Geoffrey Stapleton

 

...the LIFe and TiMES...

1954 : I was born in Adelaide, South Australia. Seen here with my sister Jean, circa 1955. 

1969 : I gave up surfing (along with all other sports) and began playing the drums. My brothers, John and Bill, chipped in to buy me the drum kit my parents weren't convinced was a good idea.

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With in 6 months I was in my first band which was called PULSATION. I painted the name of the band on to the bass drum, (and not for the last time). The singer was Drew Cooper, who went on to become a world hang gliding champion.

1970 : I met my future wife, Judith Ladyman.

This is Jude on stage in Melbourne with her band "Sheer Fun" in 1979.

I also helped form a band called "HEAVY RAT" with Dennis Fisher (vocals, harmonica), John Mundy (bass) and Robin Michael (guitar). We played a lot of blues. Dennis played a mean harp for a kid.

HEAVY RAT : l-r Robin Michael, John Mundy, Dennis Fisher and Geoffrey Stapleton.

1971 : While still at high school, I was the drummer in  'CAPTAIN THUNDER'. We signed to the "Raven" label and recorded a single called "Blind Man's Greed" at  Nationwide Studios in Hindley Street, Adelaide. It went to number 23 on the local charts.

L-R. Geoffrey Stapleton - (drums), Rodney Gunner- (vocal), Robin Michael- (guitar) and Michael (Mick) Kaploon- (bass).

We played at venues such as "Headquaters", "Sgt.Peppers", "The Scene". We also appeared on the local ABC rock show Solid Air, hosted by Chris Bailey and helped save the old bank in King William St., Adelaide from demolition by performing on the steps!

1972 : I helped invent clever, theatrical, progressive glam rock band, OVA. I was both drummer and glockenspeilist.

L-R Stephen Davey, Geoffrey Stapleton, Kevin Govet, Greg Webster, Edward "Ted" Skewes.

This was an article by Mike Safe, in his collum, "On The Pop Scene" , Adelaide Sunday Mail. Mike only had good things to say so we called his collum Mike, "Safe On The Pop Scene".

1973 : OVA shared management (Spirit-Sphere Progressive Management) with two other band, Iron Knob and Cold Chisel. Of the three bands, Cold Chisel was considered least likely to succeed. My comrade in arms for decades in GANGgajang, Mr. Robert Nelson James, was in Iron Knob. Ray Hearn was our manager.

OVA rehearsed for a year at the "Ginger Workshop" in Arthur St. Unley, South Australia. We devised two forty five minute "conceptual" shows with choreographed dance steps and long song sequences with many unusual timing signatures.

1974 : OVA performs for the first time to packed shows at the Tivoli in Adelaide and then performs impressively at the Music Festival, Sunbury '75, in Victoria. OVA reluctantly puts together a show with less "theatre" and more "conventional" songs in an effort to get more work, but in the process, loses the spark.

1975 : By this time Danny Johnson (vocals), Greg Webster (guitar), Grant Wills (bass) and I were all living and rehearsing together in a very nice house in the exclusive Adelaide foothills suburb of Lynton. Along with Grant Lang (keyboards), we put together a pop/funk/dance band and called it GOLD. After the "seriousness" of OVA, it was a fun release.

1976 : We won the 5KA Life Expo Battle of the Bands. The Adelaide Sunday Mail said in 1976 , "The best way for a group to make a name for itself is to beat the rest - and that's just what GOLD did."

The win brought with it a lot of work at places like "The Arkaba" and "Countdown", but it soon became more of a job than a quest. This was the last band I played drums in so I was feeling ready for a change.

L-R Greg Webster, Danny Johnson, Geoffrey Stapleton, Grant Lang, Grant Wills

Greg introduced the first "punk" music into the house. It happened to coincide with me putting the drums aside and picking up the guitar. Gold morphed into a tougher punk influenced band called Riff-Raff. 

1977 : We ran our own residency at the Seacliff Hotel. My sister Dawn, who collected the door money, later went on to co-write L.O.V.E. on THE ALIENS Translator album. She is also the mum of JJ Peters from I KILLED THE PROM QUEEN and later DEEZ NUTS, and Rik Peters and Aaron Peters from THE SEARCH PARTY. We wrote more songs and talked about leaving Adelaide.

