Host Di Spillane has set up a PayPal https://paypal.me/banditabout?locale.x=en_AU and ‘buy me a coffee’ to help her to cover the expenses that come with producing this weekly independent podcast series. If you would like to help by buying a coffee you can do so via this link: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/BandIt Thank you for your support, and thanks for listening to the Band It About - Podcast Series. Cheers Di ☕️ #banditaboutpodcastseries #buymeacoffee #banditabout #musicinterviewpodcasts #musicpodcasts #anchorpodcasts  #podcasthost #podcasts #applepodcasts #music #Adelaide

Adelaide drummer and former John Reynolds Music City Manager, John Stephens, joins me this week to share stories from his music career, taking us on a journey filled with his fabulous memories from the entertainment scene in Adelaide from the 50's right through to recent years. John has lived a life that most wouldn't even dream of, rubbing shoulders with, meeting and forming relations with the right people in the business, growing and adding to his list of contacts within the music industry all over the globe. John has that many amazing stories that it is impossible to include all of them in a podcast, if anyone should write a book about the Australian Music Scene, John definitely should! 

As with all of the interviews, we start with John's childhood, his mother was a 'Bellchambers', his parents ran the Bellchambers radio, electrical and music store, which was situated in the heart of the City. The store gave John access to all the records that he could ever want, his love and knowledge of music was essentially born at this store. It provided his with the opportunity to meet every famous band and artist which included local, national, and international acts. The external business opportunities that grew from owning 'The music store in the City of Adelaide, included Security staff, ushers, and drivers to work at all of the major shows that came to Adelaide, all of the major entertainment arenas that have come and gone throughout his life. John even has a picture of himself as a child standing at the front near the Beatles when they came to Adelaide in 1964 and played 4 concerts at Centennial Hall, at the Wayville Showgrounds.

Many of you would know John as the former drum teacher, drum repairer, and drum shop manager of the iconic 'John Reynolds Music City' store, where he worked from 1978 until it closed in 2013. John organised and coordinated all of the drum clinics which attracted some of the biggest names in drumming from around the world and put the John Reynolds store on the map. John shares some of his memories and funny stories from the store and the second part to the 'Chad Smith' Red Hot Chilli Peppers drummer story that John Reynolds started in his interview. 

John still repairs and tunes drums from home, and he has kindly offered to give 2 (per month) Band It About podcast series drummers a FREE snare drum tune up and overhaul check! This is a great prize that can be won simply by being chosen by the listeners of this series who nominate their favourite drummer interview. To nominate all you need to do is leave a voicemail on this podcast series, and then at the end of the month I will put all of the nominee's names into a hat and pull out 2 names. To cast your vote please use this link: Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dianne-spillane/message  

Music: John has chosen 2 songs that were recorded at the 'Southern Jazz Club', where he regularly plays with various line-ups. Intro is "Hey Good Looking" written by Hank Williams, performed by the 'Twilight Syncopators', and the outro is John performing the fabulous drum solo from "Caravan" which was composed by Juan Tizol and Duke Ellington. Performed at the Southern Jazz Club with 'Bill Polain's Fidgety Feet.' 

Links: John Stephens Facebook Southern Jazz Club YouTube 

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Adelaide born drummer John Yacka joins me this week to discuss his career. John's first major original band was 'Ironhorse' who began performing in 1980, and within four years had won a reputation as one of Adelaide's most devoutly supported acts. The bands first major gig was on November 30th 1984 when they supported 'Deep Purple' at Memorial Drive during DP's "Perfect Strangers" Tour. Despite their popularity around the country, they were unable to get signed by a major label. John discusses getting knocked back by Michael Gudinski's promotions manager for Mushroom Records Michelle Higgins, due to the fact that she didn't like the look of the band, and didn't think that they would be a good fit for the label. When the band released it's first self financed album in 1986 it became an enduring chart hit. 

The band set attendance records at their live performances and also surprised the critics when their debut album “Lost Weekend” soared up the commercial airplay charts with a Number 5 album locally and number 54 on the National Charts (Kent Report). Through constant touring throughout Australia, this band earned a reputation nationally and shared the stage as support to a variety of International musicians – BB King, Deep Purple, Joe Walsh, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Johnny Winter & Canned Heat. After a ten year span key member David Stone left for a spell and Ironhorse took a break.

