Have Gravity Will Threaten

• Bands: Blackthorn ▪ Garden2Garden

Piano/vocals/songwriter/bass/drum programming/music director.

The second youngest of seven siblings, and the daughter of a prominent Armidale actor/director and lecturer, Lissa-Käthe Rummery was heavily influenced by her older brother Richard Rummery and took up piano playing at an early age. Another, perhaps even more significant influence, was Kate Bush, and in particular her ode to Wuthering Heights. Although Lissa displayed much talent as a musician and writer she in fact failed music in high school because, as she notes herself, she spent too much time creating my own pieces on the piano and not doing the work set. She later attended the Northern Conservatorium of the Arts, majoring in piano and vocals. She also later took up bass playing. This eventually led to her meeting ‘Kez’ Watson. Together they played in the Celtic band Blackthorn (ca. 2001), a period in which Lissa discovered her deep passion for Celtic music.

Lissa has been involved in many technical aspects of major theatrical productions in the New England region, including the Australian premiere of the spectacular and very successful Richard Harvey and Ralph Stedman’s Plague and Moonflower (Armidale 2003) and the magnificent outdoor stage at Woodford Folk Festival. In 2007 she and Kez Watson (along with manager Heather Grigg) undertook a three month tour of the Scotland and Yorkshire.

The 2007 UK tour also allowed Lissa the opportunity to meet up with many of the people she had communicated with through the Kate Bush forum, including lyricist/visual artist Nat Hall. After returning to Australia Lissa was invited by Hall and guitarist Dave Hall to become part of the Garden2Garden, which entailed many months of collaboration and recording via email. The trio mixed the resulting album, Airborne, over the winter of 2007/08 on the Shetland Islands (Scotland).

Lissa returned to Australia in 2008 and the following completed a Diploma in Film and Media at the Armidale TAFE College. This experience encouraged her to experiment with composing for visual media, and a number of her pieces have been used for student productions. That same year she returned to Scotland where she currently resides. Among her collaborations in moving to Edinburgh is an association with Irish flute and lyre player Danielle Roelofsen.

In 2010 Lissa entered 10 songs in the internationally-renowned UK Songwriting Competition. Seven of these songs, including an instrumental, made it to the semi-finals.  A further three received commendations from the judging panel. 2010 saw Lissa return to the studio to finalise a new album.

• Discography  [pdf]
• Press Release [7 June 2007]  [pdf]

Sources: Lissa-Käthe MySpace page (no longer active) • Lissa-Käthe (correspondence, June 2010) • Garden2Garden MySpace page (no longer active). Images: All photos courtesy of Lissa-Käthe.

KELSEY

(ca. 1972 – 1976)

• Personel: James Arthur (keyboards/vocals) ▪ Bob Jones (guitar/vocals) ▪ Ron ‘Rocky’ Lane (bass/vocals) [below] ▪ Brian ‘Lanky’ Moore (drums/vocals)

One of Armidale’s leading rock band of the early to mid-1970s, Kelsey evolved out of Scamp (which had included Bob Jones, Rocky Lane and Lanky Moore). Brian Moore recalls that the band, which often rehearsed at the Cathedral Hall. had a  repertoire comprising a mix of classic rock songs from the 1960s and 1970s.  Among the bands and performers to be covered were Australians Healing Force, Renee Geyer, the Little River Band, and Ariel, along with overseas acts like 10cc, The Beach Boys, KGB, Fleetwood Mac (early period), Steely Dan, Supertramp, Hot Chocolate, El Chicano, Leo Sayer, and Ashton, Gardner and Dyke. Interestingly the band didn’t play any original compositions.

Kelsey went on to play at most of the major Armidale venues as well as around other Northern Tablelands centres. One of its last regular gigs was the Saturday afternoon session at Tattersall’s Hotel (beginning July 1976).

Following the band’s break-up Lanky Moore and Rocky Lane remained in Armidale, with Moore co-founding the hard rock outfit Constable Green and Moore (with Kim Constable and Chris Green), while Lane put together the stylish Ukiah (later Morocco).  Lane also soon afterwards established Lane Music Co with his brother. Bob Jones in the meantime moved to Sydney where he played in the band Stunned Mullet, before teaming up with Moore (and Constable) to form the Sydney-based power-pop trio The Chooks.

