Performing music in the vibrant indi scene of Perth circa 1986/7 was a real hoot. Inspired by the likes of Just Add Water and Sydney band The Lighthouse Keepers who used trumpet I was keen to get involved. Local legends The Triffids, had used trumpet on their classic single Beautiful Waste. That was it for me. I was keen to perform in a band. My first band was The Northern Lights, a jangly guitar, lilting harmony band fronted by friend Lucy Brooks-Kenworthy and Tim Underwood [RIP 2020] with Gretta Little Gretta Little interviewed by John Bannister in the Perth Independent Music project [sound recording] | National Library of Australia (nla.gov.au)on bass and Chad Hedley [local DJ] sometimes on drums. Great musicians, I was privileged to join them. 

Tim and Gretta would later go on to make a name for themselves with The Rosemary Beads in the 90s... I later joined The Rosemary Beads a few times on stage when they reformed in 2017. Loved performing Military Man... The Northern Lights performed at venues like the Fitzgerald Hotel [offices], The Shenton Park [retirement village] and the Beaufort Hotel [a supermarket]. We put out a cassette - Trouble Understanding...[certainly have trouble understanding why we stopped playing?!?]

The guitar, lyrics and harmonies still sound great when I listen to it. It seemed that within weeks of me mentioning I could play the trumpet a bit, I was at Shelter recording studio in Wanneroo.  We were featured on The Hometown Farewell Kiss album released by 6UVSFM [RTR] that came out after the band had folded, of course... The photo above was taken at a video shoot we did at Swanbourne Beach behind the Swanbourne Barracks. I remember nudists casually walking along the beach disrupting the shoot. We were on their patch after all and I felt hungover and overdressed in a suit twirling an umbrella while blowing a bugle. When I look back that was probably the band of all of them that with the instrumentation, harmonies, lyrics etc should have been the most artistically successful. It was hard and such a tragedy to be performing Unholy Devotion 30 plus years on with Gretta and friends at Tim's wake at the Railway Hotel in 2020.  The melody and poetry, so good. https://www.facebook.com/john.bannister.9465/videos/1316159885258483

While performing with Northern Lights I was also performing with The Lager Frenzy a 9 piece party band featuring cross dressing doo-op girls [who's identities will remain secret] and a medley of party fools that included the likes of Hugh Veldon aka Marty Moon - King Wasabi, Jim McKibbon of Alien Sound - who recorded The Triffids album In the Pines - Steve Kyme and fronted by David Downie of bands like The Angry Penguins and Sans PS.

Fosters was the new beer and it became our drink. We dipped into the silver suitcase full of it on stage. There was some talk of a Fosters sponsorship. A cassette was produced - I threw My Baby off the AMP, featuring classics like Bubble Car, I'm Going to the Bar and The Power of Fosters. The cover was produced by my sister and fello Frenzy member Caroline.

I wrote my first original 'Louis The Barfly'. Unfortunately no original recording of it exists. Though a version of it is still in the repertoire. For one gig at the Hellenic Centre I was coaxed into wearing a yellow poodle suit and leather motorcycle cap. Remembered fondly by a few people that were there...Curtis J Brown where are you now?!?... Thankfully only fading memories of this occasion remain. A few gigs at the WAIT Tavern [CURTIN University] and The Shenton Park [retirement village] supporting The Painters & Dockers [I filled in for P&D's trumpet player for a couple of shows] and a number of Rockwells gigs [Paradiso Cinema] for a Battle of the Bands, we came second - which is right after first - and 'odd' events at the Hellenic Centre in Northbridge and the band seemed to shuffle off history's stage... definitely residing in the where are they now file? 

