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.
