Following my final gig at The Basement, I continued working a 9-5 job designing sound systems plus looking after all gigs at Rockdale RSL. The number of shows at Rockdale varied from 2-3 shows a week and I was there for approximately 20 years. A couple of years after leaving The Basement, I was asked to look after a few shows at Fairfield RSL and after a short period of time, I took over the venue completely. Whilst Rockdale RSL featured mainly 50s rock n roll bands, Fairfield featured the cream of Aussie talent plus some wonderful overseas acts. As well as the Auditorium, there was a downstairs cocktail lounge that featured more great bands.
My first gig in the Auditorium was with The Wolverines and it was quite bizarre. The band wasn’t particularly interested in doing much during soundcheck and instead concentrated on their merchandising stand. I soon realised why, as soon as punters walked in the Auditorium, a band member would greet them and steer them towards the merch desk! Probably explains why they are probably now all retired and living comfortably whilst I do a few hundred gigs a year!
At some point, the venue was running 3-4 gigs a week plus we were still responsible for Rockdale so at this point, my eldest son started working for me plus we were hiring other operators to help with the workload. Fairfield had become quite popular for live music and in the Auditorium, we worked with many acts including Human Nature, Marcia Hines, Ronn Moss, John Williamson, Paul Kelly, Anthony Callea, Dr Hook, Renee Geyer, Diesel, Billy Thorpe, Guy Sebastian, Howard Jones, David Campbell, Paul Young & Tony Hadley, Deni Hines, Carl Risely, Dragon plus many more! Downstairs in what became known as The Supper Club, we had midweek acoustic shows that featured Steve & Marty from The Church, Deborah Conway, Dave Graney and Clare Moore, The McClymonts, Jenny Morris, Steve Balbi plus some solo overseas acts that were also excellent. On the weekend, there initially were “party style” bands performing but was soon changed to bands who played a more laid-back style of music.
There were some standout moments in the Auditorium, the most remarkable was Billy Thorpe‘s first-ever “acoustic show” for which I was the system tech. Despite it being “acoustic” it was still bloody loud! That whole day was amazing as Billy was quite on edge during soundcheck and he and Norm the legend (Norm Swiney, Billy’s long-time tour manager) were having a go at each other as only long-term mates can! Eventually, Billy was happy with the sound and went back to the dressing room for a break. He returned soon after and just sat down and played by himself for about an hour before the venue opened. I sat in the large empty auditorium spellbound watching Billy play. I had never realised until then that he was such a brilliant guitarist.
Anyway, the show started and Billy and his guitarist mate from Rose Tattoo slew them. Billy had the audience (some of whom had flown in from all over the country to see the show), spellbound from the first song. There were plenty of great stories told between songs and it was immediately obvious that this show would be a huge hit all around Australia if he wanted it to be. When you combine two great musos with fantastic songs and wonderful stories, you have a show that would be packing out venues for many years.
After the show, many beers were downed backstage and I felt honoured to have been part of that gig. Billy was extremely thankful to me and extremely appreciative of the part that the management of Fairfield RSL played in getting him to play his first acoustic show. I remember him saying that he would return in a few months “and pack the fucking place out!”. Sadly, for all of us that did not happen.
Some other memorable moments: –
Doctor Hook Ray Sawyer needed a special room backstage where he could have a joint before the show. The room I found had an air conditioning duct that he did not like as it blew too much air into the room. I gaffed it up and the 70-year-old singer was happy!
Ronn Moss Ronn is one of the nicest guys I have ever met and apart from being a soap opera star was in a band called Player who had a big hit with Baby Come Back. I was a bit stunned to see when the doors opened, a youngish woman being wheeled into the venue in a hospital bed complete with a nurse and a drip. Apparently, the patient was a massive fan of Ronn and the venue had arranged a spot for her in an unused room side of stage so she could see the show. I think the young lady had a terminal condition although we were never told this. After the show finished, venue management asked me to ask Ronn if he would say hello to her before he did his meet and greet with his fans. He agreed immediately and when I bought him into the room, she started crying as did most of her family. Ronn gently held her hand and started talking to her. He was only supposed to be there for a minute but fifteen minutes later was still there!
The meet and greet was hilarious and Ronn made sure he met everyone who wanted to meet him. Ninety minutes later he signs the final autograph, and it was in a truly memorable location on a rather attractive young lady. Let us just say, I’m glad there were no mobile phones with cameras back then!
Marcia Hines I get a message, Marcia’s limo is outside the dock. I bolt downstairs and let them in only to cop a barrage of questions from Marcia’s driver who knows I used to work at the Basement. Whilst he hits me with questions, I notice he has forgotten Marcia who is locked in the rear of the limo! I assist her in the venue whilst the driver bombards me with more questions about Basement shows. I look at Marcia who smiles and is probably wondering why her driver is ignoring her!
