Country music club

Arty Hoey, Michael Schack, Joe Musico, Rob Gray 17/7/2016

The Dogs

"The Dogs" was the name of a band formed at Hamilton's Monivae College in 1965, enduring a couple of incarnations through to the end of 1967. The founding members were Michael Schack, Marty Atchison, Kevin Rooney, Malcolm Thomas, Paul Van Kalken and Leo Tellefson. The band entered the 1965 Battle of the Sounds competition in Warrnambool, sponsored by Hoadleys, and promoted by 3YB at the Capitol Theatre. Although not acclaimed at this outing, they were one of the few bands to present an original song  - "Hey woman" by Marty Atchison. In Dec. 1965 Paul Van Kalken (from Balmoral), Malcolm Thomas (from Tennant Creek, N.T.)  and Kevin Rooney (from Warrnambool) left the college, and subsequently the band. Van Kalken continued to perform in Hamilton in a band called the Commancheros, which also included Coleraine guitarist Peter Bird - later to play bass with Warrnambool band's  "Nevada" and "Lost in Suburbia".

Schack, Atchison and Tellefson pursued  the band at school throughout 1966, along with Frank Borbiro. Leo Tellefson departed for his home town Donald at the end of 1966. He performed throughout the Wimmera region in various bands (including "Blend") through to the next century. In 1967 the band comprised Marty Atchison (vocals), Michael Schack (guitar), Frank Borbiro (bass) and Tim Carracher (drums). At the end of 1967 the band dissolved. Michael Schack played temporarily with Hamilton band "The Nuartz" (featuring Gary Andrews and Allan Primrose), before rejoining Atchison in 1969 for the "3M Company", and eventually the "Dead Livers" in 1978.

 

1965 lineup: L to R: Leo Tellefson (piano), Michael Schack (guitar), Paul Van Kalken (vocals), Malcolm Thomas (drums), Marty Atchison (vocals), Kevin Rooney (guitar)

The article below was reproduced from "The Dolphin" - the magazine for the Monivae Old Collegians Association - Issue 25 May 2014
It’s a Dog’s Life
On January 11th 2014 there was are reunion of the band “The Dead Livers” at the Victoria Hotel Warrnambool. The band of course included two Old Collegians - Marty Atchison (‘67) and Michael Schack (‘67). As an adjunct to this event the idea of having a reunion of their old school band “The Dogs” was floated. The original 1965 formative members were Marty Atchison, Michael Schack, Kevin Rooney (‘66), Leo Tellefson (‘67), Paul Van Kalken (‘65) and Malcolm Thomas (‘67). The
band continued for two more years and later inclusions were Frank Borbiro (‘68) and Tim Carracher (‘67). Contact was made with as many as possible and Marty, Leo, Kevin, Paul, Michael and Tim agreed to give it a go.
The disparate geographic spread of members (Adelaide, Melbourne, Donald, Portland and Warrnambool) made rehearsal impossible until the day of the suggested performance. The six reunited for the first time in about 49 years at an emotional gathering at Kevin Rooney’s former family home in Warrnambool and tried to remember some songs.

Below: L to R: Kevin Rooney, Tim Carracher, Paul Van Kalken, Marty Atchison, MichaelSchack and Leo Tellefson reunited on 11th Jan 2014.

Eventually they settled on “Around and around” (A Chuck Berry song covered by the Rolling Stones), “It’s All Over Now’ (another Rolling Stones cover) and “Money - That’s What I Want” (covered by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones). The performance at night took place during an interval in the Dead Livers’ show and included a supplementary guitarist and drummer to round out things. The three songs went without a hitch (well, almost) and The Dogs seemed to momentarily regain the enthusiasm and energy they displayed in the sixties. The crowd danced ardently and applauded generously at the end of each song.


Above - Leo Tellefson (piano), Mark Meallin (guitar). Marty Atchison (vocal), Richard O'Keefe (drums), Kevin Rooney (guitar), Michael Schack (bass), Paul Van Kalken, Tim Carracher - Jan. 11th, Victoria Hotel Warrnambool.



