Gonz picks his sidemen well

Warrnambool Standard April 6 2006 - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2006.

MOST bands can be a struggle to put together, but some groups just fall into place perfectly. Warrnambool singer-songwriter Steven ‘‘Gonz’’ Garner couldn’t be happier with the way his new quintet The Chosen Few has lined up. The TAFE music course graduate spent two years fronting Crymsin Room before embarking on a solo career ‘‘to learn how to play in front of people’’. ‘‘I promised myself I’d do solo gigs for two years (and then start) looking for a band,’’ Garner said. In a short period of time he’d ‘‘found four amazing players’’, he explained. Backing frontman Garner are the ‘‘duelling, note-perfect guitars’’ of Mark Halliwell (Stranglehold) and Darren Ely (Ginjan), bassist Geoff Cain (Tank Dilemma, Southern Sons) and drummer Harry Fahey (The Extreme Sprinklers). The group has two tough gigs under its collective belt. One, a spot playing to hardly anyone at the disappointing Summer Daze festival and the other was the hard ask of doing a Sunday session at the Hotel Warrnambool in competition with the Folkie. While the Hotel Warrnambool gig was admittedly a bit of a throw together, the response was great, Garner said. Not bad for a group that on Tuesday night rehearsed as a five-piece for only the third time, having previously practiced in twos and threes. ‘‘It’s thanks to having seriously good musicians,’’ he said. ‘‘The songs are pretty basic and the guys fill in the gaps and make them sound dynamic.’’ Garner writes all The Chosen Few’s original material, with a couple of tracks dating back to the Crymsin Room days (2002-‘04), but the majority were written in the past couple of years. The Chosen Few performs at the Hotel Warrnambool on Sunday from 3pm.