The rest of the members continued to tour under the name of “The Hurricanes” and eventually released an Album under the guise of 'Cosmic Desert' with James Burchell on main vocals. More recently the band has reverted back to the Ironhorse flag for a couple of reunion shows. The most watched video on my Band It About YouTube channel is Ironhorse performing the "Train Song" at the first reunion show, which was held at the Para Hills Community Club. Here is the link to that video: IronHorse "Train Song" YouTube

‘Cosmic Storm’ launched its debut album “Nobody’s Fool” at the Adelaide Festival Centre, and to an extent also launched the band. They have open for international acts such as Deep Purple in 2006, Status Quo, and Paul Stanley at the iconic ‘Thebarton Theatre’, as well as supporting other great Aussie music legends. Cosmic Storm created interest on the US music market with their “Nobody’s Fool" album. The band had concerns that the variety of material on the album may have worked against them in the US, but it became an asset, as it was the diversity of the music on the album that stood out above other choices. 

Lily and the Drum is a bluesy, roots, rock & soul duo featuring vocalist, guitarist Lily Higgins, and John on percussion, harmonica & backing vocals. Their shows have been described as “Honest, raw and energetic” and “A guitar and drum duo with an exciting rich melodic sound." Following the success of their debut album “Nobody Just Like Me”, along with their subsequent albums "Welcome Change", "Buried in Blue" and "This Is Right Now", the duo has constantly toured throughout Australia, until having to cancel last year due to C-19. They have performed at numerous Music Festivals throughout Australia, opening for high profile artists such as ‘The Black Sorrows’, ‘Mental as Anything’ and ‘Tex Perkins. They captured the attention of the music community with four of their releases making the Top 25 on the Australian Blues and Roots National Airplay Charts.

John has kindly allowed me to use 2 of his songs for this interview, "Midnite Confusion" by Ironhorse and "No More" by Lily And The Drum. All of John's bands info, albums and social links can be located here: https://www.lilyandthedrum.com.au/

Website: https://www.podpage.com/band-it-about-podcast-series/  #Drummers, #musicinterviewpodcasts

Listen to Mark's first interview E7 first. I recently caught up with Mark after one of his gigs, we chatted about his first Engine Room interview, he mentioned that there was a lot that he did not touch on, so I was delighted when he suggested that we arrange a time to record part 2. In this interview Mark reflects on the incredibly talented musicians that he has met, worked with, and formed friendships with, throughout his career as a session musician in more detail.

Mark chats about joining Stylus and the band being signed to Motown, working with Daddy Cool's guitarist Ross Hannaford, performing in Melbourne with Ross’s band Lucky Dog, and how that led to his fondest recording memory with Mark Gillespie on his “Only Human” and “Sweet Nothing” albums. He retouched on his time touring with Marcia Hines and recording and touring with Richard Clapton and Moving Pictures, and how one of his Sydney band Chasin’ The Train gigs ended up leading to Mark touring with the Divinyls in 1992.

Other artists that Mark has recorded and or toured with mentioned in this interview are Jenny Morris, Wendy Mathews, Jon English, Lee Kernaghan, Elvis The Musical, The New Rocky Horror Show with Craig McLaughlin. Mark also talks about his interesting experience during the 9 weeks that he toured Australia with the Divinyls in 1992 and why he decided not to continue with that tour when they went to the USA.

When Mark finished touring with the Divinyls he received a call from Garth Porter who asked him if he would be interested in recording on the young country artist Lee Kernaghan's debut album. Mark agreed to do the album “The Outback Club” and was given ½ a percent as part of the payment. The ARIA award winning debut album was a huge success reaching 2 x Platinum which meant that his ½ a percent earned Mark $20K! Mark continued to record and tour for a few years with Lee, and after the success of the first album, Mark became extremely popular within the Country Music scene recording somewhere in the vicinity of 250 albums with various country artists including Gina Jeffreys, Troy Cassar-Daley and James Blundell.

Mark chose the following tracks for his interview, "Spellbound" Richard Clapton's "Best Years" album, & "Only Human" Mark Gillespie

Links: mark gillespie only human full album  Mark Gillespie “Sweet Nothing” album  Lee Kernaghan - The 25th Anniversary Album

Bang The Drum - Only You (1990) Mark Meyer Facebook

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iPhone please rate & comment via: https://ratethispodcast.com/banditabout Thanks for listening!