1978 : Danny Johnson and I moved to Melbourne where we stayed with Ash Wedneday in a Carlton flat. He was in the band, JAB, who had just signed to the "Suicide" label along with Nick Cave's Boys Next Door. Danny and I worked at the Pancake Parlour as singing waiters while we formed the power pop band, THE ALIENS.

1979 : We signed to Mushroom Records. Ross Gardiner's collum in THE HERALD 4-7-79 said it all...

l-r : Michael Gudinski, Robert Grosser, Greg Webster, Michelle Higgins (P.R. person), Danny Johnson and Geoffrey Stapleton.

Our first single was a song I'd written called 'Confrontation'. It was produced by Charles Fisher who went on to become Australia's most successful producer.  It was a minor hit.

THE ALIENS toured nationally with The Police, then with UK Squeeze (with Jools Holland).

1980 : We released THE ALIENS album Translator, produced and engineered by whizz kid Englishman, David Tickle, and the single Follow that Girl. We toured Australia constantly and usually by broken down old car. We did TV shows such as Countdown, Nightmoves, Sounds, and Hey Hey It's Saturday.

I moved to Sydney as THE ALIENS made various line up changes. Encouraged by sculptor John Ladyman, I did my first acrylic on canvas painting. I did an underwater scene and really enjoyed it.

1981 : By this time, I was the only original ALIENS member. Pierre Baroni, who went on to become an award winning designer, photographer, graphic artist and host of the coolest radio show ever, joined the group with a swag full of great songs and we started Planet X records. We released an ALIENS single called  "I Don't Care" that I sang lead vocal on, (backed with Pierre's "Over My Head") and we performed it on Countdown, introduced by James Reyne.

In make up on the Countdown set with James Reyne from Australian Crawl.

Suspecting my career in music may be over, I distracted myself by drawing cartoons.

1982 : To my astonishment, my first cartoons were published in PLAYBOY Magazine. This gave me the confidence to do more drawing and painting.

As a way of coming at the music from another angle, I opened Kings Lane Recording Studio in Darlinghurst, Sydney, and bumbled my way into becoming a sound engineer. Backed by architect/musician Gary Kurzer, it ran for the next seven years and went on to record GANGgajang, Peter Blakely, Concrete Blonde, Wendy Matthews, Sean Kelly, and many more. Brian Hall and Chris Betro became partners toward the end. It was managed at various times by Ian Amos and Jeffrey Cook.

1983 : I had been bumping into Chris Bailey through out my musical career, but I didn't actually know him. We even found ourselves living opposite each other on New South Head Road, Double Bay in Sydney. I only got to really, officially know him when, Viola Dana , his band with Peter Blakely and Mal Green, were the first group to book my brand new "Kings Lane Studios." (they came out with headaches and nausea because the varnish hadn't dried). I became their live sound mixer which I'd never done before, but I really enjoyed it. There was so much space to play with the echoes and FX, and Peter's voice was awesome.

This lead to THE INVISIBLE MEN, a very cool covers band. We did our inimitable versions of songs we thought were "classics" . Because of the group's credentials which included Mal Green (drums) who had recently departed SPLIT ENZ and Chris Bailey (bass and vocal) who had recently left THE ANGELS, as well as Greg Webster and I from THE ALIENS, we scored some great gigs. They usually took the form of three week stints at places like Moolooloba on the Sunshine Coast. But even in an idyllic situation like that, dramas can occur.

It did give me the opportunity for some sustained and uninterrupted drawing, and I found myself becoming quite obsessed. I was working  mainly with high-tech texta colours.

I also did a number of theatre posters.

1984 : It was a busy year. I began performing with THE ROCKMELONS, playing keyboards and percussion.

Also, Peter Blakely, along with Paul Abrahams and I formed a rockabilly band called Rat Tat Tat. I played the bass guitar, and a small electronic foot pedal that triggered a bass drum sound. Paul Abrahams (formerly of THE REELS), played snare and hi-hat. There was a very hip rockabilly renaissance happening in town and we had a regular Friday night gig at the "King Arthurs Court" hotel on Williams Street in Kings Cross, Sydney.

L-R Peter Blakely, Geoffrey Stapleton and Paul Abrahams (artwork - R. Stone)

Later that year, through my connection with Chris Bailey , GANGgajang booked my studio and I sat in on some songs playing keyboards. Next thing, I had joined the band. The first single Gimme Some Lovin' was very well received. Our first show in public made the 6.00pm Channel 7 news.   