• Song List [pdf]

Sources: Clay Djubal (2010) • Brian Moore (interview, Aug. 2010 and correspondence, Sept. 2010) • Neucleus (1976-79). Image: Photos courtesy of Brian Moore† • Wright College advertisement, Neucleus (Armidale) 11 Aug. 1976, 31.

PETER KERR

(ca. 1960 – )

• Bands: Elsess ▪ Kordz [below]

Keyboards/vocals

In 1975, while a student at Armidale High School Peter Kerr co-founded Elsess with Bruce Jones, Peter Makeham, David Lennon and Jon Anderson. Along with the Duval High-based Edge, Elsess was one of Armidale’s leading high school bands. Kerr later played with Bruce Jones in the pop/rock outfit, Kordz, with Doiran James.

Armidale High School (6th Form, 1977). Peter Kerr: second row, second from left. Bruce Jones: second row, centre.

Source: Clay Djubal (2010), Jon Anderson (2010) • Image source: Facebook “Armidale of Yesteryear (1977)” page (NB: 3rd Form in Australia is now known a Year 9). See also Bruce Jones entry for an Armidale High School photograph from 1974 (also with Peter Kerr).

KORDZ

(1979-1982)

• Personnel incl. Doiran James (guitar/vocals) ▪ Bruce Jones (guitar/lead vocals) ▪ Peter Kerr (piano) [above] ▪ Pat O’Brien (drums) ▪ Peter Williams (bass)

Formed in early-1979 Kordz played its first major gig at the Imperial Hotel, Armidale in May 1979. Utilising the vocal strengths of Bruce Jones and Doiran James, and the melodic timbre of Peter Kerr’s piano playing, the band’s repertoire comprised a mix of snappy pop tunes, rock classics and a smattering of original songs. Kordz established a popular reputation in Armidale and wider New England pub circuit during the late-1970s and early-1980s. Following the band’s breakup in early-1982 Doiran James went on to co-found Crash Landing with Rod Clay.†

Source: Doiran James (correspondence, 2009).
† See Clay Djubal.

ROBERT ‘BOB’ LANE

• Bands incl. Chainsaw ▪ Manic Depression ▪ Scamp ▪ Shane

With Shane ca. 1972

Guitar / vocals / cornet / trumpet

Bob Lane was a member of the De La Salle Catholic College band, Manic Depression, in 1970, along with his cousin Nobby Osbourne. He’d first begun performing as a musician, however, with his older brother Ron in the Armidale City Band, which was led by their father (a tuba player). Both brothers also played brass instruments (primarily cornet and trumpet).  In 1971 Lane and Osborne joined forces with several members of another De La Salle  band, Purple Haze, to form Shane. That band went on to achieve considerable local success over the next two years, including coming second in two regional heats of the 1972 Hoadley Battle of the Sounds, and competing in the Northern New South Wales regional finals at Newcastle (coming third overall).

In late-1976 Lane joined his older brother Rocky for a year in Scamp before going off to play with another local band, Chainsaw. The Lane brothers also set up their own music store in 1977. Situated centrally in the Armidale Mall, Lane Music Co provided a specialist service for contemporary musicians in Armidale and other nearby centres and further established both brothers as leading industry practitioners during the 1970s and 1980s.

With Shane (Armidale High School dance, 1972)

Source: Clay Djubal (2010) • Brian Moore (interview, Aug. 2010). Image: Photos courtesy of Brian Moore†

RON ‘ROCKY’ LANE

• Bands: Alias ▪ Artisans ▪ Firebirds ▪ Kelsey [above] ▪ Mantra ▪ Scamp

Rocky Lane (L) with Bob Jones in Kelsey

Bass guitar / cornet / trumpet /vocals

Ron Lane, better known as Rocky, started performing as a brass musician with the Armidale City Band, which was for many years run by his father (a tuba player). In the early to mid-1960s Lane co-founded the acoustic folk trio Artisans with Ralph Monley and Greg Goldsmith. The group, which played a mostly folk repertoire, later morphed into one of Armidale’s first electric bands, Firebirds. This was followed in 1970 by the five-piece Mantra, which included Lane’s cousin Garry Osborne on drums. Ralph Monley’s brother, Brian, also joined as keyboardist after Greg Goldsmith left.

