In July 1989 the great Australian guitarist Tommy Emmanuel was about to perform some solo shows and dates with his brother Phil in Sydney. He called a musician friend, John Spence, with a dilemma. "Spencey, I've just found out we're onstage at 11.00 pm tomorrow night and we need a support act. We need someone to play between 8.30 and 10.30 & warm up the punters before we go on. Can you help?"
No problem Tommy. John called his mate James Gillard, who had recently moved to Sydney from Melbourne where he'd been playing bass and singing with Mondo Rock and Broderick Smith's Big Combo. John & James put a song list together and, without rehearsing, played the show the next night as a duo.
"Hey, that was great, but I reckon we can crank it up a bit," said Tommy backstage after the first night. "In fact let's make it a band tomorrow night, and I'll play drums." It's a little known fact that besides being one of the greatest guitarists in the world (Tommy was inducted as a CGP - Certified Guitar Player, by the legendary Chet Atkins, one of only 3 worldwide), Tommy is also a fantastic drummer, and loves playing when he gets the chance.
So John hauled in another muso mate, virtuoso guitarist & Cockney looney, Terry Murray, to join them the next night. Again with no rehearsal, the "band" played a great set and at the conclusion a band agent and venue booker, Tim Kirkland from Peak Promotions, walked out of the audience & said "Who are you guys, what is this band & do you want some work ? I can book you next weekend if you like."
Problem was, it wasn't really a band, we didn't have a name, and there were certainly no plans to do any more shows. But on hearing this Tommy chimed in, "I'm up for it. I'm in Sydney for the next three weeks doing sessions, and I'm in, as long as I get to play drums." James very quickly added the band name, "we're called The Fargone Beauties".
After we all did a double take on the double meaning of the name, we laughed and thought why not, just go out and play a few gigs, have some fun & it's all over.
So there it was, an accidental band with a name and gigs booked (still no rehearsals) and ready to go. We refined the song list somewhat, mainly playing covers leaning toward rock where it meets country & R & B. We also found that there were three strong singers who found natural harmony parts. And of course, Tommy was sensational on drums. He never once played guitar with us in those formative weeks.
Three weeks of gigs turned into months of forward bookings, including some shows in the NSW ski fields that year, so when Tommy had to depart we took our friend Doug Bligh (ex Goldrush) with us on drums. Doing sound for us on that trip was the wonderful banjo player Mark Collins, and during some downtime Mark would play with us adding some wicked banjo to our rock repertoire.
After returning to Sydney, we actually decided to rehearse and add some different songs to the live show. At one memorable rehearsal one of the guys suggested doing a beefed up bluegrass version of the classic Troggs hit "Wild Thing", and Terry came up with the idea of adding the theme from Bonanza in the middle.
We added a similar treatment to Jimi Hendix's "Hey Joe", and Johnny O'Keefe's "She's My Baby" A new musical genre of our very own was germinated that day - "thrashgrass" was born.
After test driving the new repertoire in the Sydney pubs, the band developed a following of dedicated fans and shows were beginning to sell out. People thought the whole thing was mad, and they were right. No one, least of all us, took anything seriously. We just went out, played loud & hard & the audiences loved it.
And one very influential friend also became a fan along the way. Australian broadcasting legend Doug Mulray was then presenting Sydney's top rating breakfast show on 2MMM FM, occasionally working with Terry Murray on musical content for his show. Uncle Doug loved the Fargs immediately. Our irreverent take of mismatching musical styles appealed to Doug's twisted sense of humour, and he regularly referred to us as "the greatest band in the world".
Who were we to argue?
After recording a demo tape of songs at Guy Dickerson's Megaphon Studios, Uncle Doug started playing "Wild Thing" off cassette every day for two weeks on his radio show. The Fargone fairy tale was spreading. To this day we owe a debt of gratitude to Doug for his farsighted talent spotting and his willingness to flog it on radio, even when it was well outside the station's playlist.
We also caught the ears of a young Andrew Denton, now one of Australia's great TV interviewers. Andrew was hosting a national TV show on ABC "The Money Or The Gun", which developed a theme of having a different act perform the Led Zeppelin classic "Stairway To Heaven" each week in their own musical style. The Fargones were asked to perform their "thrashgrass" version of the song on national TV. We were in good company with the likes of Rolf Harris (with wobbleboard), Kate Ceberano's funk treatment, John Paul Young's "Love Is In The Air" version and actor Leonard Teale's narrated adaptation.
This propelled the Fargones onto the national stage, which led to an offer to release a CD. Our first album "The Fargone Beauties" was released early in 1991 on the True Blue label, through Sony. By this time the great drummer Mark Meyer (Stylus, Richard Clapton) had joined us and played on most tracks on the first album, along with Mark Collins on banjo.
See "CDs and Other Stuff" section for track list and credits.
