Bamboo bands mark an era in Madang music

Siar bamboo band.

If you attend an important event or a social occasion in Madang province today, you may still be entertained by a bamboo band.
Bamboo band music was a major feature of the province in the 70s up until the mid 80s when this style of music faded into silence. At one stage, the province was identified with bamboo band music rivaling places like Bougainville and the Solomon Islands where the style of music had its origins.
Bamboo music, however, is not foreign to Madang. The province is rich with abundant bamboo species that have numerous other uses apart from music. In the past, Madang had a variety of traditional bamboo music from some of its 164 language groups. Two distinct forms of traditional bamboo music are still found along the north coast and inland river areas and the hinterlands south of the province. The northern villagers used the large bamboo flutes in the sacred music associated with spirits while those in the south stamp hollowed bamboo trunks on the ground while dancing. Smaller v-notched bamboo flutes and the jaws harp are also popular bamboo music instruments used throughout the area.

Award winning Kalibobo bamboo band of Sogeri, 1978.

The modern bamboo bands were introduced to the province by Bougainville students at the Madang Teachers College in the early 70s. The bands consisted of guitars, ukuleles and sets of bamboos that accompanied the singing. The villages nearest to the college were first to use bamboos in their string bands.
The recordings of the Madang Teacher College bamboo band were made popular by Radio Madang and it was not long before the style of music began spreading to outlying villages.
The original bands were simple using limited bamboos in single sets and the player struck the bamboos with rubber thongs accompanying the guitars. In Madang, it was mainly the Bel language villages that produced most of the bamboo band music. Groups from villages like Siar, Riwo, Malmal and Bilia did recordings with Radio Madang and the emerging commercial music studios. Other music groups in the outlying districts began adding bamboos to their string bands and soon the style of music became popular throughout the province.
The 1970s was also the decade of independence and there were many occasions of celebrations which helped to promote bamboo bands. There were string band competitions and independence song contests, as well as celebrations of important political and social events. Two bamboo band groups from Madang stood out significantly during that period. The Melanesian Bamboo Band was the popular resident band of the Madang Resort and it had wide exposure performing at the resort or on the resort’s tour vessels.
The other group was actually formed out of the province in 1978 by Madang students attending Sogeri National High School. The Kalibobo bamboo band was formed as part of the cultural curriculum promoted at the school and entertained at various venues in Port Moresby. Kalibobo is the popular local name for the coast watchers’ memorial in Madang. The band did a recording with NBC studios in Port Moresby in 1979 which sold more than 10,000 copies earning the group a golden award.
Two songs made popular by the bamboo bands were September 16 which was a song about independence and Wanpela Liklik Meri which was a light hearted tale about a girl who enjoyed the bamboo band music so much on a PMV bus that she missed getting home. These groups did a lot to promote bamboo band music in Madang and thus the province began to be identified with this style of music.
As the years progressed, variations of the bamboo rhythms began to emerge as more bamboos were added to the bamboo sets and the numbers of sets were increased. The rhythms were based on the variations of the popular rock and blues bass runs and it seemed the bamboo bands were set to develop further. However, Madang did not progress down the same path like the bamboo bands in the Solomon Islands and on Bougainville.
In the early eighties another style of music began to hit the airwaves of PNG. These were the electric bands, commonly known in the country as pawa ben (power band), mostly playing cover versions of popular rock and country music. The pawa bens had existed well before the eighties in many parts of the country however, only few of the groups did any recordings. The early recordings were done on vinyl records and were not widely available throughout the country. But as technology developed, cassette tapes and portable tape recorders came on the market and that also helped recording studios to flourish in the country.
In Madang interest in pawa ben music began to grow following similar trends nationwide. Groups such as the YC and Tusbab High school bands, Kanagioi Brothers, Minofrets, Kool Figures and Idmon came on the scene. The Tumbuna Track studio was also established in the town and began concentrating on recording the pawa bens which were becoming popular. Tumbuna Track also promoted locally composed songs as opposed to cover versions of popular western songs. Early recordings of groups like Old Dog and The Offbeats, Kales and later Wali Hits which had major hit songs on radio shifted the interest to the pawa bands. Of course, the CHM Supersound program on EMTV that promoted popular PNG music also played a role in developing interests in pawa bens. Musicians also saw that there was money to be made in this form of music through the sales of their recordings.
In the meantime the bamboo bands fell silent as the aging musicians of the 70s and 80s stopped performing and settled down. There are still a few places such as the Madang Resort were the Melanesian Bamboo band remains a popular feature providing the long established tradition for the guests.
Today the bamboo band musicians of the past still live in the villages and occasionally get requests to perform. When they regroup, they simply identify themselves as the ‘golden oldies’ and entertain with the music of an era that marked the end of colonialism and the beginning of a new future.