// Base Auckland Drum Major

Hailing from a well known banding family, Sergeant Allan McDonell began his banding career in the Takapuna Municipal Band in 1959 at the age of six. He attended his first New Zealand Championship in 1965, and has since played for winning bands in every grade at the annual New Zealand National Contest.

Allan was selected to represent New Zealand touring the USA with the National Band of New Zealand in 1980. He also was a member of the Continental Airlines Brass Band, which performed at the 1981 World Band contest held in Kerkrade, Netherlands winning gold medals in both performance and marching.

In 1973 Allan enlisted into the RNZAF Base Auckland Band, and after taking up the position of Drum Major was promoted to the rank of Sergeant in 1980. Allan has won four Drum Major Champion titles and has led both the Waitakere Brass Band and Brisbane Excelsior Brass Band in the Hong Kong Chinese New Year Parade.

Highlights of Allan’s time in the RNZAF have been performing in the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1974 and 1990 Commonwealth Games, and welcoming Heads of State, members of the Royal Family and the late Pope John Paul II to New Zealand. He has toured on Tri-Service exercises to the Cook Islands, Tonga, Niue and Samoa, and in 1996 he attended the 50th Anniversary of the RAAF in Norfolk Island.