Born and raised in a musical family in 1960s rural New South Wales, Al grew up listening to his elder sibling's 45's and K-Tel LPs, starting to learn drums when he was 12. Picking up the guitar came much later at age 28.
Hugely influenced by The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Elton John and Deep Purple (and as the man himself states "just about any other artist of the last 40 years") Al has played in several bands, mostly as drummer, performing a combined total of around 600 live gigs.
These bands have been and are:
Easy Street Sydney NSW 1981
The Remedy Newcastle NSW 1984-86
Suzy & The Stormbreakers Newcastle 1987-88
The Fabulous Blue Dog Melbourne Vic 1989-92
Beach Trains On Fridays Melbourne 2000-present (on and off...sort of)
Guano Hoik! Melbourne 2002-2004 (off and on etc...)
The Tides Melbourne 2004-present
All Time Favourite Drummers: Ian Paice, Phil Collins, Russ Kunkle, Neil Peart, Steve Prestwich and John Bonham ("sorry Keith, you were more a showman...")
All Time Favourite Songwriters: Jimmy Webb, Neil Young, Don Walker, Harry Chapin, Elton John/Bernie Taupin and George & Ira Gershwin.
Who else do I love?: Sade, Sting, Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel, Daddy Cool, Jackson Browne, Pink Floyd, Sarah Brightman, The Band, Ben Harper, The Tragically Hip, Dido, Anastacia, Blue Oyster Cult, Fantasia Barrino, The Corrs (hubba hubba), Nick Cave, Cowboy Junkies, The Cars, The Who, Gustav Mahler, Tangerine Dream, Kiss, Genesis, Dave Steel, Shane Howard, Jeff Beck, The Beach Boys, Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Chris De Burgh, Ritchie Blackmore and more, more, more...
Al has played live, playing congas, in Dennis Walter's house band, jammed live with John Schumann (of Redgum fame) when 'I've Been To Bali Too' was getting heaps of airplay, shared commercial flights with Kate Ceberano and Doc Neeson (and the Brewster Brothers), got biffed by Jimmy Barnes at a Chisel show in Wagga Wagga for trying to climb over the stage monitor to get a peek at the set list and was a regular presenter on Community Radio 2NUR-FM Newcastle from 1985-88, presenting "Cross-Section" on alternate Saturday mornings and "Rockfiles" on Tuesday nights once a month.
All Time Favourite Movies: Papilion, Pulp Fiction, Schindler's List and Kill Bill Vol 1 (haven't seen Vol 2 yet!).
All Time Favourite Authors:James A. Michener, J.R.R.Tolkien and Steven King
Top 10 All-Time Albums:
1. Made In Japan - Deep Purple
Live, spontaneous and powerful with unsurpassed muscianship! Ian Paice: "We fluked it." This band never played better, ever.
2. Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd
Dynamic and cohesive! From a basic heartbeat to a magnificent finale with many a fine crescendo. Floyd production + Alan Parson's engineering marvel.
3. Cold Chisel - Cold Chisel
Raw and lean. The best produced and most credible Chisel album. True Australian lyric. Don Walker....!
4. Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan
Definitive acoustic Dylan. Songwriting genius obvious throughout, especially in "Tangled Up In Blue", "Simple Twist Of Fate" and Lily, Rosemary And The Jack Of Hearts".
5. Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones
Didn't like the Stones at all before I heard this. I had to play the intro to "Brown Sugar" twice to actually believe what I heard!
6. Abbey Road - The Beatles
Another testimony to the genius of Alan Parsons as he worked with the greatest band of our time.
7. Live 17-11-70 - Elton John
Pure energy! Fifty minutes of piano, bass, drums and 3 voices recorded live to an audience of about 125 people. Live music = REAL music.
8. Thick As A Brick - Jethro Tull
Profound, intellectual, epic and singable too. Just one of THOSE albums for me.
9. Eye In The Sky - Alan Parsons Project
Great songs, great production, great band! Stuart Elliot (Cockney Rebel, Kate Bush, Al Stewart) + great drummer. "Old And Wise" is an incredibly moving song.
10. The Last Waltz - The Band and Guests
All my favourite artists on one bill at one concert. SO wish I was there!. Great movie too!
Would be contenders: Harvest by Neil Young, Crime Of The Century by Supertramp, Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin, Running On Empty by Jackson Browne and anything by the The Who, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Paul Rodgers, Joe Cocker and so on...
Al personally knows at least 2 members of The Wiggles and assisted Adam Elliot on the set of 'Harvey Krumpet'...mainly by keeping out of his way...
