BANDS
A selection of bands I've led or been a part of over the years
FRANKSTON'S 3rd BEST WEDDING BAND
1982-83
I joined the Bay City Big Band when I was 16. We rehearsed in Frankston and through this band I met the drummer Guy Ayres who was also 16. I met a local singer and guitarist and wrote some charts and through a bit of luck found myself running the resident wedding band at a reception centre in Frankston. (No bass player, just my left hand). My first few bands taught me more about music and group management than any book and music course I did later.
NEO-PENGUIN
1983-88
My first original band started when I met Nik Yeo in O week at Trinity College, Melbourne Uni. Nik played double bass and introduced me to the drummer Jonathan Glass. I later met trumpeter/composer Gavin Cornish at the Uni Law Revue and we began gigging around Melbourne playing original modern jazz. Many adventures followed, much music was written, band members came and went and life lessons learnt. It deserves it's own book really.
MISS DOROTHY AND HIS FOOLS IN LOVE
1988-90
I got lucky in 1988 when a vacancy came up in this super hot Melbourne Cabaret Outfit. I had 19 glorious months of hard working/hard living fun with weekly residencies at The Flower (Nth Melbourne), I.D's (Prahran), Royal Derby Hotel (Fitzroy) and The Botanical Hotel (St Yarra). I also wrote a few songs for the band including Too Hot, Love Triangle and Thanks For The Angst. Greg Scealy (Miss Dorothy) is one of the greatest Cabaret Front men the world has seen and with an uber jazz band behind him (Greg Ham, Bruce Sandell, Scott Lambie, Nick Haywood, Scott Tinkler) we ruled Melbourne culminating in a residency at "The Ivy" where some nights you would see U2, Lou Diamond Phillips and a young drunk Eddie McGuire in the audience.