chewed up and spat out by "rock'n'roll" and the drug-fuelled lifestyle that came with it.

"It was felt that Syd's 'madness' had partly come about through the demands of the record industry,"  Gilmour said.

These two factors became the basis of Wish You Were Here.

We call it riding the gravy train

Pink Floyd's feelings about the music industry are best exemplified by the tracks Welcome To The Machine and Have A Cigar.

The former is an ominous-sounding song about a musician who graduates from "the pipeline" into "the machine", and achieves great riches but is "told … what to dream".

The real venom is saved for Have A Cigar, sung from the perspective of industry fat cats by folk singer and friend of the band Roy Harper.

It features the great industry kiss-off, "We're so happy we can hardly count" and the real-life query often put to the band by ignorant label suits,"Oh, by the way, which one's Pink?"

But it was the songs about Barrett that provided the heart and soul of the album, and tied together its deeper theme about failing to be present as the world spins.

Shine on, you crazy diamond

After officially parting ways with Pink Floyd in early 1968, Barrett began recording a solo album.

A string of producers (including Gilmour and Waters) and session musicians found themselves befuddled by Barrett's behaviour — he wouldn't play in time, would rarely play the same thing twice, gave little to no direction to the backing musicians, and his songs and performances wavered from genius to sub-par, depending on his mental health and drug intake on the day.

The haphazard sessions were also interrupted by Barrett spending time in psychiatric care at one point.

The Madcap Laughs came out on January 2, 1970, and was quickly followed by a more polished and contained album simply called Barrett.

But after that, his music career was, for all intents and purposes, over, and he fell out of contact with his former band mates.

Syd Barrett went on to release solo work, but fell out of touch with his former Pink Floyd band mates. 
(Supplied: Harvest Records)

Gilmour noted Wish You Were Here's title track was a broader song about absence that he "couldn't sing … without thinking about Syd", but Shine On You Crazy Diamond was "specifically about Syd".

Waters called the latter his "homage to Syd and my heartfelt expression of my sadness and admiration for [his] talent, and sadness for the loss of [my] friend".

It refers to Barrett in many ways, all true — stranger, legend, martyr, raver, seer of visions, painter, piper, prisoner.

A 26-minute epic in nine parts, Shine On You Crazy Diamond bookended the album — the first half featuring the bulk of the lyrics and a now-famous four-note arpeggio known as "Syd's Theme", and the last half ending with a reference to the Barrett-era single See Emily Play.

It was during the mixing of this massive song — revered as one of Pink Floyd's greatest moments — that Barrett turned up unannounced at Abbey Road Studios.

Barrett was unrecognisable. He had gained weight and shaved off his eyebrows and hair, and according to Wright, it took more than half an hour before anyone figured out who he was.

"In those days it was quite normal for strangers to wander into our sessions," Wright told Mojo magazine in 1994.

"This guy kept on getting up and brushing his teeth and then sitting, doing really weird things, but keeping quiet."

When they finally figured out it was Barrett, the band members were in shock.

Waters and Gilmour wept to see their once vivacious livewire of a frontman as a shell of himself, who didn't seem to fully comprehend where he was or what was happening.

That he had wandered into the studio while the band was working on a song about him added to the absurd and sad nature of the scene.

Barrett was invited to stay at the conclusion of the session for a celebration of Gilmour's recent wedding, but he left soon after and his band mates never saw him again.

Barrett died in 2006, having effectively withdrawn from society after moving back into his mother's house in Cambridge in 1978.

How I wish you were here

Wish You Were Here was always going to fall short of its once-in-a-lifetime predecessor, The Dark Side Of The Moon, but it was still huge, hitting number one around the world, and cementing Pink Floyd as the biggest band on the planet.

It has sold more than 20 million copies globally, and appears in countless top album lists, alongside Pink Floyd's other big albums Dark Side, The Wall, and their influential psychedelic debut The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.