Charlotte's Web, an eclectic Triffids - Velvet Underground inspired band featuring the eccentric Craig Chisholm, glamorous Flick Dear and fronted by Jeff Lowe gave me a gig between 1987-90. HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN MUSIC FROM 1960 UNTIL 2010: CHARLOTTE'S WEB (historyofaussiemusic.blogspot.com)        

A single 'Heart Trouble' did moderately well in the Australian indi charts. Somewhere  stuck in a fossilised betamax video player a video exists of us miming the song on Telethon and indeed possibly a video recorded for MTV of the single produced in the studios of the then new Perth TAFE College on Beaufort Street. I remember a super saturated vibrant colour video. Fronted by Lowe Jeffrey Lowe interviewed by John Bannister in the Perth Independent Music project [sound recording] | National Library of Australia (nla.gov.au), Charlotte's Web had some really interesting songs penned largely by Lowe. A few singles, cassettes and cds exist.  Flick Dear's vocals and individual drumming style Felicity Dear interviewed by John Bannister in the Perth Independent Music project [sound recording]. - Trove (nla.gov.au), Cello supplied by Kim Skipworth and Michael Zampogna's enthusiasm for Johnny Marr's Guitar playing made for an interesting outfit. I remember a great gig at what was one of the earliest In the Pines shows [was it the Neon Picnic!?] supporting the Triffids. I remember joking with good humoured Alsy Mcdonald [Triffid's drummer] while warming up to Herb Alpert tunes. Alsy's story can be found here....Allan MacDonald interviewed by John Bannister in the Perth Independent Music project [sound recordin... | National Library of Australia (nla.gov.au)

I left the band just before a tour of the eastern states with the likes of the Triffids and Frente. My timing was never perfect... Realistically I didn't play on every song and I was always getting on and off stage. I didn't really feel like a full member and I was busy with my own band Acapulco Funhouse which featured Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and Booker T and the MG's covers and a spattering of originals, including another original appropriately named 'Number Two'. I remember our first gigs were played at Graylands Hospital. Crazy man!! I was also playing in indi band the Venus Girl Traps - V.G.T.s - and The Beat Bongo Maniacs - Beatnic Hipcats - who offered paid gigs.

'Tin Tin in Acapulco' and 'Magnificent Surfers' - still performed as Magnifique, were penned around this time with Craig Weighell. http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4281090 .  Both tunes borrowed heavily from the Tijuana style. The V.G.Ts included members of the Marigolds and Waltons and put out a single which featured Memphis Speedboat, I have Got What I've Not and Heroine. I think its a brilliant piece of indi work. I was studying Radio/TV broadcasting at WAAPA at the time and made a video of the song 'I have Got What I've Not'.Venus Girl Traps - I Have Got What I've Not - YouTube - Venus Girl Traps – I Have Got What I've Not (1990, Vinyl) - Discogs Hazy memories of a very crazy lost weekend supporting Hunters n Collectors to a crowd of 8,000 in Margaret River still haunt band members. I also performed with Errol H Tout and Jon Cope during this period at The Ozone cocktail bar [Brewery and  park]. All of these groups were offering more scope for my trumpet playing. A fond memory was doing a gig at the Dolphin Theatre with Errol H Tout for his Tilting Room album launch. I was so nervous and the podium I was standing on was wobbly so I was physically tilting and could hardly hold the trumpet let alone play it. At the time, playing with ET [Rock in Peace 2022] was a pretty big deal. People took notice. My parents had heard of him and were impressed that I must actually be performing some worthwhile music if I was performing with him.  He was and is, considered a guitarist of great talent and individuality and looked to be taking the world string by string.http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/4298580?lookfor=john%20bannister&offset=20&max=139 . Errol would give The CBs an electronic kick start later at a gig at The Ellington when he sat in on French Rain circa 2014. So much fun! In the recording you can just about hear the drummer fall off his stool as he ET arks up.

Looking back I am lucky to have had the chance to play with these bands. I was really just embellishing great music.