From 1965 Monivae annual
It’s a Dog’s Life - Quite early in the school year, a small group of boys was banded together and, armed with some of the necessary talent and equipment, called themselves “The Dogs”. After many  short, hectic practice sessions, they made their debut into the world of entertainment at the Y.C.S. Concert and, much to the delight of the audience, proved a highlight of the evening. The next public appearance was slightly less formal, held one Sunday afternoon, and was almost a school outing. At the small fee of sixpence, a riotous hour of R & B echoed through the school, amidst the stamping and cheering of the enthusiastic fans. Then as a finale to the year’s activities as a group, The Dogs of Hamilton were contestants for 3YB’s ‘Battle of the Sounds”, this time playing toan audience of one thousand. Although not acclaimed in this outing, the Dogs will be more remembered by the boys at Monivae as more popular relief from Symphony Concerts.

Above L to R: Leo Tellefson (piano), Michaelv Schack (guitar), Paul Van Kalken (tambourine and vocals), Malcom Thomas (drums), Marty Atchison (vocals), Kevin Rooney (guitar)

1966 lineup - Michael Schack, Marty Atchison, Leo Tellefson, Frank Borbiro

1967 lineup - Michael Schack, Marty Atchison, Tim Carracher, Frank Borbiro

Blue Heat

BLUE HEAT is the name of a Warrnambool band. The seven-piece group that played with the likes of B. B. King, Tommy Emmanuel and Marcia Howard was one of the south-west's most celebrated talents in the 1990s. The band broke up at the peak of its powers in 1997 but reformed in 2005 for a charity gig (tsunami appeal benefit concert). at Lake Pertobe. Since then it popped up for a handful of gigs each year and even released a live recording of a performance from 1997 at The Continental. In 2014 the band recorded its first studio album in 20 years at the Big Red Shed in Nirranda,engineered by Brenton Smith.  Renowned Blue Heat guitarist Marco Goldsmith had a successful solo career in the intervening years but slotted back in to the band.

Members: Barry Galbraith (drums) Graeme Galbraith (bass) Marco Goldsmith (guitar,vocals) Brad Harrison (sax, b.vox) Paul Lemke (trombone, b.vox) Former Members: Richard Tankard (keyboards, b.vox) Matt Trenery (trumpet, b.vox)

Warrnambool Standard January 15 2009  - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2009. 
"Heat's back on in home town"
RENOWNED blues band Blue Heat are getting together again for what could be their one and only show in their home town this year. Blue Heat hits The Loft in Warr­nambool tomorrow night with sup­port from up-and-coming Hamilton blues-rock band 3 Martinis. Since reuniting in early 2005 after a seven year hiatus, Blue Heat has played a handful of gigs each year bringing together the seven members \- Marco Goldsmith, Barry Galbraith, Richard Tankard, Graham Galbraith, Paul Lemke, Matt Trenery and Brad Harrison - to reclaim their status as the south-west's premier blues act. If you miss tomorrow night's show, their next appearance will be at the Port Fairy Folk Festival.

BIG LOVE

"Big Love" is the name  a band  formed in the 1980s. The core of the band is essentially a husband and wife musical team, Ian & Janet Siemonek, but other musicians are bought in to supplement the line up when required.Originally hailing from New Zealand, They moved to Warrnambool in 2012.  Janet is a singer/songwriter and a multi-instrumentalist playing guitar, fiddle, mandolin, keyboards, mouth harp, whistles (and anything else she comes across), and Ian plays acoustic guitar and sings. They specialise in close knit vocal harmonies and have done backing vocals for lots of other performing artists in New Zealand (either singing live or on original recordings). Janet & Ian toured New Zealand extensively throughout the 70's in the heyday of the big University folk festivals, Janet with a Celtic four piece band called "Kilderkin" ,and Ian in a contemporary trio called "Hollis" ,who played only original music. Both bands released several well received albums at the time, which are still being sold by independent distributors in N.Z. Ian went on to spend seven years on the "other side of the music business" doing sales, promotion and product management for CBS Records (now Sony), in New Zealand and Australia, before leaving to pursue another career path. It was important to Ian and Janet to keep some of their Kiwi identity when living and performing in Australia, so the band name "Big Love" wass taken from the Maori word "Arohanui" (which in its literal translation, means, "love-big" ). "BigLove" mainly play covers in the local pubs but are trying to play as much of Janet's original music as they can too, and they have released a c.d. called "The Light House": Some of the inspiration for the songs on "The Light House" came from spending 5 years in New Zealand between 1992-97 looking after Janet's sick Mother who suffered from a severely debilitating dementia. It's often said that in times of great adversity the creative side of a person can be revealed and realised, and this was true in Big Loves case as Janet had never written any original songs before she moved back to New Zealand!

