After 40 years, it’s curtains for Tailem Bend Music Hall

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Once a year, almost every year since 1983, the ordinary folks you might see around Tailem Bend have become stars of the stage: divas and dancers and comedians.

For a couple of weekends in August, anyone can be anyone.

Tailem Bend Music Hall has never been professional, but it has always been magical.

It was never meant to make a profit, though it has made hundreds of thousands of dollars for Tailem Bend Rotary Club projects, including upgrades to the town hall it always seems to fill.

It was meant to bring a community together through song and dance, and for 40 years it has done just that.

But when the curtain closes and the lights fade on August 12, that will be the end of that.

For Sandy Przibilla and the other volunteers who pull the show together every year, the job has got to be a bit much.

It takes a lot to plan a production, find a cast, source the music, choreograph the dances, organise the ticketing and promotion, then work through months of rehearsals and show weekends.

Almost a year ago, as 2022 came and went without a Music Hall being staged, Ms Przibilla announced that this year’s show would have to be the last.

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So, on Tuesday night, inside the darkened Tailem Bend Town Hall, rainbow-coloured lights twirled around smiling, laughing dancers on stage, lyric sheets in their hands.

To one side, members of a three-piece band rifled through sheet music in the dark.

They raced through one chorus after another, pulling together 40 years of memories into a show that will surely be long remembered.

Joyce Medlow was in the audience for the very first Music Hall, joined the cast for the second, and will make a final appearance on stage this year.

“It’s a sad thing, but at my age it’s hard work now,” she said.

“I just wanted to be part of the finish – a little trip down memory lane.”

Music Hall had brought her great joy over the years, she said, reminiscing about Violet and Daisy, the comedy act she and Lyn Simcock used to present; the Holden rims formerly used as pulleys for the curtains; and a baby Narelle Blacket sleeping in a bassinette at the side of the stage.

Darren Gurney joined the Music Hall cast in 1992, after electrician Les Scott heard him singing on a building site and invited him to come along.

“I think we’ve had a good run,” he said.

“It’s really hard now to get it all together … a huge effort for a small amount of people.

“I’d rather finish on a high note and go out with a big bang.”

He would miss the camaraderie, he said, the friendships formed – including those he had found with Noel Kneebone, Brenton Ahrns, Anthony Hodgen and Neil Chapman, the other members of the band Mallee Blue, who went on to earn airplay on SA FM during the 1990s.

“Music Hall has a good way of getting people confidence, getting people in the community to have a go,” he said.

“A lot of people were shy, reserved, but you get them up on stage, get them in the chorus, get them dancing or even just standing there.

“(Music Hall) means confidence, entertaining and giving back to the community.”

Mike Bristow can trace his success with the band Arkhive over the past 20 years back to Tailem Bend Music Hall, too.

“For me, personally, I wouldn’t have been a public speaker or done anything like that (without Music Hall),” he said.

“I’ve got confidence from this: I can do this.”

He had also experienced the joy of watching other, younger cast members join in, “seeing them grow and hearing their voices come out”.

Ms Przibilla’s journey started the same way: she had been a shy, quiet singer at Lameroo, gazing at her feet, but her late partner got her involved in 2000.

She painted part of the backdrop in that past year, but went on to produce segments and eventually direct the whole show.

She watched on on Tuesday night as performers bopped around the stage, singing the words to a Daddy Cool song: “good old eagle rock is here to stay”.

After 40 years, Tailem Bend Music Hall might not be here to stay, but its impact will stick around for a lifetime.

• Performances: 2pm on August 6 and 7.30pm on August 9, 11 and 12 at Tailem Bend Town Hall.
• Tickets: $25 at Tailem Bend Newsagency, Murray Bridge Newsagency or by email to Helen Clothier, ahclothier@bigpond.com; discounts apply for pensioners and childen at the Sunday matinee performance.
• More information: Search for Tailem Bend Music Hall on Facebook, call Helen Clothier on 0409 193 963 or email ahclothier@bigpond.com.
• Purchase a high-resolution photo: $2 at murraybridgenews.square.site.

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