[3][4] A reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald observed, "Accused had told the Court that when his mother locked up his clothes so that he could not go out he broke the door open with an axe.
[7] Sangster provided trombone for Graeme Bell and his Australian Jazz Band, later taking up the cornet and then the drums.
In the late 1950s he began playing the vibraphone, which he found "combined the percussive qualities of the drums with the melodic capability of the trumpet" (Bisset, 1979).
Sangster formed his own quartet and experimented with group improvisatory jazz, after he became interested in the music of such musicians as Sun Ra and Archie Shepp.
In the 1970s Sangster released a series of popular The Lord of the Rings inspired albums that started with The Hobbit Suite in 1973.
He was also the composer of a large number of scores for television shows, documentaries, films, and radio slots (including Hanna-Barbera's The Funky Phantom).