Sorry Mark, but YOU got me started...
Mark
vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, occasional banjo
Born in England and emigrating to bayside Melbourne when he was 3 going on 4, Mark grew up listening to his parents' Tom Jones, Seekers and Lionel Long albums and Beatles cartoons on the telly. He started learning guitar when he was 16...at a time when all his closest friends at school were doing the same...likewise soon turning his hand to writing songs.
Among Mark's major musical influences are The Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin and Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention. He has played only a fraction of the gigs Al has played over the years but there have been some bands, some performing...some not...
These bands have been and/or are:
Fred's Dead Heads Melbourne Vic 1975-78
Bryl Kreem & The Ducktails Melbourne 1976
Beltane Melbourne 1978-80
Middle Kingdom Melbourne 1979-80
The Croissants Melbourne 1984-85
Guano Hoik! Melbourne 1987-2004
The Beauty Myth Melbourne 1994...a serious but unsuccessful attempt to play live on a regular basis
The Defectors Melbourne 2002-2003
The Tides Melbourne 2004-present
More into recording over the years, these gigs can really be counted on two hands...or maybe three if you're a Simpson:
4 with Beltane at Exodus Hall and special one-offs with The Ducktails at their High School revue, Middle Kingdom again at Exodus Hall, Guano Hoik! (under the guise of The Bernards) at Bernaid '99 at the Sandringham Football Club and with The Defectors at the Wandin Lavender Festival in 2003. Ahh...remember them all...but accompanying his daughter at her school guitar recital in 2002 was undoubtably the best gig...though even his son has played bigger venues (Robert Blackwood Hall for instance) when he was in school bands playing trumpet!
All Time Favourite Guitarists: Jimmy Page, Paul Kossoff, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, John Martyn, Richard Thompson, George Harrison, Lindsay Buckingham, Pete Townshend and anyone who plays a Rickenbacker!
All Time Favourite Songwriters: John Lennon, Paul MacCartney, Sting, Paul Simon, Suzanne Vega, Andy Partridge and Neil Finn....have I forgotten someone?
All Time Favourite Singers: John Lennon (again), Sandy Denny, Robert Plant, Bono, Paul Rodgers, John Fogerty and Emmylou Harris. Suzanne Vega and Natalie Merchant too.
Who else do I love?: XTC, Kate Bush, T.Rex, The Doors, Free, The Moody Blues, Miles Davis, Moloko, Grant-Lee Buffalo, Garbage, Morcheeba, Loreena McKennitt, Clannad, The Jam, Mental As Anything, The Specials, P.J.Harvey, Sting, The Dandy Warhols, Tania Bowra, Pretenders, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Who, Vaughan Williams, Jewel, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jethro Tull, Blondie, Ofra Haza, New Order and (like Al) more, more, more...
All Time Favourite Movies (well a few of them): The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, North By Northwest, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, Whale Rider, The Life Of Brian...all the Lord Of The Rings films...
All Time Favourite Authors:J.R.R.Tolkien, John Fowles and Peter Mathiessen.
Top 20 All-Time Albums (really in no particular order):
1. Liege and Lief - Fairport Convention
Best folk rock album of all time. Best British Female voice ever in Sandy Denny, Top 10 all time guitarist in Richard Thompson, great drummer in Dave Mattacks - in fact a supergroup!
2. Led Zeppelin 3 - Led Zeppelin
Someone once said that the first Zep album you hear ends up being your favourite - great combination of acoustic and
electric.
3. Red Dirt Girl - Emmylou Harris
Great songs, amazing voice, unrivalled emotion.
4. Tigerlily - Natalie Merchant
ditto
5. Highway 61 Revisited - His Bobness
This Dylan album blew me away when I first heard it. How could anyone write lyrics like that?
6. All Things Must Pass - George Harrison
The finest Beatles solo album by several light years.
7. Hounds Of Love - Kate Bush
The best songs are magnificent, the rest are very very good. No-one else has ever sounded like her...and so beautiful. Boy did I have a crush on Kate!
8. Cosmo's Factory - Creedence Clearwater Revival
I just about wore out my vinyl record the amount of playing it got when I was a teenager playing Air Guitar to it.
9. Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel
Simply beautiful...the title track almost brings tears to my eyes every time I play it...it soars!
10. Abbey Road - The Beatles
George's 2 songs...Something - now there's a perfect pop song and the second side medley swung it.
