Peter Head Heads Back To SA For A Trio Of Shows…

Adelaide’s prodigal son, the original Mount Lofty Ranger and member of the band, Headband, Peter Head is bringing it all back home for some ultra special shows with an all-star band to celebrate his eightieth birthday!

Congratulations on the book, Headonism. It was a great read. Dave Graney summed it up with his forward for the book, “You other Australians couldn’t taste it (South Australian tang and twang) like we do” Adelaide certainly had its own scene in the late 60’s, early 70’s and you were part of it. I guess it was us in Adelaide v’s everyone?
“Us in Adelaide “versus the world. That was it. When we started in Adelaide we knew no other world. It wasn’t until we finally got to Sydney that management there explained to us that Adelaide really was thought of as nothing more than a big country town by the rest of the world. And nothing we had done up till then really mattered very much.

By the time we had been used and abused by the powers that be in Sydney and Melbourne, we were exhausted, broke and disillusioned about the music scene in Australia. Looking back on it fifty years later, I’d say it’s only gotten worse.

Headband were a great band. How and why did it all fall apart just after one album?
I’ve often said that if you can survive the music scene in Australia, you can survive anywhere. I say this because I’ve had a look at other places like America, England, and China now, and realised things are better overseas. And I say this without bitterness; it’s just the way things are. As Headband, we were put out to work in Sydney for Abe Saffron, the original “King of the Cross”, and we worked hard. Day and night in all his venues in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth. four to six hours a night, sometimes school shows during the day, television, and nonstop recording, we worked non-stop. Chequers in Sydney is a good example – six hours a night 9.00 p.m. till 3:00 a.m. alternating brackets with another band (e.g. Sherbert, AC/DC.) bop till you drop.

Nonstop travelling by four band members and a roadie by van. Usually helping the roadie ourselves, lugging huge pa’s, Hammond organ, Leslie amps, drums etc. But we were young – in our twenties, ambitious, and stupid, often drunk and /or stoned, we lived for ‘rock n roll.’

Supporting Elton John at Memorial Drive Adelaide in 1971 must have been a thrill. (I was there). Any good Elton stories from that day?
Elton John. I’ve written about it in my book. I knew Elton’s first record, and it was a beauty. I think Vince Lovegrove and CBA booking agency were responsible for booking us. We only met Elton and the band very briefly backstage at Memorial Drive, and then I mentioned to him that I was a poor boy with a rotten one hundred dollar electric piano that was falling to pieces, and I wished I could play his Steinway. He immediately offered the use of it, and said it would make it easier for everybody just to have the one piano being used.

This is typical of Elton, but NOT from ninety nine percent of overseas artists, who usually make sure the pa is louder for them and other many little advantages like lighting etc. And then the funny thing was that the pa blew up after Headband had only gotten thru the first few songs, and so the only instrument that could be played was Elton’s Steinway. And so, I played these silly little tunes Button up your overcoat and other English music hall songs that I thought would amuse Elton, and a couple of bluesy, jazzy numbers until the p.a. suddenly came back to life, and we finished our rock set. We never saw him after, but I’ve admired his work and his honesty ever since.

I believe Headband also supported the Rolling Stones in Sydney, 1973?
“The Rolling Stones”. Again, it’s all in the book Headonism. We flew to Brisbane to play with them that night, but a sudden cyclone intervened, and we were prevented from playing, but instead had to content ourselves with partying with the boys all night. And they were all gracious gentlemen, very friendly to us, and we had fun. A few days later, we did Randwick racecourse with them, and it was fantastic. Best gig ever. And a few days after that, we did it all again. And that was it. I always chuckle when I think of Keef’s book Life. He remembers everything very well, except he has no memory at ALL of that night in Brisbane. I remember … my bag of Mullumbimby heads, and his snorts of coke and copious amounts of Jack Daniels would have done the trick.

What was your first impressions of Bon Scott when you first met him?
Headband and Fraternity were both managed by Hamish Henry, who lived in a big mansion in Molesworth St in North Adelaide. Both bands started around the same time, and initially we didn’t have much work. So, I was put to work running Hamish’s art gallery which was at the back of the property in the old stables. I did this from 10 am till 6.00 pm at night. After only a few days, Hamish introduced me to Bon, who had just come over from Sydney, and told me that he would be doing all the odd jobs for Hamish- gardening, sweeping, cleaning, etc – whatever was needed at the time. This went on for months while we got established. Bon saw that I always took in my acoustic guitar to the gallery, so that I could amuse myself while I waited for gallery customers, and fielded phone calls for both bands, so he started bringing in his also. He only knew about five of the most basic ‘cowboy chords’, so I started giving him guitar and music lessons as well. Eventually we would start to jam and write songs together, but this was how we started. And then when the two bands would do gigs together, Hamish bought a ‘band bus’, and we’d often travel together on this.