The Fat fronted by Trevor Hilton, Trevor Hilton interviewed by John Bannister in the Perth Independent Music project [sound recording] | National Library of Australia (nla.gov.au), the man resposible for the bunnings jingle The man who composed the iconic Bunnings Warehouse jingle has finally been found | Sunrise (7news.com.au) used my limited trumpet stylings for a season of funkiness in 1989-90 I remember a packed New Years Eve gig at the 'A' Shed in Fremantle where I played in the V.G.Ts and The Fat - beginning and ending the night. Wild! I climbed up on a speaker stack about 20 feet high to play cow bell on one song while Danny Passionfruit climbed the stack stage right bookend style. We supported the Eurythmics at a packed Entertainment Centre. Annie Lennox lost her voice in Talking to an Angel and stopped the 2nd show. It was all panic stations back stage. It was a strange experience meeting Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart and Siobhan [from Bananarama] under such circumstances. I went to England for a year returning late 1991. There were ramblings in the UK of gigging with The Jazz Butcher [RIP Pat Fish 2021] and I was offered a gig, but declined the offer, with a band in Camden who I later came to believe were the origins of Chumberwumber... 

Back in Perth there was more Maniacal fun with the Beat Bongos and cool retro jazz and blues, country jazz, rock outfit of the Mariachi Brothers... I remember a great tune called The A Theme... 

I also played with Peter Baker's Rockabilly act the Crawdaddies, hired to play Ring of Fire & There ain't nobody here but us Chickens. Mostley at the Lone Star... Beaufort Hotel... Supermarket near [the now for sale] Ellington Jazz Club. 

As the early 90s took hold I joined the 6 piece Quatermass Experiment 1991-92 [no not The Quartet Mass!!]an acid jazz, funk, soul and rap band. We held down a couple of popular residencies at Arcadia [a youth hostel] and the Broadway Tavern and the Aberdeen Hotel. Again a number of inspired originals were written but nothing came of them. There had been talk of touring Indonesia but this idea came to naught. The Neville Brothers support at the Concert Hall stands out with, Aaron singing an amazing version of Ave Maria. You could hear a pin drop. When I think of what we were doing we were pretty happening.. though god knows who decided on that name. Its a great vintage BBC Sci Fi TV show but rubbish name for a cool band, always being mispelled and mispronounced by music press etc... I remember a good recording but dont know what ever happened to it?

The Latin craziness of Los Locos followed shortly after. We comprised Val Tarin - Henry Hobblestone - from Quatermass and Sergio Tarzia who'd performed as guest in Quatermass. We were considered the periferal members of Quatermass - pffft! But Los Locos were formed at a party gig at L'Alba, a popular late night restaurant on Lake Street. The band, performed largely Latin numbers including frenzied Latino folk tunes in the vein of the Gypsy Kings. We walked into a paid gig shortly after the manager of the Continental Hotel [The Claremont Hotel - later the site of the Claremont serial killings] heard our infectious racket as he walked past the party.  I remember playing under a stairwell at the Claremont while models walked down to the strains of a shocking version of The Girl From Ipanema. 

With Serge leading the vocals and providing rythmic flemenco guitar stylings, Los Locos became the darlings of Latino party set which was building in Perth with the world trend inspired by the Gypsy Kings. For a few years we were the band to follow at Aqua on William Street [now a lap dancing bar] - with queues two deep curling around into Francis St - and the Swanbourne Hotel [a retirement village]. We played at an Albany club, the only one open in the whole great southern on a long weekend, where the stage was stormed by an infuriated drunk. A living Neanderthal who took exception to our rendition of A Taste of Honey. I watched him try and rally the crowd to join him as he rushed the stage. I made it off just as he grabbed my mic. Henry rushed to grab security. It must have been excrutiating for him. He just wanted his bundi and coke and the DJ to play Barnesy... Fare enough! We had been booked by club owners to play a private party in a VIP room. But they thought they'd maximise their investment by putting us on the main stage downstairs. We ate up big at breakfast the following morning socking it to the man before leaving. A bad unheaded omen, we had ran out of petrol on the way down and I think we lost all profits from speeding fines because  we couldnt leave fast enough. It still makes me laugh.