S2 E27 THE LOVE MUSSELS are an Adelaide psychedelic rock band who originally formed in 1994, they released their first album "Dirty World" the same year, followed by a few more releases until the band disappeared in 2006. The band reformed in 2019 and recorded the "It's All Relative - Redux", which was released in October 2020.  During the interview (recorded in 'Mussel Manor'), the band discuses' the album as well as their upcoming Adelaide Fringe show on March 13th, 2021 at Diverse-City Adelaide at 8pm, where they will be performing the album. This is quite a fun interview with lots of banter around the topics of seafood and Einstein, followed by the band performing 2 songs in 'Mussel Central', "Somebody Get Me A Gun" which is on the latest album, and "Driving Albert's Brain" which is yet to be released. All songs are written by Brett Sody and Kym Winter, and performed by The Love Mussels. This bonus episode is the first Band It About vodcast interview, to watch this video please go to: YouTube- Band It About - vodcast interview The Love Mussel. Please Like the video and subscribe to my channel while you are there. Band website: www.lovemussels.com.au The Love Mussels songs played (in the background) during this interview are: "Dirty World" off of the "Dirty World" album, "The Long Divide", "Tail Wags The Dog", "Space And Time", "When Einstein Met Tagore", "Mileva", "Up In The Queue", and "New Horizon" are all off of the "It's All Relative - Redux" album, released in 2020. The live performance songs are "Somebody Get Me A Gun" also off of the "It's All Relative - Redux" album, and "Driving Albert's Brain" which is yet to be released.  The Love Mussels band members are: Brett Sody - Guitar, Vocals & Keyboards, Kym Winter - Dewhirst - Guitar, Vocals & Keyboards, Denis (the preacher) Surmon - Bass and Liv Bafile - Drums. Liv has also recorded a Band It About - podcast series interview with me for season 2 The Engine Room (S2E16) https://ratethispodcast.com/banditabout Please feel free to message me if you have any ideas or requests for future Band It About podcast/vodcast guests, and make sure that you subscribe, follow, rate, comment, or leave a voice message to help this series to reach more people who enjoy music interview podcasts. Thanks for listening.  https://anchor.fm/dianne-spillane, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify, RadioPublic, Anchor, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Breaker, Stitcher and Vurbl. #thelovemussels #AdelaideFringe #BandItAbout #musicinterviewvodcast #musicvodcast #musicinterviewpodcast #musicpodcast #podcastinterview #podcasts #Einstein #musicindustry #Adelaide #SouthAustralia #UNESCO #originalmusic #psychedelicrock #rockmusic #sodypop 

Adelaide drummer Liv Bafile is this weeks Engine Room guest. I must thank Pete Kershaw for suggesting that I interview Liv, if it were left up to Liv I doubt that this would have happened as Liv is quite shy and didn't think that he had a story worth sharing. I beg to differ, as I am sure that you will too! Liv has been in many original bands as well as some very popular cover bands throughout his drumming career, and was an absolute pleasure to chat to. A bonus to doing this interview was that I have also recorded my very first Band It About Vodcast with Liv and an original band that he is in 'The Love Mussels.' This band released their first album in 1994, followed by a few more releases until suddenly disappearing for 15 years. The band got back together and recorded new material in 2019, and they were set to do an album launch in March 2020, when Covid hit and we went in to lockdown.

Music: Intro "Song X" by 'Vegans In Leather", off of the "Purple Heart" album, released in 2001. Outro "Tomorrow" written by Andy Armstrong & Marta Bayly. This song is off of the album "Harmony Of One", Liv plays on both tracks and has given his permission for both songs to be included in his interview.

Links: https://lovemussels.com.au/ https://www.facebook.com/Show5Hits/  https://smartyboys.com/  http://www.southerncrossentertainment.com.au/adelaide/rock-n-roll-bands/all-shook-up https://www.facebook.com/pg/T.REXoz/posts/?ref=page_internal

Band It About Facebook, Email: [email protected], YouTube Band It About - Proudly Supporting Live Music. 

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Please remember to follow, subscribe, comment, rate, or leave a voice message, to help this podcast series to reach others who enjoy music podcast interviews. Thanks for listening!

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Look out for the bonus vodcast with The Love Mussels!

