Fun City - Warrnambool band

Poster advertising a New years Eve cabaret in 1996. Warrnambool band Fun City (featuring John Sycopoulis, Ronald Philp, Cheryl Philp and Tony Peel) performed.

Old rockers just keep rollin' on -- Matt Neal. Warrnambool Standard Dec. 29th 2001 - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2001. 
A decade is a long time in music. For a band to stay together for that length of time, whether it plays original music or covers, it has to battle creative differences, personality clashes, ego wars and all the other tensions that have broken up thousands of bands throughout history. One group approaching its 10th birthday is Fun City, a covers band that has re­mained gloriously oblivious to such problems. Bassist and backing vocal­ist Tony Peel said that with no original music in the band and. a wealth of experience, Fun City doesn't have the in-fighting and creative differences that bedevil other bands. But another reason for Fun City's longevity is in its name - fun. Ron Philp (keyboards and vocals), his sister Cheryl Philp (vocals and percussion) and Peel appear to have kept the band together for a decade through the enjoyment they get in moving a crowd off their seats and on to the dance floor. Fun, it seems, is itself a core member of the band. Fun City played its first gig on New Year's Eve 1991, ringing in the new year at Rafferty's Tavern with fourth member drummer Johnny Sycopoulis, who left the band in 1996. Prior to forming, Ron was drumming for original and cover bands around town including The Motorvators. Cheryl was singing for cover band Night Owls, while Sycopoulis and Peel were both playing around town in various original groups such as The Feelers. Peel admitted that when Ron called with the offer of joining the group, he was reluctant. He was tiring of the local music scene. Eventually Ron talked him into it and the group got together to jam, practising intensely every night for nine days leading up to the gig. Ron described that first gig as 'nerve-racking', mostly because he was unaccustomed to not being behind a drum kit. "I was playing an instrument that wasn't my main instrument," he said of the keyboards. "I had three months to learn and no prior lessons. I literally took the booking (for the New Year's Eve gig) and thought, 'well, here we go'. With the help of some text books and a bit of self­education, Ron mastered the keyboard in time for the gig, beginning the career of one of Warrnambool's longest running cover bands. Over the years, Fun City has adapted its list of covers to suit its audience moving from old rock 'n' roll stuff to modern pop. Ron estimates the band can now play more than 200 songs from a range of eras and styles. When Johnny Sycopoulis left in 1996, due to personal commitments, the group was forced to adapt. The decision to not replace Sycopoulis and instead use a drum machine was difficult, Ron said, but it made it easier to follow the group's original ideal - to give the audience what they wanted and not what the band wanted to play. "When Johnny left, we had to look at which way we wanted to go. We could look for a drummer or I could write the drum patterns in and continue on that way," he said. "It's not that there were no drummers around, it's more that they had to accept the concept. "The concept of Fun City, right from the beginning was to have fun and entertain and play music people could dance to - songs with a great dance beat, regardless of style. "We wanted to cater for all functions and all people, not just us. We have a laugh to ourselves sometimes, here we are playing songs we personally may not like, but we play the songs because it's what's needed for the function. (That's) why Fun City has succeeded for 10 years." Peel agreed, saying "A lot of the songs we play aren't particularly our favourite songs but they're done for a reason and that's to get people on the dance floor. After years of playing original music in rock bands, it's good to be able to be guaranteed an audience that doesn't "just stand there", he adds. "It makes you feel more relaxed," he said. "If a song doesn't work on the dance floor it gets thrown out. Gone are the hassles, there's no stress," Peel said, likening his playing with Fun City to "my night out to hang with Ron and Cheryl". "I look forward to (each gig)," he adds, pointing out there have never been any bad Fun City gigs. The crowd always gets into the music, he said. Throughout the 1990s, the band entertained crowds regularly at the Lady Bay Hotel and Rafferty's Tavern, as well as playing at just about every other venue in town, as well as all sorts of functions around the south­west. To not have a single bad gig in all that time and all those venues is testament to the group's ability to work a crowd. This New Year's Eve will be the band's 10th anniversary, a perfect occasion to release a CD, Ron said. "For the last five years people have been asking for a CD," he said, adding work commitments and time constraints had gotten in the way in the past. "We put it on the backburner, but 10 years is the right time. It's to show our appreciation to the people who come to our gigs, but it's also for ourselves." The eponymous debut contains 13 covers, ranging from Tom Jones and John Farnham to old rock 'n' roll songs and even KC and the Sunshine Band. Peel said they asked for audience assistance to help them pick 13 songs from a playlist of over 200. "Over the last six months we had made people aware that we were doing an album and asking them to give us an idea of what they would want to hear on it," he said. The CD will be launched at the St Pius Hall at 8.30pm, with the band ringing in the New Year at midnight, just like at their first gig 10 years ago.