Pink Floyd buried the hatchet to perform at Live 8 in 2005. (Reuters)

From its iconic artwork of a businessman shaking hands with an on-fire counterpart (achieved by setting a stunts-man aflame about 15 times) to its mix of ideas around absence and loss in an increasingly corporate society, Wish You Were Here summed up where the band was at in the mid-70s.

As Waters noted in 1993, "at the beginning of the recording sessions most of us didn't wish we were there at all".

Maybe that's why it resonated then, and why it still resonates 50 years on.

First published at ABC News, September 20, 2025

The Neemans’ four hands make light work of the Saturday Salon

Neeman  Duo… Stephanie and Edward. Photo: Dalice Trost

Reviewed by Sarah Byrne

The latest charming bagatelle in the Tuggeranong Arts Centre’s Saturday Salon series was an outing by the Neeman Duo, wife-and-husband team Stephanie and Edward Neeman, featuring their own arrangements of classical pieces for four-handed piano.

This highly entertaining format began with a version of a Franck piece originally for organ. Unfortunately, the TAC does not run to programs, even digital ones, so it is difficult to identify the pieces more precisely if more details are not announced. This was a lovely start, and though a lachrymose piece it was beautifully performed.

The next piece was a thoroughly entertaining arrangement of John Corigliano’s Gazebo Dances, originally for a concert band. I’m not familiar with Corigliano, but will be seeking him out – as transcribed by the Neemans, the music evoked Trevor Duncan if heavily influenced by Gershwin’s classical style – very Manhattan, and immensely enjoyable.

The Neemans themselves are tremendous fun to watch – Edward relatively stoic, though occasionally lifting from his seat in enthusiasm; Stephanie’s mobile features expressing every instant of the music, reacting to her husband, and just on the right side of ham – what a gift she would have been to silent movies!

The next piece was for Edward solo, and he did, thankfully, describe it first, as it was a world premiere of a composition by the Neemans’ friend of their Cincinnati days (and subject of Stephanie’s doctorate), Joel Hoffman, inspired by Belgian composer Frederic Devreese. I know it’s infra dig to applaud between movements, but we did it anyway.

The following piece was another Edward solo; again, not announced, but I’m fairly confident it was Liszt’s Campanella (from the Paganini variations), quite lovely; and then he was rejoined by Stephanie for a rounsing arrangement of what was immediately identifiable as Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance, a frenetic and fun performance with so much crossing of hands and arms that at times the pair were almost embracing.

A well-earned encore brought us a fandango. This was a thoroughly entertaining performance, though again, the lack of programs is frustrating, and hinders the audience from exploring more of these composers. I look forward to the Neeman Duos’ next outing.

First published in Canberra City News, September 21, 2025

Don’t stop the music: Jimmy Barnes signs on to save ANU school of music

By Julie Hare

Rock legends Jimmy Barnes, Tim Rogers, Steve Kilbey and multiple-ARIA-Award-winner Genesis Owusu are among 35 classical musicians, rappers and pop artists pressuring the Australian National University to halt changes to ANU’s storied school of music.

In an open letter, the luminaries called on ANU chancellor Julie Bishop to halt job cuts, retain performance and composition majors, and maintain one-on-one music tuition to avoid a “devastating” impact on students and early career musicians.

Rock legend Jimmy Barnes is among 35 musicians to sign a letter calling on ANU to halt any proposed changes.

The School of Music has been caught up in a vast restructure at the university, aimed to make $250 million in savings.

“If the proposed changes to the School of Music and the curriculum proceed, none of the students graduating will be employable as professional musicians,” the letter reads.

Barnes, legendary frontman for 1970s and ’80s rock band Cold Chisel, said the changes would undermine the training of home-grown musicians.

“I’ve seen how classical training and rock ‘n’ roll can come together to create magic. But that doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because we invest in serious music education,” he said.

“If one of our leading universities walks away from its responsibility, it sends a clear message that we don’t value the next generation of musicians, and we can’t let this happen.”

