Artists/Bands [D-E]

NB: If an individual’s Christian or surname is currently unknown this is indicated by an asterisk placed between brackets [*].

DA KABOODLE

(ca. 1983-1984)

  • Personnel: Chris Green (guitars/bass/vocals ) ▪ Richard Rummery (keyboards/bass/guitars/vocals)
  • Also associated with the group: Jeff Stone (bass)

Da Kaboodle was essentially a writing and recording collaboration between Chris Green and Richard Rummery that coincided with their association with Shooting School and in the immediate period following that band’s disintegration. Da Kaboodle never played live. Both Rummery and Green were signed to the publishing company Castle Music and used their contract money to produce a number of songs. Rummery recalls, however, that while he had been approached with an offer to become a staff writer for Castle, he turned down the offer preferring not to “sell out.” He further writes: “Our plan was to write a bunch of songs and be a studio duo act (we’ve got the lot! was our motto). But we were being experimental too, and not so much trying to write formula songs for the publishing company. We were lucky to [eventually] get out of the deal.”

All the songs were written in the Castle Music studio. These include “So Hot,” “Ring Jehovah,” “Back to You” and “More Than You Know.” The latter two were later re-recorded in a Darlinghurst (Sydney) studio owned by GANGgajang’s keyboardist Geoff Stapleton. For these sessions Green and Rummery brought in former Shooting School bassist Jeff Stone. Rummery notes that the while the demo songs “are not polished songs by any means, some [do] show potential.

Source: Richard Rummery (correspondence, Nov. 2010).

DINOSAURS FROM CHINA

(1983 – ca. 1984)

A rock/pop band comprising students from the University of New England, Dinosaurs from China was largely based in Armidale. One of the band’s more significant shows was the 3 Bands for $3 concert put on at Wright College, The University of New England in 1983 by S.T.D. Music Hire and Promotions. The other bands were headline act Shoot the DJ and The Zip.

Source: Clay Djubal (2009).

DIRTY DAN

aka Darrell Mitchell

Drums

A competent drummer, if somewhat erratic at times, Darrell Mitchell was well-known within the Armidale/Uralla music scene, and as Dirty Dan established a reputation as one of the real characters of the local industry. Originally from Geelong (Victoria), his parents moved to the Uralla/Rocky River district in the 1960s. It is believed that he first began playing drums sometime during the early to mid-1970s.

Between 1975 and 1979 Dan lived a commune-style existence at the Old Rockvale Pub, and as a drummer played a pivotal part in the jams and musical happenings that occurred there on a frequent basis during that time. In 1978 one or more members of Armidale punk band The Inmates also lived at the ‘Pub.’ Dan was later a member of Doll Q (which included Inmates’ guitarist Preston Stahlut). He is also remembered for appearing with Crash Landing at one of its Puddledock Hall gigs (1982), and filling in for Ian Mitchell in 1983 when the young Shoot the DJ drummer was in the middle of his Higher School Certificate (HSC) exams. Dan’s association with Crash Landing is recorded in the second verse of the band’s song “Keeping Beat.”

From the early-1980s Dan lived a largely hermit-like existence, first out at Rocky River where he lived in a caravan for many years. He later moved to the Kingstown district, some 40-50 west of Uralla where he lived on 40 acres near the Macdonald River.

– Source: Jon Anderson (telephone interview, Apr. 2010) • Clay Djubal (2010).
– A recording of “Keeping Beat” can be heard via the Crash Landing entry.

CLAY DJUBAL

(1959 – ) aka Rod Clay

Bass guitar/guitar/keyboards/drums/vocals/songwriter/set designer/librettist.

The great-great-great nephew of Harry Clay, one of Australia’s leading vaudeville entrepreneurs of the early-twentieth century, Clay Djubal was born Rodney Clay in Griffith, New South Wales. He later lived in Sydney before moving to Armidale in 1972 with his parents and siblings. While a junior high school student at Armidale High School he and several schoolmates formed an unnamed group and in 1976 he joined his first “real” band, Blue Max as its drummer. Clay left school that same year before completing his High School Certificate and spent the next twenty years alternating between travel, hospitality work (as a cook) and as a semi-professional musician and business owner. His travels included a 12 months round-Australia hitchhiking odyssey (1977-78) and several trips through Indonesia.  He also spent a stint in the Australian Army.

Clay’s formative music career in the late-1970s saw him co-found the Armidale-based hippy punk bands Health Club (1978) and Vice Squad (1979) before moving to Sydney where he joined former band mates Dick Rummery (Health Club) and David Morris, (Health Club/Vice Squad) in forming a short-lived band called The Astros (1979-1980). Their drummer Matt Hirst, is younger brother of Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst.