You went on to form The Mt Lofty Rangers, which had a “floating” member listing, including Robyn Archer, Glenn Shorrock and Bon Scott.
Fraternity went to England for a while, and we started to go interstate a lot, and the connection was gone for a few years. And then, in early ’74, both bands broke up at about the same time. We were all desperate to make some money, and my solution was to start a new band ,(the Mount Lofty Rangers), and incorporate members of both bands into the new one. The Rangers were spiritually inspired by my friend Vytas Serelis, the artist who did posters and art work for both bands, as well as contributing to the gallery exhibits. Vytas suggested that we always played with a different line-up, and only played original music. This we did, and it was only accomplished by writing out a common songbook of all the original songs we could compile of South Australian songwriters, (including mine, Bon’s and many others like Steve Foster, Doug Ashdown, Lester Wahqvist etc.), and conducting MANY rehearsals with different singers and musicians. Eventually over two hundred people contributed to the ongoing gigs of the Rangers, and Bon was the main singer for at least a dozen gigs, but he was lost to us after he accepted an offer to join AC/DC, and disappeared for the next five years.

Apparently, you and Bon wrote a few songs together?
Bon returned one night in November 1979. He turned up at my door with a bottle of Jack in hand, we got stoned and headed on out to party till 6.00 a.m., and then he flew back to London, and was dead by February 1980. But, my main memory of Bon was in 1974, when again he turned up unannounced at my front door (again with bottle of Jack in hand) after a day working at the Wallaroo Fertilizer plant. His job there was to unload bags of shit for twelve hours a day. He stank badly, so I put him in a shower while my wife Mouse made him something to eat. Afterwards, we got stoned, and started to analyse the two pages of words he had scribbled out in his many ‘smokos’. By midnight, we had co-written two wildly dissimilar songs.

First “I’ve been up in the hills too long” which was a clever and very funny account of his being ‘rootless’ for weeks while up at ‘Hemming’s farm” rehearsing with Fraternity, and a beautiful ballad called Clarissa, about the young woman who ‘saved the day’ for him eventually. Both of these songs were immediately transferred to the next edition of ‘the Mt. Lofty Rangers songbook”. We shall play both of these at the Trinity sessions.

It’s great you are back in Adelaide for a run of shows, starting at The Trinity Sessions on Friday January 23 then Sunday 25 at The Semaphore Workers Club What can we expect at the show?
I’m really looking forward to the “Trinity” gig, as we will re-visit a lot of these Rangers songs, which I’ve rarely played since I left Adelaide. Semaphore will be the opposite, a lot of rowdy rock ‘n roll dance tunes, but still mainly original. Also, I’m planning an extra ‘treat’ at the end when I invite three great women singers to join us for a couple of songs to take it out with a bang.

In between you are playing a solo gig at The Rising Sun Hotel, Auburn. How will this be different?
The Saturday night gig at the “House of the Rising Sun” will be a totally different repertoire again. All my ‘piano bar’ shtick. Expect anything and everything.

Also great to see you playing with local legends, Chris Finnen on guitar, Ron Kosmider (bass) and Mark Meyer (drums). Lots of talent there. Should be a good sound.
Mark Meyer and Chris Finnen are old friends from the Rangers and Headband days, and I also remember Ron Kosmider from then, but we’ve never worked together before. Looking forward to it all though.

Surely there will be a follow up to the Headonism book?
Headonism is just my first forty years. The next book I’ve started, but don’t plan to finish until I really do retire one day, but so far, I’m nowhere near it. While I’m still feeling this good, I plan to keep playing until I can’t anymore. So, it will be a few more down the track …

Looking forward to seeing you in Adelaide.
Look forward to it as well. See you there.

Interview By Geoff Jenke

Catch Peter Head on the following dates…

TRINITY SESSIONS Intimate Concert Performance Friday 23 January, tickets HERE…

RISING SUN HOTEL AUBURN Saturday 24 January, tickets HERE…

SEMAPHORE WORKERS CLUB Sunday 25 January, tickets HERE…