Other names who have joined the call to action include Lindsay McDougall from punk rock band Frenzal Rhomb, The Voice Australia star Lucy Sugerman, classical pianist Simon Tedeschi, music venue Gang Gang and recording house Infidel Studios.

Vice chancellor Genevieve Bell resigned from her position last Thursday after months of turmoil and allegations of mismanagement and poor governance.

Her interim replacement, Professor Rebekah Brown, has not yet given any indication if she will push ahead with the restructure, pause it or call a halt to it indefinitely. More than 100 people are still under threat of involuntary redundancy before the end of the year.

Bishop is also under pressure to stand aside. The National Tertiary Education Union presented a petition signed by more than 2000 staff and students to the ANU council last Friday calling on it to terminate Bishop’s appointment as chancellor and cease any future forced redundancies and proposed changes under Renew ANU restructure.

Robyn Hendry, the chair of the newly formed School of Music Advocacy Roundtable, said she was not surprised by the growing number of high-profile Australians voicing their concerns, given the impact the planned changes will have on an industry already facing significant challenges.

“Cutting off the pipeline of musicians, which is exactly what will happen if ANU pushes these changes through, has a much broader impact than denying music students the education they need and deserve,” Hendry said.

Last month, eight students from the School of Music wrote a six-page letter, to vice chancellor Genevieve Bell, chancellor Julie Bishop and seven other senior executives, claiming the proposed changes to the school were a breach of the institution’s founding legislation and amounted to misleading and deceptive conduct under consumer law.

The proposal to merge the music school into a new School of Creative and Cultural Practice from the beginning of 2026, has “robbed us of the education we were promised and paid for”, they wrote.

“The erosion of one-on-one teaching, the gutting of performance and competition and the casualisation of elite staff have left us feeling abandoned and misled.”

The group wrote that they might take further legal and regulatory action “to protect our legal interests as students”.

First published at The Australian Financial Review, September 17, 2025

Beloved Aussie news anchor Roger Climpson dies, aged 93

By Joshua Haigh

A beloved Seven News anchor has passed away in his sleep this week after a decades-long career Australian TV.

Beloved former TV star Roger Climpson, best known for This is Your Life and Seven News, has died.

The Australian media icon and leader of Hope Media died yesterday peacefully in his sleep at around 1am.

Climpson was best known for his decades-long work in radio and television, hosting This Is Your Life between 1977 and 1980, and presenting Australia’s Most Wanted between 1997 and 1999.

He also presented Sydney’s 2GB afternoon shift from 1977, and anchored Sydney’s Seven News between 1989 and 1994.

Journalist and TV presenter Roger Climpson has passed away. Picture: Supplied.

His TV career first began at Nine in 1956, where he worked as an announcer, weatherman and newsreader. He became a success with viewers, and he hosted Rendezvous with Roger and The House and Garden Show.

However, he left Nine in 1965 after chairman Sir Frank Packer refused to grant him a five-pound pay rise.

He later went on to join Seven, where he served as a news anchor for 15 years.

7NEWS Sydney co-anchor Mark Ferguson paid tribute to Climpson, saying he grew up watching the star on TV.

“For a nervous country kid, Roger was very warm and very welcoming,” Ferguson said.

“Behind the desk he was all class - informed and engaging, with a voice that made you sit up and listen.

“Our condolences to his family, friends and the many viewers, who I’m sure thought of Roger as a trusted friend.”

7NEWS Sydney News Director Geoff Dunn said Climpson defined “a golden era of broadcast television”.

He added: “He stood out as one of Australia’s most authoritative news presenters.”

Hope Media CEO Phillip Randall said: “Roger left a legacy of love, faith and vision at Hope Media. So much so, it’s virtually impossible to sum it all up in a few words”.

“During his term as Chairman, Roger oversaw a time of great change for the ministry, enabling it to engage with a wider audience and meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st Century.

“In doing so, he helped lay a foundation which has been pivotal for now and the future.

“He holds a special place in our hearts and history,” Phillip said.

First published at News.com.au, September 17, 2025