1985 : The first GANGgajang album was released and it went Gold. Three more singles, House of Cards, Giver of Life, Sounds of Then (This is Australia). We also worked on music for the seminal surf  movie Mad Wax.

I painted more theatre posters, and signed a song publishing deal with MCA/ UNIVERSAL

1986 : We toured extensively with GANGgajang, living perhaps just a tad beyond our means. Neil Wright was our tour manager. He was a great tour manager was present when GANGgajang was invited to Kirribilli House for drinks with the Prime Minister Bob Hawke, We had performed at his Priority One concert, and this was his way of saying thanks.

Amazingly, I also got to work with Marice Jarre. He was creating the soundtrack for the Mad Max movie Beyond Thunderdome and he had me playing pieces of PVC pipe didgeridoo-style. Click here for my Maurice Jarre Anecdote.

I also did the cover art work for the GANGgajang single Initiation.

1987 : GANGgajang's second album gangAGAIN is released.

Jude and Geoff on the set of the "Luck of The Irish" film clip, the second single from the album.

I wrote and sang the first single American Money. The album and single covers were lifted from a series of six large musical paintings I'd recently completed (acrylic on canvas), and was encouraged along the way by our producer Joe Wissert . Joe was a very successful American record producer who had to his credit albums like Boz Scagg's Silk Degrees, and hits like The Turtles "Happy Together".

1988 : Rob James and I joined forces with drummer Jeff "JJ" Harris and formed JJ's WAY. We wrote and recorded an album's worth of songs but after a much anticipated signing to Virgin Records fell through, we disbanded.

Buzz put together a country band that included members of GANGgajang and MENTAL AS ANYTHING and some very hot country players. My contribution to THE STETSON'S album was singing a song I'd written called "All of the Cowboys". It was later used on the movie "Tenterhooks".

As I became even more obsessive with it, my painting time had begun to encroach on my music time.

I appeared as the drummer (miming Ricky Fataar's drumming) in the Ain't That Peculiar film clip with Peter Blakely.

1989 : I had been working with the amazing singer Gyan as far back as 1982 but it was only when she won a national television talent show called "Star Search" that things really came together for her. She signed to Trafalgar Records with legendary producer , Charles Fisher (who had produced THE ALIENS first single). Her song, "Wait", which I had helped her put together, was a hit. I was the guitarist in the "Wait" film clip.

Gyan on the cover of the "Wait" single.

This is also where I met songwriter, musician, writer, arranger, conductor etc. extraordinaire, Mark O'Connor. He had co-written and arranged a large part of Gyan's album. On the some what rocky three month promotional tour that was to follow, we shared a room and looked out for each other's sanity. Mind you, we're not sharing a room now. (Pope's Law).

I was also touring with GANGgajang, and on one occasion, the two tours crossed paths.

1990 : I was asked by one of the nicest guys you could ever meet, Sean Kelly , to join his group Absent Friends. Their record Nobody But You, produced by Gary Beers from INXS and sung by Wendy Matthews, was a big hit when I joined up.

We did a huge tour of Europe as support for INXS, playing 10,000 seat stadiums through Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland and England (including five Wembley Arenas.)

I painted on the bus, often accompanied by Ronnie Francois, the amazing bass player/vocalist/songwriter who had done a lot of art in his younger days. He took it personally if the driver swerved and made his pencil hand slip. I completed about 30 paintings and drawings over the seven weeks.

1991 : Back in Australia, we recorded the Absent Friends Live CD at the Kardomah Cafe in Kings Cross Sydney. I Began writing songs with Sean Kelly, and we formed the band The Dukes.

I reviewed the Guggenheim exhibition at the A.G.N.S.W. for Good Morning Australia with James Valentine.

Wendy Matthews' first solo album  Emigré was a hit. I co-wrote a song for it with Rob James called Square Moon Over Manhattan, inspired by a painting he had recently completed which Kevin Govett had dubbed "Square Moon Over Manhattan."

1992 : The Dukes signed to Sony, and released  the singles, Gonna Get High, Faith, Nothing Can Bring Me Down.

We also released The Dukes - Harbour City album, which I co-wrote and co-produced with Sean Kelly. I did a painting for each song for the album booklet and the art work for all of the cd covers (5).

With the help and support from Neil Wright, I put together my First Solo Exhibition at The Pod gallery at Taylor Square in Sydney. I sold 25 paintings.

At my first exhibition L- R, Sean Kelly, Geoffrey Stapleton, Marjorie Stapleton (artist's mother), Peter Blakely.

