The Wombat Switch – Mad Gorilla
The Wombat Switch.
I don’t even know if it is a term that is still used. Back about 20 years ago “Wombatting” was something you did to the support band to sabotage them. You know, turn the amps down a bit or pull down the master volume on the EQ or something. Sometimes it was because they were a threat to the main act, sometimes just because it was fun to watch their crew try to work out why the PA system is suddenly a lot quieter than it should be. A test if you will. A bit like sending the apprentice to the shop for a can of striped paint. I can honestly say that I have never done it and never been asked to do it by a band but I have been the victim once or twice when I was first starting out.
The first time was a beauty. We (Bandanna) had picked up a gig supporting Mad Gorilla at the Greenfield Tavern.
This was big for us as the Gorilla’s had been around for a while and were a bit of a name in those days. They had “show” which involved dressing up in whacky costumes, fancy lights, smoke machines, pyrotechnics, intro tapes etc.
The lads in costume in Sticko’s loungeroom.
It was a band I had been to see as a punter on quite a few occasions and they were always great. This was the first time I’d ever actually met the band and as it turns out, I made a couple of friendships that have lasted since that time. Langs the drummer is a great mate as is Sticko & Zack Flack, not to mention the amazing Jimmy Bourke, their lighting guy who I had the pleasure of working with many times since. Jimmy is a topic that deserves a web site all of its’ own! What a character. He can drink his own weight in bourbon and still work like a trojan. I’ve seen him do it many times. Jimmy’s classic line was “who wants to chuck in for a bottle of boubon for the load in? No-one? Oh well, I’ll get it”.
Anyways… the production itself was quite impressive for those days too. It was a double or triple three way system with lots of foldback & heaps of lights. Myself and the other crew couldn’t wait to get our hands on the system. Does anyone remember the JANDS JM8 mixing console? It was an impressive looking bit of gear and I couldn’t wait to get behind it.
The Gorillas didn’t do a soundcheck so it was up to us. It took me a little while to get my head around this massive system but with a bit of help from the ever helpful Gary, their sound guy, I got things sounding ok.
Well show time came around and off we went. Things did’t go quite according to plan though. The venue had a noise meter installed that would cut the power to the PA system if you went beyond a “reasonable” level of volume and the thing was cutting out on a fairly regular basis. This involved running backstage to turn all the amps down before the power came back on a few seconds later so the thump didn’t blow any speakers then running back through the crowd to the mixing desk. I was not having fun. The band was not having fun. We seemed to be very quiet yet were still tripping the sound meter.
Eventually we reached the end of our set and it was all over. I was in a bit of a lather and was hanging around the desk trying to figure out what had gone wrong since sound check. I felt like a bloody goose. Gary the Gorillas sound man was standing with his back to me when the publican came up and said words to the effect of “I’ve turned that meter back to where it was for your band OK?” The bastard had wombatted me!
Mad Gorilla came on and the sound was enormous. They played brilliantly as well which combined nicely to blow us off the stage completely. And guess what? The sound meter never tripped once during their set. I can laugh about it now but on the night I wanted to kill someone.
Big thanks to Sticko & Dave Owens for the Mad Gorilla pictures.
Good article on Mad Gorilla but those photo’s are of the original band with the original keyboard player and drummer no. 2. Mark Langfield came along after a couple of years and Frank Secold was not the original keyboard player GeorgeGranger was, I should know, I’m him. The original band got back together in 1996 (with Mark Langfield) for a gig at the Rebels clubhouse at austral, it was a blast. I built coffin no. 1 and no. 2 and was the pyro technician must to the other guys despair as I almost killed us one night at the Enfield Boulevard by overdosing one of the fireworks. Given the opportunity we’ll do it again.
Didn’t you ah. A guy named shane playing guitar at one stage
Correction to the above, Mark Langfield was drummer no. 3. Peter Keller (last name correct I think) was the original drummer and Geoff hillier was the second. I think my memory is shot due to too much gigging, I can recall working 9 gigs some weeks (2 sat and 2 Sun)
Hi George, nice to hear from you. I’ve already added you to the members list at
https://australianmusichistory.com//mad-gorilla/
I’ll mention you to Sticko & the boys when I see them next. I have the pleasure of doing sound for them in their Creedence show these days. If you have any more info or stories please feel free to leave them in the comments & I’ll update the Mad Gorilla page as needed.
Cheers, Gibbo
hey flacko long time no see, howzit ?
I work in audio up in Darwin and today I opened an old shipping container and found a jands JM8
Hi Mike, any chance of a photo of that desk. I’ve looked everywhere & still haven’t found one.
