“I was there at the beginning of the Kerepehi Brass Band. Now I am the only one left.” That was what Rowan Garrett said in July this year. And now he is no longer. The last of the founding members of the Kerepehi Brass Band was farewelled by a very large crowd at Twentymans Chapel in Thames last Saturday, 30 August. He died in Ohinemuri House, Paeroa on 26 August, in his ninetieth year after seventy years of providing the gift of brass band music to every town centre on the Peninsula, Hauraki Plains and across the Waikato.
He was a giant in brass music especially for this region. With 79 years of membership of the Kerepehi Brass Band, he filled every role – Chair of the Board, Band Leader, Tutor, Secretary, Conductor, Librarian.
In 2020 he received the Queens Service Medal (QSM) for his outstanding service to brass music and the wider community. Dame Patsy Reddy, when presenting his medal, was thrilled to tell Rowan that her father was one of the founding members of the Kerepehi Brass Band with Rowan. Rowan was also a member of Salvation Army Band, and the Thames City Band. His oldest son, Paul, spoke of his father in these word; “The love and dedication he showed his family was beyond reproach. His dedication to the Band and his community and wider family was in every way, exceptional.”
From an interview with The Informer
Rowan tells of his beginnings in Brass Music – the beginning of the Kerepehi Brass Band
“We started in the old supper room of the Kerepehi Hall in the town of Kerepehi on the Hauraki Plains.
I was ten and was having music classes and Mr Vivian, my teacher, said we are starting a band on Saturday and would you like to come along. I went along. It was 18 months before we got instruments. This was after the war so there were no instruments available. We started learning the fingering for brass instruments on a 12-inch ruler and three clothes pegs You got a great sound out of that. You also had to show which fingers you were putting down. It was only children, and it was a boys band then. When the band started, there was quite a group from Turua and Kerepehi.
At the time, there was a brass band in Paeroa. It didn’t change to a brass band until the fifties.
I didn’t ever worry about what instrument I got to play, but I did start on cornet and then tenor horn. We played whatever the band master told us to play. In 1950 the Band Master said I would be better on bass. I went on the bass and he was right.
I would carry my bass to practice on my bike by strapping it on my back. I practised in the butcher shop before the Kerepehi Hall was built. There was nowhere else to practise.
My parents encouraged me, and they didn’t have to worry too much about my practising as a teenager – I was practising up to three hours a day. My parents were behind me in everything. Also, I practised instead of doing homework.
I had a brother Gray who was a very good baritone player, and he played in the Army band as an 18-year-old.
We never set out to be a competitive band able to compete in all the brass band competitions, but rather we chose to be a band that serves the community. Some bands would recruit other brass players from other areas to be in a band competition.
There would not be any bands who would provide so many buglers for local Anzac services. One year there were 11 Anzac services. I managed to play at three of the services and some of our members attended others.
In my life I am most proud of the QSM. That’s really about the band and the people.
When visiting Rowan in the local hospital, The Informer posed the question:
Why has the Kerepehi Brass Band lasted so long?
Rowan’s response: “I have never doubted the band and its role. It livens up a community and it entertains the community. We had at the core a good group of people and good leadership. That has kept the band going. I had a fundamental belief that the band had to keep going. I can be hard case and stubborn. I have never doubted the band and its role in enlivening the community.
The band plays an important civic role, and we take that seriously. We always have. There is an understanding that being in the band means being present for a number of civic ceremonies, parades, fairs and festivals. It is more than a duty, we love it, and it brings us together. Anzac Day is the most important day of the year for the band.” The band has played for Anzac Day services all around the Waikato since 1949.
Rowan did not mention this, but it is known that he has missed only three Anzac Days since he joined the band. “My wife Vivian’s birthday is on Anzac Day and I have never been at home. The first time we had that day together was during covid.”
“The band has always been a place for friendship. We help each other. I still want to hit 80 years in the band. I have 11 months to go.”
Rowan died with ten months to go to his 80 years in the Kerepehi Brass Band. The Salvation Army officer, Ann Brunskill, who lead the service, concluded, “He was grateful, reliable, consistent, trustworthy he felt in all challenges and trials, he was in the company of God”.
What he stood for in his love of music and community will last beyond all our lives.
This information was prepared with the help of Heather Ohagan, one of the long-time members of the Kerepehi Brass Band and a long-time resident of Paeroa. Heather joined the band after bringing her children to learn.