John WilliamsonThis was one of the weirdest gigs ever! I was house tech and they had their own audio and lighting operators for the show. The load in was stupidly early for a show like this that was basically John and the wonderful Warren Williams. I was told they were “auditing” the show to see how it could be improved and it was all rather too silly for me with lots of production people looking “concerned”. The show kicked off and the “auditor” informed me it was not going well despite it looking and sounding fine and the punters loving it. I buggered off during the show to the foyer and the merch person asked if I could look after it for a few minutes as she needed a break. I sat down and a minute later this crazed drug-riddled moron staggered out the venue, looked at me as I smiled at him, and said how he wanted to kill me. I was alone, all my security was downstairs or inside the concert venue and there was no CCTV on me. He turned away again and fortunately kept walking down the stairs. I alerted security and they chased him out of the venue but lost him pretty quickly as whatever he was on made him an Olympian sprinter! There was something in his eyes that I had never seen before and hopefully will never see again.
Paul Kelly As I escort Paul and the band out of the venue, I tell him about my first gig with him at The Ocean Beach Hotel Umina about 30 years prior. He shakes my hand, looks me in the eye and says; – “isn’t it great that you and I are still alive and still loving what we do !!”. He autographs a ticket stub that I found, and I walk away loving that I get paid for doing what I love.
Anthony Callea We were all relaxing in the Supper Club after a great gig upstairs with Anthony. He and his friends were sitting a few tables away from us chilling and watching the band. I noticed some punter come over and try and drag him away but his friends got rid of the pest. Eventually, Anthony went to leave and pay his bar tab and the same punter grabbed him and tried to drag him away to meet his friends. My lighting guy grabbed the punter and I grabbed Anthony, wrapped my arms around him and got him upstairs without further trouble. Speaking of Anthony, who was the famous Aussie singer whose management asked me to remove every visible poster of Anthony who had an upcoming show at the same venue? We did as requested, never found out why!
Renee Geyer I had been warned of her fearsome temper so approached the gig at Fairfield RSL on high alert! Her band and sound operator were all from Melbourne and world-class. Soundcheck went well although I cannot remember if she took part! Anyway, the show starts, I am side of the stage and she starts pointing at her monitors and says they are not working. I run off to front of house and see her very worried audio operator turning beetroot colour until he notices his mistake! She smiles and puts on a pretty good show but decides to leave after just one hour. Band trudge off stage as they are used to her “moods”, the drummer (was it Watto?) tells me as they are leaving, they have a gift for us crew in the band room. Turns out there are about 30 cans of beer left and a few nice bottles of wine which they do not want as they have a very early flight in the morning. We stuff them into a road case and have a very enjoyable BBQ lunch the next day!
Diesel I have done a few gigs with Diesel over many years and he is one of the best musos I have ever worked with. One day I was helping his stage roadie unload backline at Fairfield RSL and he passed me a softcover double bass case that when I grabbed it had an obvious problem, the neck was wobbly. We quickly unzipped the case and noticed the neck was snapped in half! Apparently, the double bass was a gift from his brother-in-law Jimmy Barnes and the poor stage roadie went very pale! He called Mark (Diesel) and explained what happened and fortunately, he was cool with it and we got on with the gig.
The support act for the show was Steve Balbi and as I had mixed him on many occasions, I offered to mix his gig to give Diesel’s guy a break. Mixing Steve is always a joy, but I kept hearing one stupid punter screaming out between songs for him to get off the stage. As I was in a booth I leaned out over the crowd and found out who was doing it. During the next song break, I yelled out to her to “shut the fuck up”. This shut her up for a while as she had no idea where the voice came from! Eventually, Diesel hit the stage with two other muso’s and I had the wonderful feeling of ordering security to throw the same woman out as she started screaming and stuffing up Diesels show. Karma is a bitch, stuff up my gig and hopefully, I will stuff up your life for one night!
As well as doing the shows, we also looked after all the other events at Fairfield RSL such as Dance School performances, plus the most important of all, services for Remembrance Day and Anzac Day. Eventually, management decided to cease putting live entertainment in the Auditorium as they wanted to concentrate on corporate events. A few years later they ceased all live entertainment in The Supper Club so our association was finished.
Whilst we were at Fairfield however, we had also started work at The Evan Theatre at Penrith Panthers and that began another amazing chapter in my life that included working as house audio technician with some brilliant Aussie and international acts. These included The Pretenders, Noiseworks, Jimmy Barnes, Bobby Rydell, The Church, Guy Sebastian, Shannon Noll, Justice Crew, Human Nature, Icehouse, Sneaky Sound System, BJ Thomas, Troy Casser Daley, Songbirds, Cotton Keys & Morris, Jon English, Brian Cadd, The Pointer Sisters, The Robertson Brothers, The Donnas, The Chasers, The Getaway Plan, Parkway Drive, Doug Parkinson, Absolutely 80s, Antiques Roadshow, Puppetry of the Penis, Tokyo Shock Boys, Menopause the Musical, Tommy Fleming, Glenn Shorrock, Wendy Matthews, Tom Burlinson, Bjorn Again, Akmal plus literally hundreds of cabaret shows and corporate events.