The Next 10:
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea - P J Harvey
99.9Fo - Suzanne Vega
Mighty Joe Moon - Grant-Lee Buffalo
Statues - Moloko
Nonsuch - XTC
The Last Of The Independents - Pretenders
Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia - The Dandy Warhols
Unicorn - Tyrannosaurus Rex
The Doors - The Doors
Specials - The Specials
Now this is a recollection exercise for me really...a little self indulgence...but this site is a blog as much as anything else so here goes: the bands I have seen!
In the seventies Sammy Davis Jnr (got dragged along as a 12 year old with my Mum when my Dad couldn't go - only these days do I appreciate the fact I saw him), T.Rex (first 'official' concert), Eric Clapton (saw him again mid 1980s), Wings, John Martyn, Santana, Fleetwood Mac, Linda Ronstadt. In the 80s - Madness, Dire Straits (saw them again in the 90s), INXS (at the time of their first single), Mental As Anything (x2), The Tourists, Bob Dylan, Pretenders (the original line-up), Roy Buchanan, The Cure, Jethro Tull, Leonard Cohen (x2), The Police, Adam & The Ants, Split Enz, Jethro Tull, Pentangle, John Renbourn (in Dartmouth!), Phil Collins, Spandau Ballet, Bruce Springsteen, U2, Ultravox, Sky (x2), John Williams, Simon & Garfunkel, David Bowie, New Order, Donovan, Sting, Bryan Ferry, Clannad (x2), Robert Plant, Los Lobos. In the 90s - Suzanne Vega, Loreena McKennitt, Chris Isaak (at a shopping centre!), Peter Gabriel, Tina Turner (at the '93 F1 Grand Prix in Adelaide), John Fogerty. Since 2000 - The Corrs, Morcheeba, David Gray, Garbage (x2), Grant-Lee Phillips, Concerete Blonde, The Waifs, The Special Beat, Lloyd Cole, Sarah McLauchlan (x2), Jewel...there must be more...
Shaking hands with The Dalai Lama in 1992 was a highlight, as was meeting Michael Palin at a book signing (he thought my Monty Python "bok' stunk of mothballs...it did!) and Loreena McKennitt, Donovan, Richard Thompson, Grant-Lee Phillips and Michelle Shocked at in-store signings/performances. Mark did a series of appearances on Community Radio 3RPP in the mid 90s, often bringing in stuff and eventually playing some Hoiker material after recordings started seriously from 1994 onwards. Oh yes...walking past Phil Lynott in Spring Street Melbourne in the late 1970s...seeing Sophia Loren arrive at Myers in the early 1980s. I think that's enough for now...
Neil
vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, mandolin, keyboards
Growing up on The Frankston Line around the same time that Al and Mark were growing up elsewhere, Neil was a later starter to playing music, starting to learn bass in 1984 under the tutelage of Bill Putt (of 'Spectrum' fame). Immediately he started jamming with Mark and friends under the loose guise of The Croissants. In 1985, 5 years after Mark had sold his electric guitar (a '73 strat), Neil uttered the now famous (to a select few) words to Mark..."here's $200...go and buy a guitar'...
Neil joined Mark and his then wife in England in 1986 and upon Mark's return the next year Guano Hoik! jams started with with their friend Norm...the rest is history...and can be read on the Guano Hoik! linked site.
Neil has been involved in these bands:
The Croissants Melbourne Vic 1984-85
Guano Hoik! Melbourne 1987-2004
The Beauty Myth Melbourne 1994
Beach Trains On Fridays Melbourne 2001-03
The Tides Melbourne 2004-present
Besides the Bernaid gig in 1999, Neil played live several times with Beach Trains during his time with them, including several nights at Madalini's in Mordialloc, two outings at the local school fete (where his daughter and Al's kids go) and also The Kingston Festival in 2002.
Neil's initial music tastes centred on 1970s American rock before discovering British punk, ska and new wave in the late 70s. And he's never looked back!
All Time Favourite Bassists: Bruce Foxton, Peter Hook, John Entwhistle, Mark King, Flea and Sting.
Who else do I love?: Sarah McLauchlan, Texas, James, The Waifs, Dirty Lucy, The Wonder Stuff, XTC, The Specials, The Jam, The Cars, Pretenders, 10,000 Maniacs, Van Morrison, The Church, Wet Wet Wet, Little Murders, Garbage, Beth Orton, Gene, The Jazz Butcher, World Party, Kirsty MacColl, Billy Bragg, David Gray and (like Al and Mark) more, more, more...
Crossing paths with Holly Johnson in Kings Road Chelsea was something to remember as was eye contact with Sigrid Thornton in a Melbourne Street. What else? I'll have a think about it...