Cheers, Mark
yeah heres a link but Im gonna take some proper shots monday till I figure out what to do with the thing. I was going through a shipping container finding old audio gear to get rid of as mostly long past being sellable. Happened upon this console. I’m gonna rig up a power supply after xmas and see how he runs. All the XLR points are rusty but its so retro I am wondering if maybe it’s worth restoring as a nostalgia thing. I’m a 32 year old live sound tech so its a little b4 my time.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=255568&id=551298459&l=0a7dd8bf09
Just to let you know they are rebuilding that console “jm8”
Can I give the guy the who’s planning to do it your contact
Aaah George, how are you man ? Been a long time. Just love the memories your
entries brought back. i managed to observe a fellow by the name of Steve Stickney
celebrate his **th birthday in & around his private residence in Bali Nov 2010 and
if his energy levels are anything to go by, the wild beast-man will out live us all by decades – he was like a freight train man – totally unstoppable. I do remember that Rebels Clubhouse gig – and #2 that you’d built for the occasion. What year was that
get together – was it late 90’s?
And you’re still playing – fan-bloody-tastic mate –
“For the record, I was the original player in the original Gorilla
line-up ( with Steve Stickney- Vox, Zac Flack- Gtr, George Grainger- Hammond organ, Geoff Hillier – Drums ). Boy were they halcyon days! – writing our own material, coming up with “show” ideas; it seemed like we were just thrown together in some mushroom growing shed up in Riverstone (in Sydney’s north western suburbs) that the keyboard players Dad owned.
– if his Dad only knew what was being developed in there!
I can tell you that the original 5 piece band did kick some considerable ass, but we were’nt satisfied with only playing – we wanted to entertain – and so that’s where the idea of the “Undertaker Show” emerged from. But to be fair, the concept was born in Zac Flack’s head while he was hospitalised with a huge boil on his upper thigh, and upon his healthy return to the mushroom shed rehearsal enviroment
the show was born. It was to be a “Horror Show” to rival any other “show” rival bands could stage; we had set our sights pretty high looking back on it – and to a degree we pulled it off, I could go on and regale you and your readers with some pretty wild stories that happened “on the bus” and “off the bus” if you know what
I mean, from those early years but maybe I’ll draught a few ideas out before I
just sit and type like I have today. A couple of things before I go : Mark “Zac” Flack (and for a time his partner Coby) worked tirelessly on the bands P.A. gear, road crew / agent liaison and costumes back then – if it needed doing – it was
done – was the Modus Operandi of the day. Steve “Stix” Stickney’s ability as a word-smith, front-man and agent/corporate liaison was just awesome – though
my fading memory seems to recall “Zac” being involved in acquiring work from time to time too, Steve was generally known around town as the Face of Mad Gorilla which he used to great enterprise on many levels to help the bands’ cause.
Big Al and Steve “Reckless” Reckley were our first two roadies, and they too deserve enormous praise for their long hours, miles and commitment beyond the call of duty they gave in service to Gorilla. There were times we worked 5,6,7,8 gigs a week – regularly – all with some variation on 20 – 40 can light show and single/double 4way PA systems. Sure there were more people involved down the track when the line-up started changing, but these original 8 band and crew members all laid down the foundation of what has become somewhat of a micro-legend ( and a great talking point when we all get together. Imagine it – when was the last timw you caught up with an old band-mate and said ” Remember when we blew up Blacktown City Soccer Club? – and The Enfield Hotel ? Remember when Sticko punched that idiot out at the Touramaline Hotel for stabbing our FOH speakers-in front of the audience? Remember when we supported Jimmy and The Boys at The Coogee Bay Hotel and THEY WOMBATTED US ? Man, the stories from those first 2 years – there’s definitely a tiny book’s worth in there somewhere; Did you know that if you look really carefully at the background in the beginning of Midnight Oils’ film-clip “Power & the Passion”,
you will see an early MAD GORILLA venue poster – illegally pasted on a brick wall – behind Minister Garrett as he’s singing ? ( It’s there – true ) . . . . . . . . . .
great information from George . . . . .