Granny's Grave

GRANNY'S GRAVE was a Warrnambool band which reformed in 2014 for a series of local gigs and a performance at the 2015 Wunta festival. The band was formed in 1977 with guitarist Tim Netherway,ex-"West Side Federation" drummer Eric Read, a recent departee from a Melbourne country music band, "Homestead", and bass player Peter "Prof" Walters. The impetus for the band came when the new proprietors of the Lady Bay ("Cork" and "Dackers") offered Granny's Grave ten weeks work for six nights of each week (a workload only dreamt of by most of today's musicians).  A fresh faced John Maroniti joined as guitarist, and "Granny's Grave" embarked on a musical expedition that was to span three decades, countless kilometres, and multiple musical genres and members. The band name came from local history - in 1848 the first white woman to be buried in the area, a Mrs. James Raddleston, was interred in the sand dunes at the Warrnambool beach, and the grave site has always been known to locals as "Granny's Grave".

Granny's Grave Band was always great entertainment. In 1980, Jake Steele, a reporter with the Melbourne based magazine "Across country", visited the Grand Hotel when Granny's Grave was playing. His report published in that magazine referred to a full dance floor, everybody laughing and having a good time and a tight, gutsy band performing numbers like "Westbound and down" and "Wichita jail" to more mellow country songs like "American dream" and even Willie Nelson's "Georgia". He also enjoyed the one-liners and comedy routines produced by the band.

In time, Eric left the band to pursue careers in "The Nightowls" and "Small Change", and subsequent drummers included Roland Evans, Andrew Gray and Graeme Saunders.  John Maroniti left to form the "Motorvators", and Wendy Goyen joined as vocalist/guitarist/keyboard. Wendy was in the band from 1983-1988 and considers herself fortunate to start a music career in an established band playing at least once a week and with bookings a year in advance. The band's set list during her spell expanded to encompass things like Stop your fussin (Toni Childs) and Ain't no sunshine (a Bill Withers song that Wendy continued to sing in Second Line). Among her favourite memories are playing at country functions in places like Gorea West and support gigs for artists such as Col Elliot, Tony Pantano and Ronnie Burns (later to join the club circuit with Daryl Cotton and Russell Morris)

 In the early 1990s, Tim and the others re-united with another ex-West Side Federation member - keyboard player John "Jack" McKinnon, who had returned to the district after a metropolitan career highlighted by his spell as keyboardist for 70s rock group "Madder Lake".  During this period of its history "Granny's Grave" performed dually as a cabaret band and a pub rock band under the name "Blind Tiger".

The original members reformed for the "Rock back the clock" cabaret at the Civic Hall in 1990, and re-convened for a 3WAY-FM fundraiser in honour of Hank Williams' birthday in September 1999.

In 1999, Prof Walters was the bass player for "Sound Advice" (which also included one of the Granny's Grave drummers - Graeme Saunders), John Maroniti was in the "Motorvators", Tim Netherway played lead guitar with "Old Spice", Wendy Goyen sang with "Second Line" and "Lost in Suburbia" and Eric Read ran a successful telecommunications company (he was observed playing drums at Dick Barns' 50th birthday in 1998).

In the 21st century Prof had a successful solo career before forming Loose Cannons, Tim joined "The Gents", Johhny joined Russell Moody as a duo and then as a trio with Kayla Dwyer and Eric did various fill in drumming roles before becoming ventriloquist.