John has been singing, playing, experimenting & having fun in the world of Aussie music since he was mighty young. Growing up under the spell of The Beatles and later, The Rolling Stones, he has been playing in bands since the age of twelve.
Sneaking into local dances as a young teenager, John saw up close and sweaty the power of Aussie music legends including Billy Thorpe, Max Merritt, Jeff St John, Doug Parkinson and many more. He witnessed the transformative communication between performers and their audience - it was cathartic, and it led him down the path of a never ending challenge to deliver that experience as he grew into the music world.
Later influences included Stephen Stills, Ry Cooder, Dylan, Springsteen, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Van Morrison and all the other greats who could tell their stories eloquently, while wrapped in challenging but uplifting musical settings.
John formed the NSW north coast based band HOODWINK with Jeff Chandler – guitar & vocals, Al Harwood – bass & vocals, and Alan Carwardine – drums & vocals. We had an absolute ball playing all over the north coast of NSW from 1979 to 1984, often doing shows 4 nights a week between Coffs Harbour & the QLD Gold Coast. We were a loud, guitar based rock band with four singers, so lots of vocal harmonies.
We played songs by all the classic rock acts of the time, and gradually increased the original content to over 50%. The band released a couple singles which got local airplay, and a live album “HOODWINK Live – Don’t Let Go”. Cassettes (!!??!!) of this album still circulate today !
HOODWINK were good friends with the great Sydney band GOLDRUSH, which included Phil Emmanuel on guitar, David Mare on vocals & guitar, Mark Collins on banjo & guitar, Chris Haig on bass and Doug Bligh on drums. The band also had guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel on drums for a while. What an outfit !
The two bands toured and played lots of shows together during those years, often all ending up on stage with nine musicians competing for space.
With HOODWINK winding up in early 1984, John resettled back in his home town of Sydney, and joined the final incarnation of GOLDRUSH. We played shows mainly in Sydney that year, and David Mare and John formed a songwriting partnership, which yielded some good material (we thought) but no record deal.
With a couple of young kids and a mortgage, John decided at the time to find a “real job” – one that paid a wage, but also hopefully involved his lifelong passion for music.
That turned out to be a fantastic position at the Nine TV Network in Sydney as the talent co-ordinator on the Mike Walsh Show, a big budget variety talk show with 3 musical acts per episode. The show went live-to-air two nights each week in prime time, and I got to work with probably the best creative and technical team in TV at the time.
Apart from the challenge and delight of booking all the very best Aussie entertainers for the show, a couple of highlights were two "outside broadcasts" (OB's) - direct crosses live to air from the Sydney Entertainment Centre. One was with the iconic English rock band Queen, and the other was a huge idol of mine - Bruce Springsteen. I had the immense joy of watching the E Street Band's entire soundcheck (over an hour) on the afternoon of the show. The tour manager gave us tickets to both of Springsteen's shows in Sydney - to this day probably the best two live shows I've ever seen in terms of the power of live music and audience engagement.
After the demise of the Walsh show, I took up the same position at The Midday Show with Ray Martin. Again, some fantastic years working with maestro Geoff Harvey and a great crew of producers and technicians, delivering 15 performances per week live to air - no miming or backing tracks ... and no turning back !
Highlights of those years was again working with the top tier artists in Australia, and being able to assist in the introduction of some great new Aussie talent to a national TV audience. And there were also some amazing experiences meeting & working with some of the biggest stars in the world including Joni Mitchell, Randy Crawford, Tom Jones, John Denver, Cheap Trick, and many more.
To be continued ...
New album "Burning Sky"
New Album "Burning Sky" - coming soon 2024
Coming Soon
2024
