RFMF band wows crowd
A SPECTACULAR display of colour and music would brighten Suva’s streets once every month with the Changing of the Guard at Government House.
The band of the Royal Fiji Military Forces would march through the streets in colourful and smart uniforms playing music as reported by The Fiji Times on April 3, 1978.
Its sparkling trumpets and big drums all add to their elegance.
For music lovers and camera enthusiasts, the ceremony was one that was not to be missed.
The Changing of the Guard was performed during the first week of each month.
The RFMF band was popular wherever it appeared, with locals and visitors alike.
Office workers would come out to catch a glimpse of the spectacle the band presented and morning shoppers would stop to admire them.
In the past years the band had made several tours to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other countries.
They had earned tremendous popularity over television and through their live shows.
The band was also a big attraction at Suva Wharf where it played whenever a passenger ship docked or departed.
The Royal Fiji Police band, regarded as one of the world’s most versatile brass group, would also play at the wharf, alternating with the army band.
It was a performance that few visitors forgot. The forerunner of the main band of the Royal Fiji Military Forces came into being towards the end of World War I, as a small Fife Band.
Brass instruments arrived in the middle of 1919 and the band gave its first concert on Christmas Day that year.
At the outbreak of World War II, the band was broken up when its members joined other units of the Fiji Defence Force.
Then, in October 1941, the band of the first Battalion Fiji Infantry Regiment was formed.
When the battalion went to the Solomons in 1943, the bandsmen were employed as stretcher bearers.
The then Director of Music, Lieutenant Neeve, won the Military Cross and Private J Vakarawa was awarded the Military Medal.
At the end of the war, it was decided that the band was to be retained as part of the regular force in 1952.
The band went overseas with the 1st Battalion once more, this time to Malaya.
As well as carrying out operational duties as a platoon, the bandsmen gave musical performances throughout that country.
They returned to more peaceful duties in Fiji in June, 1956 and since then the band had visited the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand and made some highly successful recordings.