Boogie Down Under was a single released by Sydney band Bandanna back in 1988. I had the pleasure of doing sound for them from 1985 to 1987 and then again from 1989 through to the end of the band in about 1990.

This version of the band featured original members Larry McMillan and Rick Doolan along with Steve Edmonds on guitar and Bob Montgomery on bass and vocals.

Larry and Bob eventually left to form “Grog ‘n Grumble” which played a similar style of blues/boogie/rock.

This single reminds me of ZZ Top’s “disco” period, like Sharp Dressed Man or Legs. It probably isn’t typical Bandanna fare, but great nonetheless. I hope you enjoy it.
Boogie Down Under
Boogie Down Under (Motor Mix)

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A few weeks back I had the extreme pleasure of finding a few old cassette tapes in a box in my garage. Amongst the rubbish was a couple of gems including these four songs here. They are from a live desk tape of Bandanna which was recorded around 1989 at, to the best of my memory, the Union Hotel in Gosford. It contains three very rare originals called “Boys in the band”, “Find your way home” and “Be where I can be” as well as a raging cover of “The house of the rising sun”.

This was the last ever version of Bandanna and would have been recorded not too long before they disbanded. The musicians on this tape are:

• Leo Auciello – Vocals
• Mark Wells – Bass
• Mark Flack – Guitar
• Mark Johnson – Guitar
• Mark Langfield – Drums
• and just to finish off all the Marks… mixed by Mark Gibson

The quality is pretty crap as it’s a copy off a copy off a copy but you can hear some brilliant musicians playing some great songs. Enjoy!

Boys In The Band
House Of The Rising Sun
Find Your Way Home
Be Where I Can Be

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About

Sydney based band from 1989 – 1996

History

“Late 1989 Suze DeMarchi returns to her native Australia from London, where she had been recording/writing under EMI Records. She is unhappy with the record company’s attempt to slide her into a pop career.
- Fellow Perth-ite Frank Celenza recommends his best friend, Eddie Parise, as bassist to Suze, who is on her way to Sydney to form a hard rock band.
- In Sydney, Suze approaches Dave Leslie to play guitar, after a referral from manager John Woodruff. Dave was then in Swingshift, another band being managed by John. Rob Tognoni and the band The Outlaws (turned “Desert Cats”, and also appearing on The Angels’ B-side in 1990), had been previously asked by management to join Suze’s band but they turned it down, as did Andy Payne who was in Swingshift with Dave at the time.
- Eddie and Suze had been continuously encouraging Frank to join the band as drummer. He finally does.
- In November, at the Kardomah Cafe, Kings Cross (Sydney), the band presently named WOODY’S HEROES, play their first gig.
- Frank suggests BABY ANIMALS as the band name, after seeing an advertisement (Kerrang! version). Another version elsewhere, suggests the name came from a calendar in a mall. In a RTR Sounz (New Zealand) interview, Suze mentioned they change the origins of the name in different interviews, as it got boring answering the same thing over and over.”
from suzedemarchi.com

Members

• Suze DeMarchi – Vocals, Guitar
• Frank Celenza – Drums
• Dave Leslie – Guitar, BV’s
• Eddie Parise – Bass, BV’s

Recordings

Albums

• Baby Animals – 1991
• Shaved and Dangerous – 1993

Other Resources

• Suze DeMarchi’s site
• Baby Animals site

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About

From the muddy waters of western Sydney, BLACK LABEL was born.

The name is always synonymous with “top shelf”, “extra special blends” & that’s exactly what you get with this act being touted as Sydney’s hardest working rock band.

With their pumping selections of tight riffy guitar tunes, BLACK LABEL blend awesome high energy performances with master musicianship to create a big smooth sound & slick show. This has lead to a large and loyal fan base at their live shows throughout Australia.

As the band’s name suggests, BLACK LABEL is a rare mix of maturity and the ability to stick to ideals. This has led to a truly unique sound.

Black Label – “Addicted” Live at Waves Nightclub Wollongong 14/3/09

Members

• Steve Mulry – Vocals
• George Muscat – Drums
• Laurie Marlow – Bass
• Kevin Lucas – Guitar
• Ross Flynn – Guitar
• Kevin Pratt – Guitar
• John McGee – Bass
• Tim Gore – Guitar, slide, lap steel
• Fozz – Guitar
• Brad White – Bass
• John Ford – Guitar

Recordings

• The Dealer
• Lawless
• Seven Deadly Sins

Videos

“Dirty Little Bitch”

Images

14th March 2009, Waves at Wollongong

Other Resources

• Black Label Website
• Sydney Gig Guide
• Fozz’s Website

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History

The first incarnation of this Sydney based pop/rock/punk outfit had it’s beginnings back in 1978, but didn’t become serious until around 1980.

The band was 50/50 covers and originals, and much like Mad Gorilla, was putting up huge light shows and pyrotechnic displays in pubs around Sydney and up the central coast. The musicians never saw a cent from performances, but the production team were making out like bandits.

