Yuletide WOW for Watson

By Graham Davis

AB Ian Aston, AB Kirstin Sampson, AB Shannon Rankine, LS Meredith Reeves, LS Luke Kennedy and AB Michael Cairncross of the RAN Band had plenty to blow their trumpets about during a Christmas recital at St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney.

Photo: LSPH Damian Pawlenko

The band wore Santa hats and reindeer antlers, the children waved cups holding candles, their parents sipped from flutes and the “man in red” arrived on a fire engine.

What a WOW of a night it was for HMAS Watson’s annual Carols by Candlelight.

More than 700 people from Sydney’s eastern suburbs attended the Sunday, December 7, activity.

With picnic blankets, hampers and candles in safety cups, the visitors began taking up their positions on the grassy knoll back-dropped by Sydney Harbour, from dusk.

Just before 7pm LEUT Paul Cottier led the 50 musicians of the Sydney detachment of the RAN Band on to the stage to begin a 90-minute recital of traditional and modern carols.

Much of the singing was led by the band’s outstanding vocalists, AB Tracy Burke, AB Damian Dowd, AB Kirston Sampson and CPO Andrew Stapleton.

In the lead-up to Christmas the Sydney detachment of the band provided some positives for the RAN appearing at a number of functions.

Among them was Beat the Retreat for the dinner marking the graduation dinner for young officers at HMAS Creswell.

The band re-appeared the next day for the graduation parade.

After doing the Watson carols it was off to Canberra to do Beat to Quarters for a Chief of Navy function.

Then it was back to Newcastle to help the ship’s company of HMAS Newcastle do a Freedom of Entry, the day after the frigate returned from the Gulf.

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