The Band That Played on: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down With the Titanic

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They kept it up to the very end. Only the engulfing ocean had power to drown them into silence. The band was playing Nearer My God to Thee. I could hear it distinctly. The end was very close. CHARLOTTE COLLYER TITANIC SURVIVOR The movies the documentaries the museum exhibits. They often tell the same story about the unsinkable Titanic her wealthy passengers the families torn apart and the unthinkable end. But never before has that glorious bandthe group of eight musicians who played on as the Titanic slipped deeper and deeper into the Atlantic Oceanbeen explored in such depth. Steve Turners extensive research reveals a fascinating story including dishonest agents a clairvoyant social climbers and a fraudulent violin maker. Read what brought the band members together and how their music served as the haunting soundtrack for one of modern historys most tragic maritime disasters. BOOK REVIEWS The Band that Played On by Steve Turner is surprisingly the first book since the great ship went down to examine the lives of the eight musicians who were employed by the Titanic. What these men did?standing calmly on deck playing throughout the disaster?achieved global recognition. But their individual stories until now have been largely unknown. What Turner has uncovered is a narrow but unique slice of history?one more chapter of compelling Titanic lore. Turner a music journalist pursued living relatives of the band members and squeezed all that he could out of inherited photographs documents and anecdotes enabling him to sketch brief but poignant portraits of eight young (or at least youngish) men all born in an optimistic era and all members of the rising middle class. To their parents their girlfriends and surely to themselves as well the future must have seemed bright right up until the early morning hours of April 15 1912 There is much that we do not know about the final hours of these men. Why did they make the decision to play on the deck that night? What was in their hearts and minds? Even the Titanic survivors who witnessed their final performance quibbled over some details. Did the band march or did they kneel? Was their last number Autumn or was it Nearer My God to Thee? Did they stop playing during the final moments and pack their instruments away or were they still playing as the ship went down? All agreed however that all eight band members behaved with remarkable calm and courage. Within hours of the ships sinking their story was circulating and they had already become heroes