We used to practice in some old mushroom sheds out at Riverstone that my father used to own, drove all the neighbours mad with the noise, but I wouldn’t swap the memories of those times for anything. I met Zack at the Tourmaline hotel at Vinyard where his girl Coby used to work. Coby said her guy Mark (Zack) played guitar and was getting a band together and was looking for musos, I said that I played keyboards and would be interested in a jam. Zack came down to the pub a couple of nights later he set things up. The first band was Oracle, we just played some local gigs, the odd wedding and the odd bad pub at Mt Druitt. I don’t remember all the details but the band didn’t last too long before we were looking for a new singer. Zack said he new this guy that might fit the bill, so along came Stix. Stix was quite a bit older than me, I was all of 19 and stix must have been close to 30 (at least that’s what he seemed). He had a really powerul voice, huge presence, good looking, and extremely fit and Zack was right, he’d fit the bill, in fact he became the trade mark for the band. I remember the first jam with Stix, he was fairly intimidating just by his mere presence, I asked him what he thought about joining the band and he said “I’ve been in bands for years and I really don’t think I’m interested”. After that comment we thought we’d missed out, however Zack talked him in to another jam (and did a fair bit of work on him as well), after this one I asked him what he thought again, and he said “the only way I’ll join this band is if it’s called Mad Gorilla! I remember saying to Zack “shit, I don’t think I can play in a band called Mad Gorilla, why does he wan’t to call it that. Zack said “I don’t know but if your game enough you can ask him cause I’m sure as hell not”! The guts of it is if there was no Stix there wouldn’t have been Mad Gorilla.
I built the first coffin at the mushroom sheds at Riverstone, it looked that good-shiny black with crushed red velvet interior and all the genuine chrome handles (compliments of Zack who was working for an undertaker at the time) that I put it in the lounge room at home. The first night that I had it inside I wrote my car off, the second night a log rolled out of the fire place and nearly set fire to the house, before the third night arrived my father took the coffin out into the shed before any more damage was done.
I’ve got a lot more to add to this, I’ll try and get it in over the next few weeks. Watch this space,
George
. . . . of course there was the time when we were on tour down the south coast of New South Wales, . . . ,early 1980, 4 or 5 gigs over 3 or 4 days – no money between us, “in between venues”, ( our manager at the time – get this – convinces us to do all these gigs as ‘collect the check’ gigs to open up the “new territory” ), this particular night with no gig and accommodation for the band or crew – the band comes up with the brilliant idea of sleeping on the beach once we get the gear safely into the next day’s gig, we can utillise our 2 cars and box trailer to see out our evenings repose . . . . that is until we all stepped up to the mikes to sing the following night – and were hoarse and wind-blown from the wind & surf – but hey – as they say in the classics – if you can’t share a box trailer with a member of your road crew as a matter of survival then who can you trust ? I can remember sitting in the R.S.L. Club’s dining room the next night after we had all set up the equipment, savouring every mouth-full of food I was eating, – I hadn’t eaten a proper meal in over two days, I’m not sure about the others, it was the looks on the faces of the Club staff said it all for me ( you see, every-one in the band & crew looked ‘normal’ to me ) , we must’ve looked tired, washed out, un-loved, “smelly”, bleary-eyed, etc, etc, – but you know what – those people at that south coast R.S.L. Club treated us like we were one of their own – they fed us, watered us, gave us access to the gym shower facilities, made us feel so welcome that we played our collective asses off that night, . . . and still for just a check! . . . those original members of Mad Gorilla and their Crew, . the TRUE grit and stamina ploughed in by the original band/crew to keep the band on the road astounds me when I look back on it now, . . . . . . . . .
Good to hear from you Dave.
I’ve just landed in N/W China for a 2 year job. I’ll be stuck in a camp on a mine site Mon-Fri each week so I thought I’d do the logical thing and bring my keyboard so I can do some writing. Sticks sent me some lyrics so I thought what better opportunity. I packed up my keyboard and digital recorder along with all the other necessary stuff and did the sensible thing and insured it for replacement cost in case it got trashed. You would never guess that the Chinese customs department decided that I might be bringing the gear in to sell and charged me 20% import tax on the insured price……..OUCH! $2K later and they released my gear. Shit! So the up side is I can get back in touch and do some writing and I have some Stickney Lyrics to work with. Watch this space!
PS. Do you remember the Cobar and Ningen gigs? I remember sharing the driving in the old Austin truck that we bought that Mark thought would be good to fit up with the paper truck running gear at 90 miles per hour with all the gear in it. It was fitted with retreads that later peeled the treads off on Parramatta road and and had about 2 turns play in the steering. Mark told me that the engine fell out on the road one day because I forgot to fully weld the rear cross member that I fabricated out of some second hand steel that I found in the mushroom sheds. I think we were lucky on the trip to Cobar.
Hey Recko,
I reckon you should give us your account of the night at the Highway Hotel at Wenty when we got held up while the pub was robbed.
