Music meant for dancing at the Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair
by Kevin Cody
Sunday morning, the Hyperion Outfall Serenaders, led by trumpeter Bob White, performed at the Manhattan Beach Hometown Fair, as they have for five decades. The Serenaders were the first, and only band to perform at the inaugural Hometown Fair in 1973.
White, clarinetist Sid Pattison, and trombone player Dale Van Scoyk formed the band in 1971. White named it after sewage plant he saw out his front window. In 1976, Mayor “Queen” Joan Dontainville dubbed the Hyperion Outfall Serenaders the official band of Manhattan Beach.
White celebrated his 95th birthday this past St. Patrick’s Day. He is the original band’s last surviving member.
Over the past 50 years, music at the fair has become more common and more contemporary. The Battle of the Bands is an annual highlight.
While the Hyperion Serenaders were performing Sunday morning on the South Stage, the garage band Meerkats, winner of last year’s Battle of the Band, was performing on the Main Stage. The Meerkats have been described by one critic as “psychedelia, distortion, and nonsense taking you on strange, lyrical journeys.”
But despite differences in ages, and sound between the two bands, their effect on fairgoers was the same. People were dancing in front of both stages. ER