-
0:00/4:00
-
0:00/1:21
Early Days in Music – performance and production
FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE
'RAINBOW' AT Radio 3SH
By the time I’d reached my early teens, I’d been learning guitar by correspondence for a while. Then my first public appearance came about… on regional radio!
My dad had taken me on a father-son trip in the country and we ended up at a pub in Swan Hill (where I was treated to a lemonade). Dad got talking to a bloke at the bar who happened to be a presenter on the local radio station. Dad boasted about his talented son and before I knew it, I was in the studio that afternoon for a live performance! I sang ‘Rainbow’, a current hit at that time and (all things considered), I thought I did okay.
TURNING PROFESSIONAL
I'D MADE THE BIG TIME!
I basically started my professional music career a few years later at age 17. I played in scratch bands, mainly guitar but doubling on trumpet for a while. I was offered gigs booked by the Musicians’ Union and ended up with a residency as part of the GJ Trio at The Virginia Cabaret (a kinda late night, ‘sly grog’ club, worthy of a story in itself).
The Trio comprised John Bradley on trumpet, Pete (forget his last name) on drums and me on guitar, with a drop-in tenor sax player named Rolly, who’d join us late at night after playing an earlier gig elsewhere.
I landed another residency as the MC and male vocalist of a ‘big band’ at the Springvale Town Hall, every Saturday night. I’d made the big time!
1965 – The Kevin Dennis Auditions
In 1965, The Musicians’ Union in Melbourne asked its members to consider how we could promote professional music and the Union itself. As a result, I decided to put together a sextet comprising some of my contemporaries and enter the Kevin Dennis Auditions on GTV9.
This program was actually a vehicle (pardon the pun) for rags-to-riches Melbourne businessman Kevin Dennis to promote his new car dealership, Kevin Dennis Motors. Kevin (real name Dennis Gowing), was well-known on Australian TV, the face of a series of catchy commercials.
The program ran on Saturday mornings, then changed its name first to Kevin Dennis New Faces, and later to simply New Faces, when it became a Sunday night primetime show. Originally hosted by Frank Wilson (from 1963 to 1976), and then by Bert Newton (from 1976 to 1985), the show always featured two judges, among them Bobby Limb, Geoff Brooke, Rod McLennan and Tim Evans.
Many of its contestants, including Paul Hogan, Olivia Newton-John, Daryl Somers, Julia Morris and Keith Urban, went on to become famous. Unfortunately, our sextet didn’t make that list. But while we may not have won the competition, our audition led to a subsequent offer the following year… “Would you like to make regular monthly appearances on Graham Kennedy’s In Melbourne Tonight?” Would we what!
An aside: About a year after our Kevin Dennis stint while we were doing our monthly IMT appearances, I watched an episode of New Faces and saw a female singer whom I thought was great. I realised that our band was stale and felt we needed a female vocalist. I rang GTV9 and left a message for the specific performer but never heard back from her. That singer was Olivia Newton John! I sometimes cynically think that if she had returned my call, we might have all been famous… (or conversely, working with us, she might have been nobody)!
From Melbourne to Brisbane
In 1969, my day job saw me pack up and move to sunnier climes in Brisbane. I was still getting casual band bookings via the Musicians’ Union and even landed support slots for a few international acts, such as hit UK songstress, Helen Shapiro.
Just a few years earlier, Ms. Shapiro had previously enjoyed a slightly more famous band as her support. In February and March of 1963, Ms. Shapiro, then just 16 years old, had headlined an eleven-act bill on a tour of England. The fourth act on that bill was a group from up north called The Beatles!
In Brisbane I began to take on lead vocal duties more often. (It was a great way to score more work from the Musicians’ Union.) I then took the role of Band Leader for local Country singer Nola Reeves. But soon after, my day job interrupted again and I was moved back to Melbourne. It was 1971.
Finally, ‘the Big Smoke’
After my stint in Queensland and short stay back in home-town Melbourne, I ventured north again, though not as far as Queensland this time. I landed in Sydney, which proved to be a turning point in my career.
There were still the casual band gigs via the Musicians’ Union and music associates, but in 1980 I formed the six-piece Country Rock band, Indian Pacific with bass player John Cowgill and guitarist, Phil Beazley.