I remember you asking one of the guys wearing a balaclava and holding a ‘sawn off’ that kicked the door in, to hold it open for you while you carried some gear out.
Mate…………….
Mate I have got that one together too but have been trying to work out who I was with when we were leaving, it is the scariest part of the story. We’d got on the piss with the staff & the armed rob squad while they were getting our stories. Will send it to Gibbo & we can all edit it I reckon. Yes folks I take requests, that I can remember LOL!!!
Rock on!!……..Recko.
Hey Recko,
Where is Big Al these days.
I remember the night Trees on the Hume Highway at Liverpool when Big Al got heavied in a big way by a certain motorcycle club because he had the club arms tattooed on his arm without being an official member.
They told him they’d cut his arm off if it wasn’t gone the next time they saw him.
I remember there was a lot of interaction by us but we didn’t achieve a lot.
Were you there?
cheers George
Yeah mate, I was there. I reckon that was the fastest load out we’d ever done. Wasn’t it the Jam disco? Management warned us they’d been on the phone for back up & the band holding them back with mic stands while we loaded the truck. Then me & sticko jumped in his car and took off up the road. We were the last ones out of there and all of a sudden the bonnet flew up and folded back over the roof. Don’t know how we didn’t have a smash. The gig was going well up till then from memory. A scary one that gig.
Don’t know where Al is, Coby & Mark might. Haven’t seen him since the 80s’
Northwest China ????!!!!!!????? OMG ! GEORGE ——- LOOKOUT !!!!!!! and you’ve taken some keys with you, . . . . like I keep sayin’ fan-bloody-tastic mate. Would you believe I sat in with the boys at Panthers Leagues recently, and guess what, Sticko & Zac still kick considerable ass and can still seriously rock – I saw it with my own eyes, and felt it with the bones in my body! Send me a postcard from where you are to P.O. Box 691 Northcote Vic 3070 mate, with your address/email on it and I’ll stay in touch with ya’ while you’re on the road – OK ? Dave
Now Steve, one of the band’s first original road crew members, has a few memories from the formative years of the band he would like to share . . . . this one explains the origins of the band’s song “Highway Robbery”…
Steve, one of the original road crew for the band has some observations of the band when we went over to adelaide for a 2 week tour, most of the drove to adelaide from Sydney while a couple flew over, and by the time I landed in town everything was happening, . . . . . . I’ll let Steve (Recko) take over from here . . .
There was some funny stories from that trip and other trips that could be told but haven’t because I still love you guys. Like having a punch up with a certain band member in a motel room in front of a traumatised country girl in our underwear. Or same band member selling his room mates food & greens for jugs of beer. Good times & great people.
. . . original road crew member Steve ” Recko ” Reckly has a wonderful recollection of the band’s week long tour to and from Cobar NSW in mid 1980 or so, and the subsequent birth of his Mad Gorilla Nick-name . . . . . . .
More here…
I think the ( Mad Gorilla band member )Peter Kellier guy everyone is referring to is actually Peter Maxwell, but I could be wrong, . . . . . . . .some-one lemme know, . . ..
I thought it was Maxwell too, but i’ve lost a lot of brain cells over the years. Had a beautiful old Rogers kit solid as a rock and sounded great. He lived in the place in Concord rd you lived in didn’t he Dave?
yeah, . . . . . .years ago, . . .another lifetime, . . . . the place had it’s own “jamming room” set up, walkin and plug in any time you wanted to, . . . . a great facility to inside a house looking back on it, . . . . . . . .
Yeah a great old place, it was huge. It was knocked down when the western motorway M4(I think) came through.
Spot on Steve, . . . . some fond old memories even from that ol’ place, . . .
It was run down but it was a huge double-fronted Edwardian plce with high ceilings and huge rooms, . . . I’m pretty sure I was living at the time MG was doing the Adelaide tour. I also seem to recall that I held a day-job at EMI’s Homebush facility 5 minutes walk down the road on Parramatta road as well . . got to see 8 track cartridges phased out and cassettes phased in, . .saw the dismantling of The World Record Club and the HMV record played assembly line, ( remember them? ) and got to work on australia’s first computer run record warehouse! Still. I suppose that’s nothing compared to The Rise of home computing etc which was only just around the corner . . . . . .
. . . original road crew member Steve ” Recko ” Reckly has a wonderful recollection of the band’s week long tour to and from Cobar NSW in mid 1980 or so, and the subsequent birth of his Mad Gorilla Nick-name . . . . . . .
More here…