Australia Day concert, Canberra 1996

From The Canberra Times, January 1996

Tony Magee branches out from piano playing

    ALL THAT JAZZ

by Michael Foster

Voice lessons from Gery Scott have inspired Tony Magee to branch out from piano playing.

He has formed a “flexible” band to back him and called the compact versions Watch What Happens and the larger 8 piece ensemble, Ultra Lounge.

The band can vary from quartet upwards or outwards and so far has included Andrew Hackwill on alto sax, Andrew Piper on trumpet and flugelhorn, Lane Moore on trombone, Wayne Kelly on keyboards, Brendan Clarke, Duncan Brown or Scott Dodd on bass, Colin Hoorweg on percussion and Matt Moore on drums.

Originally published in The Canberra Times, January 15, 1996

Going off at the Wall

         ALL THAT JAZZ

by Michael Foster

A Canberra group, featuring vocalist Gaye Reid, has received invitations to return to China after New Year’s performances in Beijing’s Sheraton Great Wall Hotel.

The band, which included Andrew Hackwill on alto sax, Andrew Piper on trumpet and flugelhorn, Tony Magee on piano, Col Bernau on guitar, Kevin Hailey on bass and Noddy Brassington on drums, played for a New Year’s Eve diplomatic party, hosted by Australia, in the hotel’s ballroom. It then played for a New Year’s Day brunch-time audience in the hotel’s atrium restaurant.

The event was attended by 470 people from the Australian embassy and agencies and their guests. It opened with the Beijing Film Orchestra playing themes from films made in the West, Hungarian folk tunes and Strauss waltzes.

The Canberrans then took over, offering danceable jazz before changing the mood with pop and rock from the 60’s and 70s which Reid does so well.

The next day the group offered solo piano, played by Magee on an unexpected Steinway grand “in reasonable tune”, then brackets in varying combinations. One with rhythm (without piano) sounded so good, there are thoughts of trying it here at home.

This audience included many Chinese and tourists from Australia, Europe and Scandinavia with 60 or 70 diners present most of the time.

The group has tentative bookings for a residency in mid-1996, for return performances in Beijing next New Year and in Singapore.

Originally published in The Canberra Times, January 1996

Les Misérables - Canberra Philharmonic Society - July 1994 and January 1996

Advertisement from The Canberra Times for the January 1996 season

by Tony Magee

In July 1994 and again in January 1996, Canberra Philharmonic Society produced two stunning seasons of Boublil and Schonberg’s Les Misérables, the story based on Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name.

The amateur rights had just been released in Australia, for the very first time, and Philo jumped on it immediately. Those productions, at the time, put Philo on the National Map.

And right there as the centrepiece of it all, was Stephen Pike, in his unique and outstanding portrayal of the lead role - Jean Valjean.

Now, being in the orchestra pit at the Canberra Theatre, we were all privy to comments from audience members after the curtain came down. Scores of people would come down to the pit, leaning over the rail and say to one or a number of us “I’ve seen this in Sydney, I’ve seen it in London, I’ve seen it in New York - yours was better.” It happened multiple times every night.

I certainly knew we had a seriously excellent production - everyone in it knew that - cast, crew, orchestra, production team - we all knew that were were performing something really, really special, to a standard that eventually way exceeded anyone’s initial expectations.

My parents also told me on the nights they came - both in ’94 and ’96, that comments like that were frequently overheard both in the foyer at interval and also walking back to the carpark afterwards.

In addition, both seasons were totally sold out and we received a standing ovation every single night.

The director was Colin Anderson, with musical direction by Major Ian McLean and choreography by Michelle Heine.

One further thing I should mention is John Thompson’s set. It was so good - in fact a triumph of set design and construction, particularly the barricade, that multiple theatre companies around Australia wanted to hire it after we’d finished with it, which they did and it went all over Australia, being used countless times for future productions of Les Misérables.

The entrance of the barricade itself in our performances would always receive a thunderous round of applause.

Les Misérables is technically an opera, because it is completely sung through. However, it is not usually actually performed by opera companies. Almost always music theatre companies, so it is more often referred to (incorrectly) as a musical.

Les Misérables is scored for four Yamaha DX7 synthesisers and orchestra. At the time of our first season in July 1994, these were already an 11 year old piece of equipment.

Orchestra manager Michael Burgess had considerable trouble locating four operational ones, but he eventually succeeded.

Lucy Birmingham played keyboards one and two, with myself playing keyboards three and four.

Something unique about the presence of the four DX7's was that in addition to being able to use the hundreds of built in sounds available on the instrument, the composers had created many new sounds especially for the show.

These were stored on a plug-in module that was inserted into the corresponding slot on the top of the DX7.

Some were new musical instrument sounds, but many were actually sound effects.

Lucy and I would select them at appropriate junctures as indicated in the score.

It was truly a great honour to work with cast, production team and crew, both in rehearsal and in performance, for both those Canberra seasons of Les Misérables and something that I will remember with fondness and pride as a highlight of my musical career.

Something unusual I discovered is this: The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge Massachusetts, publishes a Catalogue of Minor Planets. There are 720,000 entries. Most of them are asteroids and one in particular catches my eye. Diameter: 2.6km, date of discovery October 26, 1971. Designation - Permanent, Citation number and name: 24601 Valjean*.

*24601 is the prisoner's number tattooed on Jean Valjean's chest, from when he was imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread in his youth - something we learn early on in the show.

Article: China blue

Thursday, January 4, 1996

AROUND THE WORLD                                                                         EDITED BY SIMON GROSE

About 470 Aussie bleeders turned up at Beijing’s Sheraton Great Wall Hotel for a New Year’s Eve ball last Sunday. Organised by our bug-free (we hope) embassy, the big do was emceed by Andrew Denton, with music supplied by Canberra’s Big City band.

Once the show got going, they could have been back in the Michigan Room at Canberra’s Lakeside in mid-winter because Beijing’s temperature these days hangs around zero. But the Big City band and singer Gaye Reid, had a Beijing experience the previous day which made them realise they were along way from Garema Place on a Saturday arvo.

Visiting Tiananmen Square for a squiz, they discovered a footpath artist dashing off their caricatures. He offered them the drawings but refused to accept money in payment. The happy big Vegemites, not wanting to take advantage of a fellow down-trodden artist, decided to return the favour by chortling Waltzing Matilda into the chilly China air.

The Weird Mob choir quickly attracted a crowd. But after a single verse, the words came true: “down came the troopers, one two three”. The Square Police, who had left their tanks at home, broke it all up, told them to button their lips and move on.

Denton missed that impromptu gig. He and the band were flown in courtesy of Cathay Pacific and its Chinese airline Dragon Air. Qantas refused to be so generous, despite the fact that Beijing’s Aussies try to arrange their travel to support the one weekly Qantas flight to Australia.

Mrs Denton (once a key 60 Minutes celeb Jennifer Byrne) and son Connor had hoped to make the trip, but chicken pox kept them in Melbourne.

First published in The Canberra Times, Thursday January 4, 1996