Slap 'n' the Cats

New drummer - line-up change for rockabilly trio
by Debbie Cuthbertson. Warrnambool Standard December 26th 1996 - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard 1996. All rights reserved
Local rockabilly trio slap 'N' the Cats has undergone a line-up change, to replace drummer Tim Bowen. Bowen's shoes have been filled by Rohan Keert, a teacher at Warrnambool College. Keert has performed with several bands in Melbourne and Warrnambool. While living in Melbourne he played with the T-Bones, exponents of country, blues and psychobilly. He and several other members of the band then formed an off-shoot rockabilly group, the Texas T-Bones. Since moving to Warrnambool in 1989, Keert has also performed with groups, including Lost in Suburbia and Emu Creek.Sl ap 'N'  the Cats original drummer Tim Bowen left the group recently to pursue and international music career. He recently joined a six-piece band called Brother to Brother, which has secured gigs at Hard Rock Cafes in China and throughout Asia. Keert said he would "try very hard to fill the the big shoes left by Tim". Slap 'N' the Cats - which also comprises bassist Rob Sharrock and vocalist and guitarist Damian [sic] Webster - has been invited to perform at the Australian Rockabilly Association's function next month. Sharrock said the band was one of only two groups invited to perform at the function.

South-west rockabillies on TV
Warrnambool Standard 24th April. 2004 - ©Copyright Warrnambool Standard  2004.  All rights reserved
When Warrnambool rockabilly band Slap 'N' the Cats appears on Nu Country TV on C 31, nee Channel 31, in Melbourne tonight it will be a Shipwreck Coast invasion of sorts. The trio was filmed on Fiddlers' Green during the recent Port Fairy Folk Festival. The song the show's producers chose was Rockin' at the Palais, from the band's 1998 debut CD Hot Rods & Haircuts, about the now defunct Koroit Street dance hall. Guitarist Damien Webster wrote the song about the breeding ground of legendary bands the Ghost Riders and the Vampires and Saturday night fever at the Palais and beyond. Nu country TV camera operator Carol Taylor, nee Knight, a former Camperdown Chronicle and Sydney Daily Mirror journalist who grew up on a Gnotuk dairy farm, filmed the band. Taylor also filmed interviews and live footage of Grammy Award-winning MBA Alison Brown, Andrea Zonn, Kieran Kane-Kevin Welch and the Dead Livers for future episodes of the TV show that airs in the prime time slot of 8 pm. The interviewer was veteran Warrnambool-born journalist and songwriter David Dawson. Nu Country TV made the finals of the recent National Community Television Awards in Melbourne. An ABC-TV documentary on the radio station that inspired the TV show is a finalist in the 35th Nashville Film Festival next week. Slap 'N' The Cats will play at Emmanuel College Hall tonight for the Warrnambool Rock 'n' Rollers. The band will then take the rest of the year off after 13 years of constant gigging.