When Kate and William make their solemn vows before an illustrious congregation and a worldwide viewing audience, a young Wanganui man will be right there, in Westminster Abbey, witnessing the event first hand. More than that, he will be playing a vital part in the ceremony. Corporal Hamish Dean, member of the RAF fanfare party, along with his former Wellington flatmate, Senior Aircraftman Michael McGowan and six other musicians, will play a 30-second piece while the royal couple sign the register.
For Hamish, son of Alan and Mary Dean of Wanganui, the music began when he was a pupil at Aramoho School, learning recorder from the late Barry Samuel. ‘‘He really took to playing the recorder,’’ says Mary, ‘‘He had us up all night, getting everything right.’’
From the age of 9, Hamish moved on to piano, learning from the late Mary Boobyer and achieving a grade a year. ‘‘I let him stop at Grade 4,’’ says Mary, ‘‘as long as he took grade five trombone.’’ He also had a year learning violin from Helen McLean and a stint on saxophone with Russell Shaw. ‘‘He could have been really good at any instrument,’’ says Alan.
But it was in the direction of brass that Hamish wanted to travel. A call from Mary to Bruce Jellyman followed and a short time on cornet led to his lifelong love of the trombone. Bruce sent him to his brother, Errol Jellyman, who lived nearby,... ‘‘So Hamish would bike down there for a half-hour lesson and come back two hours later,’’ says Mary. Those lessons were part of his membership of the Tenderkist Brass Band, one of the many names leading to the current incarnation of Brass Wanganui.
When Hamish attended City College, the music there was really big, says Mary, which was the reason he went to that school. In 1990, he accompanied Ray Russell and the City College band to Malaysia, the first of many overseas trips to play music.
His early years of tuition read like a Who’s Who of Wanganui musicianship. Kevin Jarrett conducted the Warnock’s Wanganui City Silver Band (as it was called then) when Hamish moved to the senior band in 1990. Both Kevin and the late Jay Neal tutored Hamish and in 1993 he won the NZ Junior Trombone title at the National Champs and that was the year the band competed at the Edinburgh Tattoo. Hamish was just 17 at the time, also passing his Grade 8 exams with distinction and gaining the Leslie Holland Memorial Scholarship for the highest marks of the year in Royal Schools. With his scholarship money he signed up for lessons from Peter Maunder, trombonist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. That meant trips to Wellington; a chore that mum and dad undertook readily.
In 1994, not ready to attend university, Hamish attended the Wanganui City College Music School under Kevin Jarrett and Bruce Jellyman, and passed his LTCL. The following year, he still did not go on to university because he was chosen to be in the National Band of New Zealand and went on a six-week tour of the US.
In 1996, he finally went to Victoria University, emerging four years with an Honours degree (firstclass) in Performance Trombone. His university years were spent studying (of course) and playing freelance wherever he could, performing lead trombone with the NZ Youth Brass Band, playing in the NZ Youth Jazz Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra, and playing principal trombone with the Wellington Synphonia until he left for the UK in March 2004.
That’s one heck of a CV and we haven’t mentioned he was on casual contract with the NZSO and in 2000 he was one of six young bandsmen chosen from New Zealand to be among the 2000-strong marching band to perform at the opening of the Sydney Olympic Games.
In 2000, Hamish enlisted in the Royal NZ Navy and got a trip to Korea during his service. It was not for him so he returned to Wellington to freelance and to study jazz with Rodger Fox. ‘‘From 1996 right through until 2004, apart from that year off in 2000, he was a member of the Central Band of the RNZAF. He got to be a corporal in that band and was their principal trombone,’’ says Mary.
Seven years ago, Hamish unexpectedly was asked to fill a late vacancy on a NZ Brass Youth Band Tour to the UK. He was a little over age at 27, but filled a spot on bass trombone at late notice.
The highlight of the tour was playing at the ANZAC service in Westminster Abbey. This was a once-in-a-lifetime gig, or so he thought at the time, getting to play in Westminster Abbey in the presence of the Queen.
In 2009, Hamish returned to New Zealand to complete some ‘‘unfinished business’’, as Mary puts it. It was to compete in the Open NZ Tenor Trombone Solo, a win he had never achieved ... until then.
Hamish now holds the rank of corporal and is principal trombone in the concert wind band and the elite big band The RAF Squadronaires. Both groups made CDs with Decca last year. The Squadronaires recorded ” In the Mood, The Glenn Miller Story” at the famous Abbey Road studios. The CD went to No 5 in the British pop charts; the concert wind band’s CD followed later in the year. Released to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain, Reach for the Skies went into the charts at No 4.
Hamish performs with the brass quintet, trombone quartet, fanfare trumpets, the dance band and the soul band, all of which are smaller groups within the main band. He is a regular soloist with the concert band and the Squadronaires, performing all over the UK and other European venues. The band changes the guard at Buckingham Palace over the summer and does the same at Windsor Castle. Trips to perform at Edinburgh Tattoo are regular, and there are trips abroad as well. In 2005, the band travelled to Sydney to ‘‘The Edinburgh Tattoo’’.
Hamish is studying ICT at the Open University ‘‘for the day when he finds it too cold to stand out in the British weather on parade’’, says Mary.
On April 29, he will perform to his biggest audience ever when the Fanfare Party from the RAF, , will Perform a fanfare at the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton. As William is a working officer in the RAF, the formal fanfare will be played by the RAF fanfare trumpeters. There will be two fanfare parties in the Abbey, one drawn from the Household Cavalry , and the other from the RAF.
This will be one royal wedding that Hamish’s family will be watching carefully, just in case they get a glimpse of their boy from Wanganui.
From Wanganui Midweek April 20th 2011
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