L-R Paul Signorelli, Nick Matorana, Mark Johnson, Peter Ray. Not visible: David Koenig

The band was playing much the same circuit as the aforementioned primates, The Zarsoff Bros, Snake, Dee Minor and the Rupert B Funkified Filth Band. Back then it was almost a family affair with everybody supporting everybody else.

Blind Ambition put in a good show, but never really rose to the top as it never secured the strong management to nail the band down into any firm direction, thus confusion reigned supreme. Both Mark Johnson and Peter Ray would leave and return a number of times between them because of falling outs. After a couple of years on the circuit, the band imploded altogether as the chief songwriters really started pulling the band every which way.

After the breakup there were several attempts at a reunion over the years but they never got out of the rehearsal studio. The band initially broke up because of differences in opinion over direction. For the reunions this same problem was even more pronounced as some members had really continued to hone their skills while others had not.

Blind Ambition’s legacy was the opening up of new live venues around Sydney that hadn’t had bands before. Sadly, alot of those rooms fell to newly founded booking agencies, and rooms that Blind Ambition had opened and conquered, they could no longer gain access to as they refused to sign exclusive rights to any one agency.

Members

• Brian Carden – Lead vocals
• Phillip Hogan – Guitar
• Mark Johnson – Guitar
• Mitchell Parkes – Bass
• Paul Signorelli – Guitar, then changed to Bass when Mitchell departed.
• Nick Matorana – Drums
• Peter Ray – Guitar
• David Koenig – Keyboards
• John Daniels – Lead vocals
• Tony Dwyer – Guitar

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About

When Tony Dean hitched up the wagons and moved his Beatles show, The Beatnix, east, he kicked of a phenomenon that has gripped the Australian music scene ever since. The concept band.

The second band to join this craze was The Bleach Boys who performed all the hits of The Beach Boys right up and down the East coast of Australia for almost 5 years.

L-R Mark Johnson, David Manuel, Gavin Kennedy, Richard McDonald, Mike Hammond. Not visible: Mark Stinson

History

Formed in 1982, the band went through numerous line up changes as the rigours of hard touring took it’s toll. Wherever “The Bleachies” went, it was a sellout. Corporate sponsorship was another first that the band achieved with Lindeman’s Wines.

Mark Johnson was the only member to survive the full term with the band. He was musical director and lead guitarist, then took over the front man position when the first line up change took place.

The end of the band was not a spectacular event. Each successive line up change took something away from the band, and with the hectic touring schedule, time was never on the band’s side to work replacement members in thoroughly. After four major line up changes, Mark decided that he didn’t want to rebuild for the fifth time and moved on to form Zenyatta

Members

• Mark Johnson – Lead guitar/Harmony vocals/Lead vocals
• Richard McDonald – Rhythm guitar/Harmony vocals
• Mike Hammond – Bass/Harmony vocals
• Bill Motzing Jr – Drums
• Gavin Kennedy – Lead vocals
• David Manuel – Percussion
• Mark Wells – Bass/ Harmony vocals
• Carlton Spencer – Keyboards
• Bronte Wake – Guitar/ Harmony vocals
• Glen Pattison – Drums
• Robyn Lamott – Keyboards/Harmony vocals
• Rod Crundwell – Keyboards/Harmony Vocals
• Rex Mansfield – Drums/ Harmony Vocals
• Mark Stinson – Drums

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About

Sydney based Blues/Boogie/Rock band of the 80′s

History

Started in 1986 by Larry Macmillan, Terry Duffy, Graeme Newtown and Rick Doolan. Disbanded in 1990

Images

Members

• Larry Macmillan -Guitar and Vocals
• Terry Duffy – Bass
• Graeme Newton – Guitar
• Rick Doolan – Drums
• Mark Johnson – Guitar
• Mark Langfield – Drums
• Leo Auciello – Vocals
• Mark Flack – Guitar
• Mark Wells – Bass
• Steve Edmonds – Guitar
• Bob Montgomery – Bass and Vocals
• Mark Blanchard – Guitar
• Steve Levidicus – Guitar
• Barry Gathercole – Guitar
• Jerry Hughes – Vocals
• Peter Nicoli – Bass

Recordings

• Bag Fulla Boogie – 1986
• Boogie Down Under – 1988
• Let the party begin

Technical Crew

• Mark Gibson – F.O.H.
• Brett Gibson – Monitors
• Brian Lawrence – Lights

Other Resources

• Gibbos War Stories – Goin On Tour

Known Gigs

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I had a conversation with Gibbo Junior the other day that brought back a few memories. He is “getting a band together” with a few mates as teenagers do and we were talking about things rock & roll. The word “tour” came up as it does. It is a funny word in the rock & roll world and can mean all sorts of things to all sorts of people. When I was first kicking off, the definition of “On Tour” was driving more than 3 hours from home and not sleeping in your own bed! Later on it came to mean months away from home and many thousands of kilometers travelled, literally! It brought to mind though, my first “interstate tour”. It was a trip to Queensland consisting of a gig in a wonderful place called Strathpine, Qld, followed by a midnight trip to a national park in S.E. Qld for a biker’s party. The band was called Bandanna.

