Gibbos War Stories

Saturday 25th October 1986. Do you remember where you were that day? I can tell you where I was. Selina’s at the Coogee Bay Hotel. What a night!

I was working for Bandanna and we had gotten a gig that we were all rapt about. Supporting John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers as well as Aussie blues legends, Chain.


This was a big gig for us, band and crew alike. John Mayall is such an influential person in the music industry that it was like doing a gig with some sort of minor God. To quote John Mayall in one minute:

• John Mayall and Eric Clapton’s Bluesbreakers album was groundbreaking when it was released in 1966. Suddenly everyone wanted to emulate their music.
• Eric Clapton joined Mayall after leaving The Yardbirds in ‘65 and left to form Cream in ‘66.
• John McVie was the longest serving Bluesbreakers musician of the 60s, lasting four years, before forming Fleetwood Mac with fellow Bluesbreakers Mick Fleetwood & Peter Green.
• Mick Taylor was their star guitarist in the late 60s until he left to join The Rolling Stones.
• His Laurel Canyon mansion is home to one of the world’s largest pornography collections, worth over a million pounds.

Heavy duty resume, eh?

We arrived early that afternoon for the bump in with the bands gear. After helping get the main acts’ PA system in & setup, It became obvious that they had underestimated the size of the room and didn’t have enough PA. They asked could they hire ours as well to supplement it. Yeehah! We were getting paid by our band already so the extra cash was a bonus. This was going to be a reat night. Not only was Chain & Mayall playing, but at Selina’s in those days you could not load your gear out until 9am the following morning due to noise restrictions. They would then give you a hotel room to “sleep” in. Party, party party!!

The afternoon was a bit of a blur as we rushed around adding our system to theirs and getting soundcheck done etc. Finally, the show started. We were first up and the boys played like demons. Talk about rising to the occassion. the place was packed and was going off. I was surprised at how many of the crowd were Bandanna regulars. The set seemed to last only 5 minutes & then we were dragging gear off the stage. A couple of quick beers & then Chain hit the stage. If you never been to a Chain concert then you have truly missed out on one of lifes great pleasures. I got to work with them a few times over a period of years with various lineups and it was always outstanding.

Finally, the big moment arrived.

Selina’s is a great venue as it has a mezanine level which in those days was only open to “VIP’s” & drunken roadcrew. We stood up on the mezanine, just off to side stage and just stared. Wow, what a band! Apart from the amazing Mr Mayall, his band contained guitarists Coco Montoya and Walter Trout as well as drummer Joe Yuele. We were just mesmerised by this performance. Hot, sweaty, gutsy… everything you expect from an actual blues legend. Man, this guy was the same age as my Dad!
I remember walking up to Joe Yuele after the show and declaring that I was going to throw my drumsticks away in disgust after watching that.

Upstairs in the band room was a sight that we didn’t see very often. A real rider. A “rider” is the bit tacked onto a performers contract that sets out things like food and drink to be supplied by the venue. Usually the best we could hope for was a carton of beer but this was something special. Cheese platters, cold chickens, bread rolls, fruit platters…. the bloody lot mate. The Mayall crew had all had a good go and declared we could hoe in & finish whatever was left. Yeehah. I remember sitting pissed as a nit and still buzzing from the show, making sandwiches, when Walter Trout staggered in, barely able to remain upright, wondering if we had anything that “might help him stay awake”. We couldn’t help him but somehow it felt like a compliment to us to be asked. Weird eh? Walter was a legendary partaker of anything remotely illegal but apparently is a teetotal these days. Beats choking on your own vomit I suppose.

Walter Trout

I’m not sure what time we stopped drinking & talking about the show. Somewhere just before 9am I suspect. What a night!

Update:
I watched John Mayall’s 70th Birthday Concert the other day on DVD and can thoroughly recommend it. It features a few special guests like Eric Clapton although it is worth watching just for the Bluesbreakers.

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Round about 1990 we got a call from a Biker Club about doing a big gig for them. It was to be a three day festival of bikes, booze & music about halfway along the Putty Rd to Singleton. My boss at the time was a guy by the name of Rick Doolan who was no stranger to the wonderful world of the Biker. Rick was the original drummer in Bandanna and had lured me away from my comfy job at the bank to go full time with his PA company.

Rick Doolan in the Bandanna days.

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I was blown away last night to see Stevie Wright on This Is Your Life. During the late Eighties I worked for a while as Stevies live sound engineer, alongside brother of Gibbo on monitors and My Pal Brian(TM) on lights, and I have wonderful memories of some great gigs as well as some downright strange ones.

He was (I think) still on the needle in those days and was very definitley on the turps in a big way and was quite a handful. Even so, he was still very much a household name and drew decent crowds. The band, Hard Road, consisted of Peter Northcote (sax, keys, guitar), Bruno Renzella (guitar), Vic Young (bass) and Paul DeMarco (drums) and one or two others who slip my mind.
They were outstanding in both musical ability and counselling skills. It was a major effort sometimes just to get Stevie onto the stage in a reasonable condition to perform and the guys showed endless patience(usually!).

The guys started picking him up quite early in the day to get him to the gig before he got too blind. They would then keep him occupied and soberish backstage until show time. This worked for a while until the cunning bugger figured that he could just get the crowd to buy his drinks. “Who’s gunna buy Stevie a Southern Comfort then?” would be the cry. Half a dozen punters would then head to the bar and buy him drinks. The look on the faces of the band was simply priceless. What can you do to help someone who is determined to trash themselves?

Poor old Stevie didn’t have much of a voice left by this stage and it became increasingly difficult to get his voice to sit in the mix at a decent level. Brother of Gibbo had the worst of it as he looked after on-stage sound which was…loud! One night Stevie was having particular trouble hearing himself in the monitors so he decided he would kick them off the front of the stage, as you do. Classic rock ‘n roll tantrum! Anyway, being the professional he is, brother of Gibbo wanders out from side stage nonchalantly and puts the speakers back on stage. Well, Stevie manages to kick them off again at which point brother of Gibbo decides to unplug them & remove them. Picture the scene… Band wailing, punters dancing, singer fuming and brother of Gibbo standing at the front of the stage giving Stevie a right bollocking. Common sense eventually prevailed and the rest of the show went well. During the packup I noticed out of the corner of my eye that one of the band members had brother of Gibbo bailed up side stage and seemed to be giving him a gobfull. Thinking there could be ill feeling about the incident, I wandered a bit closer just in case and managed to hear words to the effect of: “Why didn’t you hit the bastard? I that had been my gear he kicked, I’d have floored him!” Brother of Gibbo explained that it wouldn’t look good on his resume that he had knocked out Stevie Wright.

One day I’ll tell you about the Stevie gig where I had to leave the mixing desk to punch on with some of the crowd! I’ve still got the scar where my tooth went through my mouth just below my bottom lip. I’ll bet the other prick’s still pissing blood though!

Thanks for the fun times and classic memories Stevie. Stay straight. I hope you find the peace you are looking for.

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