FOO FOO BANDS

FOO FOO BANDS

‘Foo foo’ bands were  improvised ensembles aboard ships. Consisting of whatever instruments were at hand, they often dressed up to perform at sailors’ social events, playing whatever they knew. The international nature of maritime employment meant that the music of the foo foo bands was eclectic.

Here's a photograph of one from what is probably an American ship taken in 1887

There are numerous passing references to foo foo bands in maritime accounts and they seem to have been an accepted and unremarkable part of shipboard life from probably at least the early nineteenth century. They were still active in 1914, in Australia at least. Robert Jackson of Glenelg (South Australia) was aboard a ship with the Australian naval force in what was then German New Guinea late in 1914. In a letter home he wrote:

‘ … We have a destroyer on one side and a troopship from Queensland on the other, and as I write a 'foo foo band' is playing. It is composed of tincans, whistles, mouth organs, and accordions.’

This was a fairly typical foo foo band lineup, it seems, sometimes augmented by a triangle, autoharp, concertina and whatever else someone could play - more or less. 

What did this foo foo band sound like? Well, it was so loud that Robert had to finish up his letter ‘as the noise is too much’.

In another account in Basil Lubbock’s book, a foo foo band was able to play ‘Yankee Doodle’ on demand to salute a passing American ship. Again, this is presented as unremarkable, so the level of musical ability within a foo foo band could be fairly competent.

Here's a Royal Australian Navy 'Hobo Band' of World War 1, rather more dressed up for  an occasion than many foo foo bands.

Ghost music of the sea.

SOURCES

The Register (Adelaide), 22 September 1914, 8.

Basil Lubbock, The Colonial Clippers, 1921, 158-9.