The buglers who go to work at 4.45pm every day at the Australian War Memorial to perform The Last Post for visitors are not all military personnel, but rather an eclectic group of talented, local musicians.
Civilians like jazz muso Zach Raffan, from local band Zackerbilks, was recruited for the job and despite lacking military training, he can “brush up well, comb my hair and I don’t wear my Rolling Stones tie”.
“I saw an ad in the newspaper 16 years ago – buglers wanted – I think they ran out of buglers. It pays $80 – not bad for two-minutes’ work,” Zach says.
“What they’re paying for is the 15 years leading up to it, to get to the point where you can play The Last Post and you don’t split the top note. I’ve had my fair share of splits. I’ve walked out there and done some of my worst bugle calls at the Australian War Memorial and I’ve also done some of my best bugle calls there. Sometimes I walk away feeling dejected because I might’ve done a big band gig the night before and my lips are swollen.”
Zach admits his precision marching is not up to scratch and he can’t make a sharp turn.
“I tend to walk out, very self-conscious because I know I’m not military, standing with my two feet looking as normal as possible,” Zach says. “I feel if I put my two feet together I’m just going to fall over.”
Zach has performed The Last Post in front of former Prime Minister, John Howard, and he admits to “slight nervousness”.
“You feel like the stakes are higher because of the solemness of the occasion. You just want it to be perfect, as beautiful as the artwork that’s there. You don’t want to mar the event.”
There are eight buglers on the Memorial’s payroll and each bugler performs three to five times a month. Each one has to pass an audition, including bagpipers, who perform the lament.
Twenty-year veteran of The Last Post Ceremony, Catherine Pollard, used to play in a Canberra ska band and recently played flugel horn in Canberra Brass. Catherine’s not one to blow her own horn (pun intended) and she says she doesn’t often split a note.
“The hardest part is you never know what’s going to come out of the [bugle’s] bell,” Catherine says.
“I get nerves, very much so. I’ve played in front of [former] Governor General Quentin Bryce, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, and Fiji’s Prime Minister.
“The other night I did one and it was absolutely freezing – 8 degrees but it felt like 0.8 degrees. It’s putting a cold piece of metal on your mouth, it’s very hard. Then you’ve got the other extremes and I’ve done it in 40-degree heat.”
The Last Post Ceremony is performed at the Australian War Memorial 4.45pm daily.
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