Southern View: November 20, 2018

12 Tuesday November 20 2018
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SOUTHERN VIEW
Local
News
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Fire rages, homes at risk
Mel’s still making music at 99
The 50s Up Brass Band
will celebrate its 25th
anniversary this month.
Sophie Cornish sat down
with its oldest member,
Mel Smith, to hear about
his love of music and his
tips for keeping young
•The 50s Up Brass Band’s 25 th Anniversary
Christmas Concert will be on November 28,
11am-noon, at the Woolston Club.
•Entry is $5 or a gold coin donation
MEL SMITH is 99, lives alone
and still drives regularly.
And four days a week, he plays
in a brass band and an orchestra.
“Getting up early is the key,”
said Mr Smith.
“I get up at 6am most days and
get ready for the day. It takes me
a few hours,” he said.
“I think that is one thing that
has contributed to my health, I’d
probably be lying in to all sorts of
hours. But if you have something
to do, you don’t really have that
choice,” he said.
Mr Smith’s passion for music
began when he joined the
Woolston Brass Band in 1936.
He joined because his brother
did and “there wasn’t much else
to do,” he said.
Following this, music became a
huge part of his life.
He was a member of the Savage
Club Orchestra and now plays
in the Risingholme Orchestra.
He also ran the Meltones dance
band.
A small advertisement in a
newspaper in 1993 caught Mr
Smith’s eye, inviting “bandspeople”
to attend a meeting for a
seniors’ band.
“I attended the gathering,
took one look and concluded
that it probably wouldn’t last. I
was proved very wrong in my
thinking,” he said.
In spite of his reservations, the
50s Up Brass Band grew quickly.
“As the years passed by, I could
see others lives in my age group
closing in through the lack of
social opportunities,” he said.
“I also believed that lusty
blowing was a positive way of
maintaining good health.”
Mr Smith believes the band
created an “obligation to get
out of bed on a cold winter
Wednesday morning to attend
practice.”
Now the band will celebrate its
25th anniversary on November
28. It plays brass classics and
Christmas songs at the Woolston
Club and various retirement
homes. Mr Smith is the oldest
member. He plays the cornet,
flugelhorn, recorder and
trumpet and prefers to listen to
mostly classical music and some
jazz.
“I don’t like that pop stuff. I’d
have to say my favourite person is
Maurice Andre, he’s the world’s
best trumpet player,” he said.
Band secretary Noeleen Penter
said Mr Smith was a “quiet man
who kept up well with the music
and band.”
BRASS: The 50s
Up Brass Band will
celebrate its 25th
year with a concert
later this month.
VETERAN: At 99,
Mel Smith is the
oldest member of
the 50s Up Brass
Band.
“He’s very active for his age and
really enjoys playing music,” she
said.
Mr Smith attributes his old
age to luck and a strong immune
system.
His childhood, which he
described as “tough”, was spent
in the small West Coast town
Granity.
“In those days hygiene was
very poor. The toilet was in the
flax bushes, there was no water
running or electricity. So we
got everything that was going –
mumps and measles and all that.”
Mr Smith was one of 10
children in his family.
The Great Depression brought
Mr Smith to Christchurch in
search of work when he was
15-years-old.
He only had a primary school
education, as he believed he
would follow in the footsteps of
his coalmining father.
Eventually, Mr Smith got
work as a carpenter, joiner and a
joiner-machinist.
His lack of education and
an issue with his ear meant
he was exempt from military
service.
For the last 13 years of his
working life before he retired,
Mr Smith worked for CTV as a
set-maker.
In his early 20s, he and his wife
Mai built their family home in
Beckenham. Mr Smith still lives
in the same home today, about 75
years later.
They had three children
together, Leonard, Martin and
Christine.
Mrs Smith and Christine
have since passed away due to
illness.
Mr Smith will celebrate his
100th birthday in June.
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