ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A cornerstone of the Port of Betoota Brass Band has today downplayed the life-altering impact of ‘Brassed Off’ has had on the trajectory of her life.
The Port’s freshwater safety officer Brooke Gallen has held third flugelhorn since high school. The 35-year-old casually mentioned the 1996 British tragicomedy in a brief aside during an interview with The Advocate’s quarterly lifestyle liftout ‘Betootout’n’about‘ this morning, claiming the film “might’ve played a small part” in her musical journey.
“I dunno, I think I just liked the sound of brass music growing up,” she said.
“I guess that movie with Ewan McGregor was on TV one time when I was ten or so, but it’s not like it defined me or anything. I mean, I see what the government wants to do with the Port of Betoota and it, you know, boils my blood, how they can just trample on the lives of working people like that.”
Fellow band member Alan ‘Chook’ Fowler confirmed that Brooke’s entire personality is rooted in the viewing of Brassed Off.
“She quotes it like a normal person would a timeless Adam Sandler flick,” he said.
“I mean, the female lead plays a flugelhorn. What more do you need? It’s just a super expensive trumpet. I don’t know how she can just lie like that to the good people at Betootout’n’about. That’s right! She even did Concierto de Aranjuez for her QCE external exam! I mean, COME ON!”
Brooke is expected to continue pretending the film didn’t send her on decades long odessey into uniformed regional performance until the band’s next annual trip to the Ekka, where she will once again goad the band into playing ‘Danny Boy’ at closing time down at the Jube and burst into tears, as per tradition.
More to come.
