UON60: Mr Anderson “Newcastle Celebrity” Goes To Wagga Wagga

The Newcastle University College Revues 1958-1965

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Recollections of Colin Anderson
by Ethnomusicologist Roland Bannister, PhD

This wonderful posting above with its stories about the establishment of the University of Newcastle, and of Colin Anderson and his University College revues, inspires me to write my own recollections of those events.

From 1955 to 1959 I studied the ‘theory’ component of my Carpenter’s Apprenticeship at Tighes Hill Technical College (now Tighes Hill TAFE).

From this perspective I watched the new University college put down roots on our Technical College grounds and I watched it evolve into something more substantial. My interest in university education probably had its beginnings here.

Colin Anderson

I knew Colin Anderson well from 1973 to 1992 when he and I were both academic staff at Charles Sturt University’s Wagga Wagga Campus (and its predecessor entities). I enjoyed the fact that we were both born and raised in Newcastle.

My field was music and education, and Colin’s was drama, so our work lent itself to community engagement and Colin became a much-loved public figure through his twenty years of theatre work at Charles Sturt and in community theatre.

The Newcastle “Celebrity”

Colin was a bit older than me. By the early 1960s he was a household name in Newcastle via his work as an entertainer and via his Uni Revues.

By this time I had moved on from carpentry and was a music education student at Newcastle Conservatorium and Newcastle Teacher College.

I was smitten with a desire to learn all about everything in the arts so attendance at University drama presentations and – especially the Revues – were part of my quest.

Colin Anderson was a Newcastle celebrity and I loved his shows and admired his always entertaining piano playing and singing.

 

Mr Anderson Goes to Wagga

And so, when Colin came to the Riverina College of Advanced Education (a forerunner of Charles Sturt University) in 1973 – a year after me – he soon began a series of revues at the college theatre for Wagga audiences. He recycled some Newcastle revue sketches and my then wife Margaret and I enjoyed reliving some of those we’d seen in Newcastle. We were able to predict the punch lines! Colin’s revues and drama productions became much loved events in the Wagga Wagga arts calendar, so much so that following his death in Newcastle in 2014 an obituary in the Charles Sturt News said ‘His name is synonymous with the development of the performing arts at Charles Sturt University (CSU) and in the Riverina’.

 

Mispronouncing “Count Basie” and other run-ins with Colin

But Colin and I did not always see eye-to-eye. He was ebullient, vivacious, full of energy, full of front, constantly active and was often in charge of performing art events, some of which I was involved in. On one memorable occasion Colin sacked me from our group of college radio presenters because I was not sufficiently well-spoken. He reckoned my lewd [mis]pronunciation of ‘Count Basie’ would have upset some listeners.

Was I Too Loud Enough?

In the 1970s I led a small on-stage band in one of Colin’s musicals. This was probably the Kit-Kat Band in Cabaret. I led from my B flat tenor slide trombone and Colin insisted that I was playing too loud. All the time too loud, he said.

Trombonists often suffer this slight but still his words cut deep. Anyway I found it very difficult to play as softly as he wanted because the character of the Kit-Kat music called for forthright projection. I found it most unenjoyable trying to meet his requirements, so I just played loud.

“Sorry Colin…”

Colin was very upset, as well he might be. He was after all the Director and he had every right to manage the sound. He reckoned that the audience needed to hear the singers’ words, and not just the bloody trombone. I should have suffered in silence and tried harder to play softly. So here it is: a posthumous ‘Sorry Colin…’

Promotion to Associate Professor

Colin’s work was rewarded with a promotion to the rank of Associate Professor, an event that inspired my pride in my fellow Novocastrian. Colin’s obituary continues

“While a Senior Lecturer … Mr Anderson was a driving force in the building of the new Riverina Playhouse which opened in Wagga Wagga in 1986. A large photographic portrait of Colin Anderson still takes pride of place in the Playhouse foyer as a testament to his work.”

Colin in 1992 as an Associate Professor and Head of Drama at CSU.

Colin and the Wagga Playhouse

Colin’s Playhouse photo was one of two large images commissioned for the Playhouse: the other was of June Dunn, a wonderful Wagga Wagga woman who did so much for local drama. Colin and June’s theatrical successes played a large role in the formation of Riverina Theatre Company, and the decision to build the Playhouse in a prime position in the centre of the City. In 2000, CSU conferred an honorary Doctor of Arts (honoris causa) on Colin Anderson.

 

The Playhouse: A Contaminated Site!

Sadly, the Playhouse hit hard times when the land on which it sat – the site of the former gas storage facility – was found to be contaminated. Since then the Playhouse has been bought back into service and its calendar for 2025 is close to full. But Dr Doug Hill, a retired CSU colleague, found that Colin’s portrait had been consigned to storage in the University’s mail room, unwanted and unloved. All things shall perish, I feared. Including photographic portraits.

 

Colin’s Portrait Saved

A flurry of emails between me, Doug, the Friends of CSU and some community people has seen Colin’s portrait passed to the Museum of the Riverina in Wagga Wagga, where it can be seen by everybody; Uni people and townspeople.

Colin was a key player in the town-and-gown saga in Wagga Wagga just as he had been in Newcastle. Colin proved that drama could indeed bring town and gown together, a key task given him at the time of his appointment to the staff of Riverina College of Advanced Education in 1972.

Roland Bannister PhD
With suggested improvements by Wagga Wagga CSU colleague (Dr Doug Hill)