In late-1972 Lane, Bob Jones, James Arthur and Brian ‘Lanky’ Moore formed Kelsey, arguably the town’s premiere band during the early to mid-1970s.  Jones and Moore had previously played with Lane’s younger brother Bob in Shane.

After Kelsey disbanded in 1976 the Lane brothers joined forces to form Scamp with Lanky Moore and keyboardist Clive Gregory (formerly a member of the John Grigg Quartet). Scamp remained together for about a year. Rocky then went on to play with Alias, while Bob joined Chainsaw and Brian Moore co-founded Constable Green and Moore.

In 1977 Lane set up Lane Music Co in the Beardy St Mall with his brother. The business quickly established a reputation in Armidale for stocking the latest music equipment and technology, providing the town and nearby centres with a level of service and expertise typically available only in the larger Australian cities.

Source: Brian Moore (interview, Aug. 2010). Images Photos courtesy of Brian Moore.†

DAVE LENNON

• Bands incl. The Allniters ▪ Club Ska ▪ Elsess ▪ The Igniters ▪ The Jumpers ▪ Strange Tenants
  

From the ‘Montego Bay’ video*

Dave Lennon’s first band is believed to have been Elsess, an Armidale high school band which formed ca. 1976. After leaving the town in the late-1970s Lennon joined The Jumpers (1979-1980), possibly the first Australian band to dedicate itself to ska music. He later joined the newly-formed Strange Tennants (previously The Catch), a Melbourne-based ska band formed by Ian and Bruce Hearn. The band played its  debut gig at the 1981 Lygon Street Fiesta and quickly established a popular following in the city. Accorded favourable reviews for the release of its self-titled debut mini album (recorded only weeks after the first gig) Strange Tenants began receiving airplay on alternative radio and soon afterwards started touring nationally.

Lennon left Strange Tenants in 1983 to join The Allniters, a Sydney-based ska band which had already established a formidable live reputation and was a particular favourite at the city’s Sussex Hotel (a centre for the mod scene, and later the ska/bluebeat and dub scene). Lennon’s involvement with the band was luckily during its peak commercial period, which began with the release of “Montego Bay,” a cover of the classic Bobby Bloom song. This was followed by the LP D-D-D-Dance and another single, “Love and Affection.” All three releases went into the Australian Top 40, with ‘Montego Bay reaching #10 (an earlier single, ‘Hold On’ had reached #15 on the Sydney charts). The Allniters released two more singles – “Screaming Dreaming” (1984) and “I Saw You First” (1984) before disbanding in early-1985.

During his career Dave Lennon has played with all the major Australian ska bands, the only musician to have done so. His other affiliations include The Igniters (an Allniters offshoot) and Club Ska.

In 2000 Bantam Books published Lennon’s Rude Boy Train, a first person (gay) sex, drugs and music romp that centres on Connery, a drummer with ska band The Intensifiers. Drawing on his own (and other’s experiences) Lennon takes the reader back to the Australian pub rock era of the early-1980s. As the band bounces between success and failure while constantly touring the country, so too Connery bumbles and stumbles his way through a succession of boyfriends.

• The following video clips by the The Allniters were made while Dave Lennon was in the band: “Montego Bay” (1983) ▪ “Screaming Dreaming” (1984) ▪ and  “I Saw You First” (1984)

• Discography  [pdf]

The Allniters ca. 1984. Dave Lennon (back row, centre)

Source: Australian Rock Database (online) • Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. • ‘Allniters‘ Wikipedia • Boomerang Books.com. Images: Top photo courtesy of The Allniters  • Rude Boy Train image courtesy of Bantam Books • Bottom photo courtesy of www.nostalgiacentral.com] †

have gravity will threaten

† Copyright for this image has either not been ascertained or we have been unable to locate the owner . If you are the copyright owner and want the image removed please contact this website. To see HGWT and the NTMIA’s copyright statement go to the “About the Northern Tablelands Music Industry Archive” page.

Northern Tablelands Music Industry Archive