At an Astros’ rehearsal †

After a short break from music and cooking (during which time he trained to become an artillery gunner), Clay returned to Armidale. With Doiran James he formed Crash Landing (1982), and the following year he co-founded Shoot the DJ with Jon Anderson (ex-Crash Landing). In these two bands he was the principal songwriter and lead singer, as well was stage designer. 1983 also saw him establish S.T.D. Music, Hire and Promotion, as well as undertake his change of name. A creative collaboration with poet Jo-ann Simmons began shortly after the founding of Shoot the DJ. Simmons, who contributed with both lyrics and design, had joined the originally as sound and lighting operator. The pair married in early-1984.

An early Shoot the DJ gig

Following the disbanding of the first Shoot the DJ line-up in early-1984 the Djubals moved to Sydney and conceived the idea of the creative collective that became known as Some Trippin’ Diggers . It was put on hold briefly when they reformed Shoot the DJ for a Northern New South Wales tour.  In 1987 the couple returned to Armidale, via a Gold Coast detour where Clay worked briefly as second chef at Jo’s Jo’s on the Southport Broadwater. In Armidale Clay delayed his university studies to set up Clayz Kitchen, a cafe specialising in international and vegetarian cuisines. He and Jo actively promoted local poets, artists, musicians/singers and assorted performers, and the cafe also became the regular host for University of New England’s film society (Duck Soup) and various drama societies.

Mackay ca. 1989

When Clay’s Kitchen folded in late-1988 it also brought about the end of Djubals’ marriage. Jo soon afterwards moved to Sydney and Darwin before eventually settling in North Queensland. Clay moved to Brisbane (as the chef at the Alderley Arms Hotel). He also later found himself briefly in Mackay, North Queensland as the Head Chef of the Australian Hotel and as bass player/singer in the covers band Three Blind Mice (while also moonlighting as a solo entertainer). A return to Brisbane in 1991, saw him take up his old position at the Alderley Arms. The following year he retired from cooking to complete his senior high school certificate (Hendra Senior Secondary College).

Three Blind Mice (Hotel Mackay 1989)

In 1993 Clay enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Queensland, majoring in English and Drama. While a student he also continued to write and record with his musical collective, Some Trippin’ Diggers, and perform as a solo entertainer. As composer/music director Clay also worked on the theatre productions Marvellous Melbourne (1994), The Suicide (1994), Translations (1995) and Manfred (1996, as co-writer). A soundtrack recording of Marvellous Melbourne was released in 1994 on cassette, with digital version (CD) available from 2008. In addition to taking on acting roles in the previous productions he has appeared in a 1997 Brisbane production of Michael Weller’s drama Cancer. In April 1998 Clay had his rock musical The Last Word staged at the Cement Box Theatre and later that same year collaborated on a musical adaptation of J.M. Barry’s Dear Brutus with Brisbane composer Simon Chan.  The work was given a try-out at the Brisbane Inns of Court in 1999.

During his time as an undergraduate Clay was also associated with both the English Students Society (ESS) and AARK TV. With the ESS he organised film nights, acquiring classic Australian films and international art house works from the National Library of Australia. The AARK project (1996) was conceived and managed by undergraduate student (and executive producer) Amy Lee with financial and logistical supported from The University of Queensland. AARK’s objective was to provide opportunities to emerging local filmmakers and creative artists by producing multi-media events and eventually broadcasting a series of programs called Spark for community television station Briz 31. Additional financial support was given by telecommunications company Optus (which later broadcast the series on Optus Vision). Clay was the host for the project’s Bright Sparks awards night on 8 December 1996. Although he remained musically active up until 1999, his academic and research pursuits eventually took centre stage. Clay’s final engagement as a member of a musical outfit was with The Last Word Band. During the shows he also sang the opening and closing numbers.

The Last Word Band (1998) Cement Box Theatre, Brisbane

Clay graduated with a BA Honours First Class in 1997, with his thesis titled “Strategies of Subversion: An Examination of Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters and its Appropriation of Sonata Form.” He then undertook a postgraduate program, with the focus being research into the life and career of his famous uncle. For his thesis, “Harry Clay and Clay’s Vaudeville Company – 1865-1926: An Historical and Critical Survey,” he was awarded a Master of Arts degree in 1998. Some of his findings were subsequently included in the George Wallace documentary Funny by George (ABC-TV, 2000). In 2005 Clay was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy  for his dissertation, “What Oh Tonight: The Methodology Factor and Pre-1930s Australian Variety Theatre.” The thesis examines the problems facing historians using the traditional methodological approach to mapping Australian popular culture entertainment history and proposes an alternative and ultimately more successful means of undertaking this task.

