Boxing the Compass

C1950 SS Samaria upon arrival in Britain

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN

FATE IS NOT MY MASTER

(A review of the second chapter of Michael Hadley’s new autobiography)

A ghost ship, a band trip that never happened and remembering the music of the Territorial Staff Band through generations of Vancouver’s youth. If Arthur Delamont were asked what three things had motivated him the most; if he knew, he would have said the above. It took me years to figure it out. Michael Hadley figured it out decades ago. But Michael is smart. You don’t spend twenty years as a Professor of German Literature and historian of submarine warfare at the University of Victoria and have several books published by Heritage House Press, if you cannot figure things out. That stuff is hard, German I mean. Being a professor of English literature is hard enough, but German?

In 1958, Michael was working in the Canadian Embassy in Brussels when he got a telegram from Arthur Delamont who was on tour in Europe with his band. He was coming to the Brussels World Fair and he requested Michael find him accommodation for 39 boys and chaperones as well as find places for the band to perform. One might think Michael would be rattled but a strange sense of joy came over him. He felt he was now actually working on the same level as the great maestro and not merely a young boy in his band as was the case several years previous. They were now equals.

Oddly, I recently felt the same when Michael asked me to write a review of his autobiography, Boxing the Compass. I had interviewed Michael for my books on Arthur Delamont twenty years ago and he graciously, as did some 160 other old boys from the band, entrust me with their most cherished memories of their youth, to save and pass on to future generations. But now, I too felt I was on an equal footing with the great scholar, at least for about a week.

When I received a pre-press copy of his book and began to read it through, I thought, surely Michael doesn’t want me to review the whole book. What do I know of submarine warfare, being in the navy, German literature let alone being a

professor of German literature? My expertise was Arthur Delamont having written six books on him and his bands. I was sure that is what Michael expected so what follows is a review of the second chapter (Chord Progressions) of Michael’s wonderful autobiography called ‘Boxing the Compass’ which is all about his days playing on the vaudeville circuits of England, in the Kitsilano Boys Band. It’s actually a modest review because I didn’t want to steal any of Michael’s thunder as he tells his story impeccably and in fine detail but rather a modest review with background and extra photos of what was for all us boys in the band the greatest experience of our young lives and our first brush with fame and success.

In music as in life, timing is everything. Michael had the good fortune and luck to be in the right place at the right time in 1950. It is also said that when we are prepared and take advantage of an opportunity when it comes along, we create our own luck. Michael is a great believer in serendipity. At the tender age of 14, he was chosen by Arthur Delamont to be a part of his first band trip back to England after the war. Mr. D as he was called, had made several tours of England in the thirties with is boy’s band but couldn’t during the forties because of the war so they had saved up a lot of money. This would be the longest trip the band would ever make a whopping five months and it only cost each boy one hundred dollars. A lot of fine players came through that band and many went on to become the who’s who of the Canadian musical establishment from coast to coast.

His 1950 tour band was the second best band he ever assembled in terms of musicianship. The best were known as The Originals and were the first band he started in 1928. They stayed with him through 1936. That year climaxed with the pinnacle of their career, their big win at the Crystal Palace in London, England where they beat thirty-five of England’s best collier bands to take home the Cassel’s Challenge Shield.

Michaels’ timing was again spot on when in 1953; he was again chosen to be a member of this illustrious organization on its next tour of England. Mr. D made

fourteen tours of England with his band but in reality each boys experience was different yet they all came together for the concerts, usually three times daily. The rest of the time, they each experienced their own trip something I soon realized after I had interviewed one hundred and sixty old boys covering five decades. Often, it seemed like there were one hundred and sixty different trips. Here’s what I mean by different/unique experiences.

On the 1953 trip, one boy went into a music store in London and was taken into a back room and introduced to Charlie Parker who was trying out a new saxophone. He talked to him for over an hour. Another boy came to Mr. D and told him he wanted to buy a girl he had just met an engagement ring but didn’t have any money. Mr. D loaned him the money. That happened in Blackpool and the girl was a cue card girl at the Palace Theatre. He brought her back to Vancouver where they married and he became a Safeway manager in North Vancouver and over the years raised a family. Another called up the best trombone player in England Don Lusher and asked him if he could take lessons from him. When he got the cold shoulder he hopped on a bus and found his house in the countryside and knocked on his door. When it opened, he stuck his foot in the door, pulled out his trombone and played a big glissando to which he heard, “My boy, where did you come from?” and he got his lesson. Michael has his own stories which he will tell you all about in Chord Progressions.

I asked all the boys I interviewed who were the three most influential people in their lives. Almost everyone said the first was Arthur Delamont. Being a member of the Kitsilano Boys Band and going on one of Arthur’s tours to England in the thirties, fifties and sixties set all of us off on the right path in life, a path we all wanted to continue on, in our adult life and most did. The positive feelings of success and camaraderie mixed with seeing faraway places and meeting new people was incredibly toxic for thirty-nine young boys from the colonies who for the most part had never been away from home before.

If you enjoyed my short read about the band you will love Michaels in depth look at his two trips back in time to the world of British vaudeville which doesn’t exist anymore, except in the minds of those who lived it.

Michael’s book can be ordered from any bookstore for only $29.95.

Now enjoy a few photos from Michael’s trips which are not in his book.

Thanks!

Christopher Best Writer/Publisher

c1950 Amersfoort, Holland

C1953 London Palladium

C1950 Scotland

C1950 London