Los Locos made it to Jakarta for a 2 month stint over Christmas New Year 1992-3 performing at Cafe Batavia. An warning sign observed on our arrival. The club was still being finished a few days before our debut performance. Literally lack of windows and flooring and wiring dangling from the walls. Lackies working all hours slept on the floor. It was however, ready on the night. Originally the Governor's residence Cafe Batavia was a blast, from the sweeping staircase and plush colonial surrounds to the mirrored urinals. There was an upstairs restaurant with open luvered windows that let the bats fly through. Run by questionable management and bar staff, who put their drinks on the band tab so it looked like we were drinking hundreds of dollars each a night.  This was a trip and a half. The management had not paid the right backhander to someone on openning and the club was shut down over christmas and new year. The stage roped off, including instruments, though not my trumpet I took it home each night. People showed up uninformed that the New Years gig was cancelled and this almost caused a riot. The streets were jammed for hours so there was no way anyone was going to be partaying anywhere else fast. Many fond & surreal memories of the trip and the group's experiences both on stage and off remain, as do a few wild videos and desk tapes. Swaning around in a baggy linen suit [as you do], sipping cocktails on a palm rimmed beach in reading chairs with Krakatoa smouldering on the horizon. Getting lost in bajais in the middle of the night, dj-ing after the band had gone home and being supplied all the latest cocktails by an amourous young barman... Youth and latin egos would poison the payola paella well and truley. And, at one of our last performances on returning to Perth I broke my leg tripping on a step; ironically at L'Alba where we had first come to light. Unlike the saying however, this posed no good fortune and we folded some months later in a misguided heap after wowing audiences. For a while I had to perform on a swivel stool at Aqua. After supporting Kim Wilde at the Concert Hall, she asked us to play at her wedding... 'if ever she got married.' Her band were great and I remember them tuning up to There she Goes by the La's. It sounded better than the original, which is saying something. 

After Los Locos's demise I ran away to join a real circus 1994-6.

In the solitude of a caravan and surrounded by an oddment of cani circus folk and an assortment of exotic animals, including German speaking fox terriers, I tried to study music while soaking up the bizarre world of circus performance. This included scaring children as a trumpet playing clown. Ken Tait was the musical director. A trombonist of some cred. But he was hoplessly trying to dry out from drug and alcholol addiction. Sadly it got the better of him in the end. I liked him and enjoyed a good drink with a like minded brass player. We would have fun getting drunk together under the stars after the show. One night he went AWL and couldnt perform the sound effects for the show on the K1000 keyboard. I took the helm. An hilarious mishmash of sounds ensued as duck quaks replaced suitable boings that should acompany clowns kicking each other etc. After two years I had to run away from this 'carni' life. It was growing on me.

My new band The Hep Set, [95-7] would try to pick up where Los Locos had left off. I performed with Ray Brown and the Vegas Payback for a few shows as well. Relying more on my ears I could never quite cut the gig though. The Hep Set made a splash in clubs like the Post Office and the Subiaco Hotel and The legendary Greenwich [under His Majesty's Theatre] run by Adil Bux [see invisible zink] and Richard Evans. We wowed the subteranean crowds there every Friday night for a year or so. We were sort out for local festivals and private functions all over town. I head hunted Howard B Shawcross on bass. He still appears on stage with the CBs every now and then. Howard is a man who has a pedegree that outstips most rock players in Perth and beyond.http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Search/Home?lookfor=author:%22Shawcross%2C%20Howard%2C%201951-%22&iknowwhatimean=1 . Howard and I don't speak of the past too much. Every now and then a mutual night terror is shared.