Adelaide drummer Ben Todd began playing drums at the age of 3, adding to an already large family of drummers (3 generations to be exact!) His first introduction to the instrument was from his father Steve who worked as a freelance musician. After leaving high school, Ben quickly became established in the Adelaide music community and began work in sessions, musicals and corporate bands, as well as conducting drum clinics and workshops both in SA and interstate. Ben sent his first audition tape when he was 15, and continued to send through updates every 6 months or so until finally securing his first contract when he was 19 with the internationally acclaimed "Cirque du Soleil". Ben has toured the world with Cirque as a featured drummer, percussionist and now bandleader with 3 of their shows, "CORTEO", "KOOZA" and most recently "VOLTA". Prior to joining Cirque, Ben performed with a wide range of artists back in Australia including Kate Ceberano, Paulini, Ben Folds, Doug Parkinson, Rhonda Burchmore, James Morrison, David Campbell, Barry Humphries and Glen Shorrock, as well as playing in the pit orchestras for many musical theatre shows including the Australia/NZ tour of Cats, and the Adelaide productions of Miss Saigon, Grease, Metro Street and The Candyman.

Music: Intro "Like Kids" artist Cirque du Soleil album VOLTA, Outro "What's Up?" written by Ben Todd, the song was released in 2020 on Ben's album Memento and features Ben Todd - Drums and Percussion, Marty Holoubek - Bass, Mark Lettieri - Guitar, Paul White - Keyboards, Miron Rafajlovic - Trumpet, Ben Harrison - Saxophone, and Steve Todd - Percussion.

Links: https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/press/kits/shows/volta   Ben Todd Memento 

Ben Todd Band, Ben Todd Pearl Drumset Artist, Ben Todd Zildjian cymbals, Ben Todd Vic Firth Sticks, Ben Todd Piglet Music 

Fringe shows; Jackson Vs Jackson https://adelaidefringe.com.au/ 

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Adelaide drummer Bradley Polain was always going to be a musician, after all his father Bill Polain and both of his brothers were drummers, his mother Charmaine a pianist, and his entire family was heavily involved in the Brass band scene. Brad's musical journey has taken him from the weekly Brass Band rehearsal at the Enfield Band Hall to playing at the London Palladium with the Zep Boys backed by a 35-piece orchestra. His first (non-brass) band after leaving school was Catherine Lambert and the Hep Hounds and went on to join many other well-known bands over the years. Bradley has toured and recorded with bands nationally and internationally, with 2 of the USA recording sessions leading to both albums winning major awards. Bradley has a fabulous sense of humor and was an absolute delight to chat to. Listeners are in for a special treat as Bradley has given me one of his original songs "Fooled Again" to play for you all. "Fooled Again" features Bradley Polain (drums/vocals), James Muller (guitar), Damien Steele Scott (bass), and Paul White (keys), it's a great song that hopefully, he will release at some stage in the not too distant future!

Music; intro "Walking on the Moon" performed by the Hindley Street Country Club (HSCC), the original version of this song was written by Gordon Sumner (Sting) and it was released on The Police album "Reggatta de Blanc" in 1979. The outro is "Fooled Again" written by Bradley Polain.

Links: Billy Hyde Music - Adelaide store 118 Richmond Rd, Marleston, Bradley is the Drum Department Manager and Mario Marino is also working (part-time) in this brand new store with him. Bradley is endorsed by Zildjian and is a Ludwig Drums Australia artist.

'WALKING ON THE MOON' POLICE covered by HSCC, Led Zeppelin Masters Live with the Black Dog Orchestra performing "Kashmir"

The Hindley Street Country Club YouTube 

All of the BAND IT ABOUT - Podcast Series Links can be found here: https://linktr.ee/banditaboutpodcastseries

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John Reynolds is a South Australian icon, and one of the nicest gentleman that you could possibly chat with. John discusses his career as a performer with the Dominoes and the Frank Sebastian Entertainment Revue (among others), as well as what led to him starting his business in 1968 with $400, a business that would go on to play a part in many South Australian drummers’ careers, supplying, teaching, recording, and employing. John was recognised for his contribution towards the South Australian music scene in 2015 when he was inducted into the AMC Hall of Fame. The John Reynolds Music City Store has now sadly closed, but thankfully John kindly agreed to be interviewed and shares many wonderful stories with me during this chat. John has lived a remarkable life, a life led by the motto "there's no such thing as can't!" If you grew up in, or were a part of the Adelaide music scene during the 60s and 70s, this interview will be a walk down memory lane for you! 

The music used in this interview was recorded on February 7th, 2021 when John played a set with the John Stevens Jazz Band at the Tea Tree Gully RSL. The song "Calypso" was written by Tommy Flanagan February 4, 1977 and was released on the "Calypso" Album in 1980, performed by pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist George Mraz, and drummer Elvin Jones.

Links for this episode: to watch the video of John performing John Reynolds "Calypso" video, John Reynolds Facebook, Foxtail Houseboats

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