They were the first band that employed me as a sound engineer. It was 1985 from memory. I had played in another band with the guitarist Larry. This guy could play really well as well as being a more than capable singer. The other guitarist was a Kiwi guy called Graeme who immigrated to Holland, which was sort of appropriate… if you knew Graeme! The drummer was the amazing Rick Doolan who you will eventually hear much about. The bass player was Terry who was known as “Dr Gofast”. Another legend whom you will hear more about in future.
Basically they were a “bikers band”. They played blues, boogie, rock etc. and were really, really good. As a lot of bands were then, we were working about 3-5 gigs per week and all had “day jobs”. I had taken a few rostered days off to go on this jaunt.

This is us leaving the Strathpine Hotel. This photo includes myself, my pal Brian™, my brother, the band and a couple of extra crew known as “The Muckhole Brothers” who were “chemically enhanced” most of the time though they worked very well.

After an event free trip to Qld. and a great gig, we packed up and headed out the door.

Here are my pal Brian™  and my brother Brett in their devastating youth.

Off to Aratula we go. The fun started early. We hadn’t got 10 minutes out of Strathpine when we realised we were heading the wrong way which called for a quick U-turn across the median strip. This was something which seemed to annoy the local Police. I was driving my Lite-Ace “party bus” with the band, a couple of crew, a stray girl that the bass player had found, lots of grog, and a few other things that I won’t admit to here. Constable Plod was thrown by a NSW license and a van full of rough heads so he let us continue on our merry way with a stern talking to about “the way we do things up here”.
The rest of the trip was uneventful until the stray girl decided she needed to vomit. Now!
We pulled over to let her chuck. Awesome. The bass player was still interested at this point.
Off we go a few miles down the road when the stray girl decided she needed to pee. Now!
We pulled over but she was concerned that we might “perve on her” so she went around to the other side of the van. The side where the road was. The side where the traffic was. She quite happily piddled while cars drove past watching. I think we still perved.

Arriving at the party was an eye opener for me. If you have never been to a serious bikers party, then you have missed out on one of lifes great adventures. It was quite late(or early),in the middle of the bush and there were people everywhere drinking, smoking and… well, bloody everything. Come sun up, we were treated to the site of our stage.

What a beauty eh? That’s our truck at the back acting as a dressing room.

After setting up for most of the morning, there wasn’t much to do so we went and watched a “bash the Japanese bike competition. You paid a few dollars to have a couple of swings with a sledge hammer and the first one to get the crankshaft out, won. Classic stuff.

The afternoon rolled around finally to everyone’s favourite event. The tit show.

This is where female members of the audience are asked to remove some of their clothing on stage for all to enjoy and a winner is democratically selected.
All was going well until some girl grabbed the mic and started rabbiting on about how sexist the whole thing was and that she “wanted to see some dicks”.

Well, she didn’t have to ask twice.

The stage and was swamped by blokes with their slugs out.

This bloke was the obvious winner.

Fairly soon it all settled back down to the girls and a winner was duly selected.

Her prize seemed to involve going back stage with a couple of the bikers! I wonder what second prize was. Later on we had to let the strippers use the back of our truck for a dressing room. While we were in there “getting stuff ready”. It is quite bizarre watching a strip show in reverse. They would appear from the stage nude and get dressed again for their next bit. Wow.

Anyways, time was approaching when the band would actually have to take the stage and play. Trouble was that the singer was suffering from a bad cold and no sleep and 57 beers and……and was rapidly losing his voice. Finally the band started. The music was pumping and the crowd was going off. Until Larry tried to sing. Absolutely nothing came out. The band struggled on for a few songs doing “instrumental versions”. This was not going down as well as we would have liked. Let me put it this way. Bikers are not the best people to disappoint.

It was decided that one of the support acts would loan us their singer. Great… he knew two of the songs. It was then decided to let this bloke have a go who could “blow the harp(harmonica) like a bastard!” He knew two songs as well. He played them twice I think. It was then decided to give it away and beat a hasty retreat before anyone got more angry at us. We packed up in record time and scurried back to Sydney. At this point, we hadn’t been to bed for a while and some of us were a little bit “emotional”. A small altercation was had between myself and my pal Brian™ over who should get the sleeping spot in the van. Although this involved pulling over, much swearing, some pushing, much more swearing and a little bit more pushing, it was sorted and we had an uneventful and quiet trip home.

I crawled into bed at home finally, after three days with basically no sleep. Around two hours later the phone rings and wakes me. It is Rick, the drummer. He owned the truck with the bands gear in it. He says words to the effect of “If the cops call you, tell them you were driving the truck”.
Half asleep to fully awake in .5 of a second!
“What the…” I say.
“Well, you’ve got a class 3 (truck) license haven’t you?” He says.
“Why?” I ask.
Rick says sheepishly: “I sort of overtook these Army blokes going along Putty road. Across double yellow lines, on the wrong side of the road, around a series of blind corners, going down the mountain, in the truck, and, my license isn’t sort of valid at this point. Can you cover it when they ring? Apparently some fuckwit officer has taken the number of the truck and has made a complaint.”

Oh how I miss those days.

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