At the Post Office [now Jack Rabbit Slims?] we'd played Limbo Rock while the whole club got down. Often the song would go on for 20 minutes of more while the hepped up throng tried their luck. How low can you go? A lithe underage girl was brought in by her protective father and would often win the limbo comp. It was a Latin Party Fest every Sunday with hundreds joining Latino DJ Juan and sexy, sparkly and scantily clad dancers in between our sets, and free Sangria for the performers. A river cruise for Brazil on the Swan was pretty funny, and yes we did a version of the Love Boat theme. Memories of a hyped and speedy trip to Kalgoorlie for a Royal Flying Doctor's knees up in an airport hanger and Margaret River wedding where the crazed tempe burger poisoned saxophonst could be heard howling into the night sky, certainly stick out as almost losts weekends. As were several Rottnest trips. I noticed Bondy, straight out of the slammer, hiding under his beach hat in crowd tapping his feet. We performed for a week at the Burswood Casino Caberet Lounge [a Keno lounge]. The red velvet curtain would part and off we'd go. There was one man always dancing in front of stage in the audience. He must have been 70 but did a mean Jackson moon walk, and disco shuffle and was dressed to kill. We all expected to see him shuffle off in mid spin. As the red curtin closed after each set we would play the 'Entertainment Tonight' theme from the TV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVZEwr4SmOM . I botched it so badly one night with a tutonic bum note that it is one of my fondest memories of the week run of gigs. We were lucky enough to support Sandra Bernhard. She was amazing and did a great version of Nina Simone's Four Women.

Once a mix up found us about to set up to launch of a rather clapped out looking 21 foot yacht down at Austal shipping. While we were standing around scratching our heads we were escorted to a huge shed where we were placed under a 21 metre luxury launch owned by a chemist who was selling up to live a life on the sea. A stage was erected in 10 minutes by a dejected out of work work force who were now expected to partay down!! Though it was likely they'd be working again soon on constructing the sister ship, which was taking shape next door.

With too many stories to relate one sticks out. We'd been asked to perform Christmas in July at a high end west end restaurant/bar, where we'd previously wowed local celebrities and members of the Perth mafia...but, this 'sold out' event turned out to be... a washed out event completely minus an audience. Literally no-one except the staff turned up. Clearly the crowd knew something we didn't, as possibly did one well known Perth crime identity that popped in with exotic girls on each arm. The place was blown up a couple of days later...twice!?! I met the manager some years later. He'd been away on holiday apparently. I found out that he had indeed been away, catching a vertical tan... at Her Majesty's pleasure. By 1997 we'd blown up too, along with the drummer's brain who'd had enough of the latinesque hi-jinx after 2 years of frantic gigging. 

While forming The Hep Set I'd performed with arty 4 piece Swoon. Fronted by cerebral Peter Stafford from Big Red Tractor. Swoon were described as sounding like Portishead, combining poetry and sound, come jazz n bass. Again, the band seemed, after endless rehearsing and 3 gigs at Vultures, Pica Bar and Supper Club [a put put course], doomed to the obscurity of the past it was a great band though and a cassette is out there somewhere.

I really was lucky to be living off music. Short of lessons at school, where I'd been turned off playing the trumpet by a chain smoking ex Scotts Guard teacher Mr Wrigglesworth, I was pretty well untutored...

After The Hep Set folded I needed a break and... to find a real job?!?

After two years hiatus, and starting a career in Oral History [see link above], I started playing again in Fremantle - my first band was the African Music Congress - A.M.C. and then later Shangara Jive [not Gnangara Drive]. Both great fun bands that did lots of fun gigs around fremantle at venues like Kulcha [above Dome] and Fly By Night Club [Freo Social] and local festivals etc. We were flown to Port Hedland and Esperemce for various events. I remember one gig in Port Heldand at the new concert hall was surprisingly poorly attended. We later found out that we were competing with the Mayor who was having a barbeque at his house. Another where we performed for an hour at a local show. As we performed an ore train started to rumble past in front of us. As we finished it was still rumbling on... amazing! 

I was also invited to join HawaiiNot a fantastic Hawaiian band. The Fremantle vibe and me never really jelled and the mismatch of camp cultures and mistrust spoiled this Hawaiian paradise predictably.

But singing lead and harmony in HawaiiNot gave me confidence to front my own band again though and one evening circa 2002, sitting one evening on the balcony of my Mosman Park apartment I saw The Tsunami Sushi Bar, an ideal place I thought, to host a jazz night. So, the idea of the Charisma Brothers came to life.

I'd toyed with the idea of the CBs before with people I'd performed with, but now it might finally have a place to develop... we performed every friday for 17 years until Covid hit... Watch this space.

https://www.facebook.com/charismabrother/

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=147280578656409