Hi - this email comes from Colin Redfern (RMB 133304) in Boca Raton, Florida.

I've just discovered Rich Valentine's excellent website, but am a little confused as to the best way to contribute a few photos that might be of interest. My apologies if I've used the wrong email address, but this seemed to be the easiest way to add attachments.

Firstly, a word of appreciation for the beautifully constructed website. Among many items of interest, I came across E-mails from Dave Spencer and Trev Lintott, which took me back to two hectic years from 1957 to 1959. I was perhaps one of the last National Servicemen at Deal, playing piano and alto sax. Dave Spencer's E-mail reminded me of the days of "Indiscreet" and the CNE at Toronto. I still have a copy of the movie to remind me of our three interesting days as uniformed extras. And my memories of the CNE include the fact that we found ourselves off-duty on a Sunday, a day on which all the bars were closed in Toronto. Several of us rented a car and drove down to Buffalo. We must have had a good time, because I wrecked the car at a traffic light on the way home and wound up in a local courtroom several days later. And who could forget the band's visit to Vancouver the previous year, taking part in a tattoo to celebrate the British Columbia centenary?

Most of our celebrating took place on Jericho Beach after each performance, over-indulging in gallon flagons of some lethal fermentation of loganberries known as "bingo", I believe, although my memories of those events are a little hazy.

Click above image for larger view

I'm attaching a few photos, one of which shows the pit orchestra for a Christmas pantomime in Deal - (probably 1958). I seem to remember that the success of the performance relied heavily on the appearance of several large sergeants dressed in tutu's. Unfortunately I only witnessed the dress rehearsal (at which this photo was taken), as I woke up the next morning with measles and was transported by ambulance to the zymotic ward at RNH, Chatham. This experience has won me numerous games of scrabble over the years, as nobody else has ever heard of zymotic.

Also attached is a photo of the "Oceanaires" from 1958, with a list of members, and a photo taken in the bandshell at the CNE. Also a photo of five of us on a Canadian beach, so that our wives can see what cool, skinny dudes we were before we got ambushed by middle age.

If anybody still remembers me from my relatively short, two-year stay with the band, I send them greetings and very best wishes from Boca Raton in Florida, where I have lived for the past 20 years.

Click on images for larger view

Colin "Noddy" Redfern
RMB 133304