The album sold well and got the band invited onto many TV shows including 17 appearances on the Nine Network's "Midday Show" with Ray Martin, Hey Hey It's Saturday, The Footy Show and many others. This led to invitations to perform on some of the big open air music shows including the Gympie Music Muster, and over the next three years the band could be relied upon to scare the life out of audiences at every major music festival in Australia.
The band's second album was appropriately titled "It's Hard When You're Ugly" and was released in 1992 on the Emerald City label through Phonogram. Dave Druery had joined on drums by then and shared the recording work with Mark Meyer. This album included the killer thrashgrass version of AC/DC's "Highway To Hell" which, we are told, was most enjoyed by Angus & Malcolm Young when it was brought to their attention.
This recording, by the way, pre-dates the version of the same song by fellow musical gender-benders Hayseed Dixie by nine years. While the Fargones were tucked down on the bottom of the world in Australia, the Hayseed's version of "Highway" pricked up ears worldwide in 2001 when they released their first album in the US. Where Hayseed Dixie differs from us is in their acoustic bluegrass treatment of classic songs from other genres - and nicely done it is too.
The Fargone Beauties are anything but nice. We are a full-on electric band with loud drums, loud guitars, loud banjos, and big (loud) vocals. We are dedicated to dismembering classic rock songs and ripping them up in true thrashgrass style. You'll hear us coming and you won't forget the experience.
Our third album "Dark Side Of The Moo" was released in 1994 through Dino Music, a label associated with other Aussie music legends like Kamahl and the legendary Smoky Dawson. The album title continued the strange bovine theme that began by accident when the famous Fargone cow first turned up on the debut album cover.
By this time John had departed due to business commitments (he had to go and earn a living instead of playing in a band & having way more fun), and drummer extraordinaire Mark Marriott had joined the band just before the album recording. Darryl Melbourne was recruited on banjo, dobro & guitar, and mandolin maestro Kym Warner also played on this album and in subsequent promo shows. This line-up played on for another couple of years before everybody got so busy with other musical projects that it became difficult for everyone to commit to the Fargones the way they had before. There were sporadic gigs, still packing out venues as always, and more TV time, but the remaining members decided to sideline the Fargone Beauties around 1996.
In the intervening years one consistent theme has followed all members of the band as they continued playing with other line-ups. People would regularly come up and ask, "When are the Fargones getting back together" or "Will the Fargs ever play again?"
Nothing has changed in the ten years or so that the band has not played together, and with the internet now connecting everyone like never before, we have all had persistent enquiries about whether the band may ever reunite. It seemed like the short burst of notoriety the band enjoyed in the early nineties made an impression far and wide, way beyond the crowds who packed the pubs in the early days.
Fast forward to 2006 which coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Gympie Music Muster, which is one of the biggest annual music festivals in Australia. Over 100,000 people now make it to Gympie in south eastern Queensland each year to enjoy a week of sunshine, camping, bush tucker, beer and Bundy rum, along with over 100 diverse music acts to be enjoyed on the 10 stages erected in pristine bushland many miles from anywhere.
The Muster organisers extended an invitation to the "band that wouldn't die" and Terry, James, John & Mark met early in the year to discuss the very serious business of playing together for the first time in over a decade. It seemed that interest in the band had never gone away, and if we were to do it again, this was certainly a fitting occasion. As usual, the meeting was anything but serious. Bad jokes and stupid stories were told, rememberances reminisced and at the end of it all we decided what the hell, if there's a chance to flop out those old tunes again, let's do it.
Somehow we managed to find four days between February and August when we were all in the same
city together, and fitted in a photo session, a TV appearance, and two rehearsals, just in case the arrangements needed cranking up.
The Fargones enjoyed legendary status as a sure-fire, crowd pleasing big event drawcard throughout their earlier incarnation, and on Saturday 25 th August, after twelve years apart, The Fargone Beauties played the Gympie Muster Main Stage and blew the cobwebs, and the crowd, away. As the sun set over the mountain we played all the classic thrassgrass hits and stirred up the dust and 20,000 or so sweaty Fargs fans just like in days gone by.
To coincide with their reunion, and to satisfy a growing demand for the old albums which by now are impossible to get, the band released a NEW ALBUM in August 2006 -
"A Load Of Old Bullocks - The Best Of The Fargone Beauties "
It has 20 of the band's biggest hits and favourite tracks off the previous albums (see "CDs and Other Stuff" section).
The album can be bought by contacting our distributor for a retail outlet near you -
One Stop Entertainment
Ph: 07 3279 2754
Fax: 07 3279 0322
Email: sales@onestopent.com.au
Web: www.onestopent.com.au
So The Fargone Beauties are back. All the band members are still committed to their many musical projects, but when the time and occasion are right, you might see The Fargone Beauties turn up (and we mean TURN UP) on a stage near you.
The band is available for concerts, music festivals and special events (with plenty of warning please) and can be contacted through -
John Spence
Phone: 61 2 9940 0603 (Sydney)
Mobile: 0414 994 506
Email: john@fargonebeauties.com.au
