I was consulting my diary recently, and this column marks two years of writing for Forte. I know that I have been able to successfully meet one of the main quality benchmarks in contemporary journalism, much valued in all areas – I’m usually on time!
Whether there’s anything in these literary offerings that appeals to you is an altogether different matter, but I digress …Last month’s Sleepy Hollow, with a jam, the Grizzly Bros tribute to Harry Kuehnel, and Chris Wilson as the headliner was off the scale. The place was filling by four, and by the time Chris came on at six it was standing room only.
If you weren’t there, you seriously missed out! A couple of things in the next fortnight: Good Friday will never be the same after the session coming up at the Black Hatt: 10 bands, three soloists: Rusty, Neil Drinkwater, Tam, Teknia, Public Nuisance, Acoustic Avenue, Cool Change, Half Pints, Insigma, In the Esky, Derek and the Champs, Cadillac Drifter and Mountaris as well as a hot rod and bike show, raffles and auctions throughout the day.
March SHBC gig is The House Wreckers, the brainchild of legendary bassist Greg Trenney (legendary bass player from Phil Para band and Andy Phillips Cadillac Walk) to fulfil a vision to build a three piece band that could rock with the best and break out some soulful blues. It’s an amazing line up with Greg, Alex Pavlis (formally of The Vague Sensations on guitar and vocals) and the incredible Venom (former drummer of Electric Mary and Phil Para).
The House Wreckers have a great blend of blues and rock and they’ve been together for close to 18 months playing at venues including The Espy and Mr Boogie Man.
Pavlis is the song writer and keeps it simple, nothing too deep and meaningful. He has a wealth of experience playing blues and covering other artists’ material as well as being a prolific songwriter. Steve “Venom” Brown plays like venom because he just likes it like that.
Sadly if you Google venom, the last thing that comes up is drummers! Still, perseverance pays off! I managed to find out that as well as having been involved with supporting Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and the like, he’s also well known as a studio musician.
However, YouTube is definitely worth a go, but the best results are searching for “housewreckers venom” and you’ll turn up some live recordings, some of which I have linked into the SHBC event page on Facebook.
This session should be absolutely amazing: we have three mainstream musicians who have carved out a career in blues and rock ‘n’roll, have backed some bands whose names are known around the world and who are going to blow your socks off this month. They don’t need the Internet, Facebook or any of that “johnny come lately” stuff, they’re here, they have amazing cred, and an even better sound.
You’d better be there, March 27th at the Geelong Trades Hall Dance Hall!
Written by John (Dr John) Lamp
Proudly presented by the Sleepy Hollow Blues Club