Clay’s academic saw him employed as a tutor, lecturer and course convener at The University of Queensland in the fields of popular music, media and popular culture (2001-06). He developed and convened two new courses for the University’s School of Music (“The Musical: History, Theory and Practice” and “Beyond Rock: Music in the Digital Age”), and convened “Music Subcultures and the Media” (jointly run by the School of Music and the School of English, Media Studies and Art History). He has also lectured in Entertainment Business Management for the JMC Academy (Brisbane) and guest lectured at the Queensland University of Technology (Drama). His academic publications in the area of early-Australian popular theatre have been published both in Australia and internationally.

Between 2006 and 2017 Clay was employed as a senior researcher with AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (based at The University of Queensland), and in 2009 founded Have Gravity Will Threaten out of the ashes of S.T.D Music Hire and Promotions. It began publishing the Northern Tablelands Music Industry Archive that same year, and in 2011 made the Australian Variety Theatre Archive publically available. Since 2017 Clay has been employed by the Federal Government (Department of Finance), initially in Brisbane and since 2022 in Canberra. He continues to publish both the Australian Variety Theatre Archive and the Northern Tablelands Music Industry Archive when not cycling around the Canberra suburbs. A new website: Clay’s Cycling Canberra Project: Every Street and Road in Every Suburb will be published shortly.

  • Expanded Biography [coming soon]

Simon Chan & Clay Djubal. “Only in My Dreams.” (1998) [music/words: Simon Chan; additional words: Clay Djubal]

  • A demo recording for the musical Dear Brutus (1998) by Simon Chan and Clay Djubal. Piano by Simon Chan. Written for several characters, all voices in this demo are by Clay Djubal.

Some Trippin’ Diggers. “Play to Win.” (1994) [words/music: Clay Djubal] 

  • All voices and instruments by Clay Djubal, except for extracts from  coverage of the 2nd Test Match of the 1990 Kangaroos tour of Great Britain (Old Trafford). The 10 Network commentary team included Graeme Hughes, David Morrow and Wally Lewis. Thanks to Ricky Stewart for the inspiration.

Some Trippin’ Diggers. “Summer of Change.” (1994) [words/music: Clay Djubal]

  • All voices and instruments by Clay Djubal. Demo for a self-written UQ Drama Department assessment piece based on Ray Lawler’s play, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll.

Some Trippin’ Diggers. “Miss You.” (1998) [words/music: Clay Djubal] 

  • All voices and instruments by Clay Djubal.

Some Trippin’ Diggers.  “Lingua Franca Love.” (1995) [words/music: Clay Djubal]

  • Flute: Alicia Whisson. All other instruments and voices by Clay Djubal. Demo for The University of Queensland Drama Department’s production of Brian Friel’s play, Translations.

Captains of Industry. “Setting the Pace.” [2] (1983) [words/music by Peter Mitchell]

Crash Landing. “Seventy Mann.” (1982) [words/music: Rod Clay]

  • Voice/guitar/keyboards by Rod Clay; guitar/keyboards by Dorian James. Written in 1978, this is one of Clay’s earliest compositions.
– Sources: Abstract derived from AustLit: The Australian Literature Resource (2009) – online • Clay Djubal (2010/2023). Images: Photos courtesy of Clay Djubal.
– All five songs above © Copyright Clay Djubal 1978, 1994, 1995, 1998.

EDGE

(ca. 1975-1977)

One of numerous high school bands to form in Armidale during the mid-late 1970s, Edge was arguably the bench-mark for aspiring local teenage musicians, boasting as it did the particularly advanced musical prowess of Chris Green (lead guitar) and Cliff Grigg (drums). As with most other high school bands Edge disbanded after the members finished Year 12 (6th Form back then!), with Green going on to join Constable Green and Moore, and Cliff Grigg moving to Sydney where he later co-founded v Spy v Spy.

A later line-up (ca. 1977) included Simon Morgan and Dick Rummery (who had previously played together in Blue Max).

– Sources: Clay Djubal (2009) • Richard Rummery (correspondence, 2009).

ELSESS

(ca. 1976-1978)

Formed ca. 1976 by students at Armidale High School, Elsess was one of a number of school-based bands which emerged out of Armidale in the mid to late-1970s, including Edge [above] and Blue Max. David Lennon went on to become a member of several prominent Australian ska bands, notably Strange Tenants and the Allniters. Jon Anderson later played in several Armidale-based bands, including Crash Landing, Shoot the DJ, Helga and the Blitzkrieg, and It’s Not Us, while Bruce Jones and Peter Kerr were both members of Kordz in the mid-1980s.

Sources: Jon Anderson (correspondence, 2009) • Clay Djubal (2009).

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