Born in Hobart and started singing at 14 with small bands. I was
singing before I learned to speak and there was always a piano in
the house so I grew up with music. When I was 16 a friend gave me
my first guitar and a year later took it and me to Syndney where
I met up with a Tassie pianist John A Bird (Country radio, Jeff St
John). He was a member of Southern Comfort and they had just landed
a residency at Sammy Lee's Cheetah Room (Old Latin Quarter) and needed
a "chick singer" Got the job and there followed a tremendous learning
curve as we worked 6 nights a week, 8 hours a night for 18 months.
Members were John, Andy Anderson (The Sullivans, RJSS, Missing Links),
Garry "Toad" Macdonald and Dave "the bloke" Ovendon, Phil Eisenberg
and Phil Cogan.
After the Cheetah we did the Millers circuit for a while but all
drifted off to other things. A short stint with Grapevine led to
another residency, this time at Johnathons on Broadway and Grapevine
was replaced by the Hunger group and I stayed on as a singer. Hunger
were Robbo, Harry Brus, Tony Frew and not long after Bobby Gebbert.
At this time I started doing session work and record a single with
Sven Libaek "Home/I love you lord" from his rock musical Grass. Later
I was record the remainder of the LP with my friends Jan Slater,
Terry Kaff and Mickey Leyton.
While doing session work for Alison Mac's Superman, I met Simon Napier
Bell who signed me to Alberts/EMI and there followed a string of
singles. "Your the Hand" written and produced by Simon, "Working
My Way Back to You" (Vanda-Young) produced by Ted Albert and also
"Show and Tell" produced by Chris Gilbey who had replaced Simon at
Alberts as A & R and it was Chris who penned "No Tomorrow" for me,
which was Australia's entry in the Olympiad of Song in Athens in
73 and we travelled to Athens to participate.
When Johnathans burnt down Hunger changed line up and became Duck.
Bobby Gebbert, Steve Wright, Teddy Toi, John English, Robbo and
of course myself. We recorded the Laid album and toured a bit but
broke up soon after the LP was released. I continued doing Session
work and released a single with my two friends Jan and Alison that
was produced by Chris Gilbey. A cover of the old "To know you is
to Love Him" b/w an original "So Tough" penned by Jan and Chris (I
think). It was released under the name "The Hooter Sisters", simply
because it was all a bit of a hoot. The club scene and a solo career
followoed for a few years, but this was not the way I wanted to sing
or live so
I packed my little bags and headed off towards Europe where I washed
up on this Greek Island. Fast forward to Sydney 2004 where The Southern
Comfort reunion brought me back into the music world and into close
contact with my old friends who are now all successful and still
best friends.
Favourite band to work with
Southern Comfort (Still friends after all these years)
Favourite band to listen to back then
La De Da's
Favourite track of mine
Since I fell for you
Favourite Crazy track
Voodoo Woman
....because it wasn't a song. We had nothing for the the B side of
Show and Tell. So Gilbey and Bobby Gebbert and I started messing
around and in an hour we'd let the tape run and had a track. A totally
"out of character fun thing".
Favourite producer
Simon Napier Bell
.....because he is so funny in the studio and tells outrageous stories.
Best studio session
Home, with Sven Libaek because it was my first.
The Duck LP
I was so wasted I don't remember making it. Wish I did cause it must
have been fun.