1993 : Sean and I produced three songs with The Dukes for the Yahoo Serious movie "Reckless Kelly". Yahoo and Lulu Serious were such inspired and inspiring people to work with.

I had my Second Solo Exhibition at The Pod gallery in Sydney. Sold 28 paintings.

The bidding for the 2000 Olympics obsessed Sydney for a time. The Dukes got to perform "Faith" at Circular Quay to 250,000 people, moments before Sydney was announced as  the host city for the 2000 Olympic Games.

David Jarrett, who was boss of the South Australian Music Industry Association at the time, had been flying me back to Adelaide to give a series of lectures on "surviving in the music business". He talked me into having my Third Solo Exhibition at the Carclew Ballroom in Adelaide. I sold 24 paintings.

1994 : Apart from painting, I spent the early part of the year setting up a song-writing studio on Bondi Road, Bondi Beach with Sean , writing and recording songs.

Just before the birth of our daughter, I had my Fourth  Solo Exhibition. It was a small one this time, at the Hard Lines Gallery in Adelaide. I sold 9 of the 12 paintings I exhibited.

I also began to tour again with GANGgajang.

1995 : GANGgajang had become popular in Brazil and we did our first national tour there, pulling 7,000 people to our first concert in Rio de Janeiro.

I also discovered the "Alligator Man" in the northern Brazilian city of Recife. I painted continuously throughout the tour. A lot of the work would find it's way into the Inside Alligator Man" exhibition of 1998.

1996 : After the success of the first tour, GANGgajang completed another national tour of Brazil and visited Buenos Aires en route. Playing to such big appreciative audiences was a real thrill. I painted all the way. It was very inspiring and I got a lot done.

1997 : There was some touring with GANGgajang but with another exhibition on the way, I painted ceaselessly in the front room of our small flat on New Beach Road Darling Point, overlooking the most beautiful harbour in the world, Sydney Harbour.

I had written some songs with my nephew Kieron Gardiner and we decided to form a multi-media band called THE search PARTY with Cye Wood on violin.

Masque relaxing at home

For THE search PARTY, I adopted the pseudonym of Masque, and wore a large mask.

1998 : In March, I had my Fifth Solo Exhibition, "Inside Alligator Man". It was at the Mary Place Gallery in Paddington, Sydney and was basically set up and promoted by my wife Judith. I sold 42 paintings.

I also body painted singer/songwriter Diana Ah Naid for her film clip for the single See Through.

THE Search PARTY signs to Festival Records, and is labelled  "cyber/garage". Mark O'Connor agreed to get on board and provided the serious musical finesse and muscle the project required.

By now Rik Peters, another nephew, had joined the project, as the deal included the facilities to create our own videos and cd-roms, which was Rik's speciality. His brother Aaron Peters joined the group a little later .

1999 : Rik and I spent months compiling and animating frame by frame THE search PARTY cd-rom, "This Is The Drug" which was finally released. We mixed our album with Jeremy Allom at the old EMI studio at 301 Castlereagh St. Sydney, and shot a video for the next single, "Aloha Baby". Before we had time to edit the clip, we found that a Mr. Murdoch had bought our record company "Festival" and was merging it with "Mushroom". In the process we were cut adrift.

"THE search PARTY" CD-ROM featuring : L-R: Masque, Aaron Peters, Mark O'Connor, Kieron Gardiner, Rik Peters and Cye Wood.

I was selling quite a few paintings privately and at the end of the year we moved back to Adelaide for family reasons.

2000 : Thanks to musician, painter, sculpture Paul Stapleton with some help from Kieron, we set up a painting/music studio in Adelaide.

GANGgajang toured nationally. We began to write and record songs for a new album. We performed at the Sydney Opera House for Corroboree 2000.

Adelaide band Timothy (later to become Fear Of Flying), asked me to co-produce their cd rom Joe Jerry. It went to number one locally (SA Real Charts).

We released a new GANGgajang single called Nomadsland in Perth to test the water. It went to number six. Click here to read the Nomadsland anecdote.

2001 : GANGgajang toured Brazil for the third time, but this time with the legendary Yothu Yindi, Spy Spy and The Chevelles. We performed to 20,000 people on the beach in Rio de Janeiro.

"Nicky Yunupingu, Live in Florianopolis, Brazil 2001" (acrylic on canvas)

I began working on some large paintings as part of an upcoming exhibition to be called Oceans and Deserts, which includes a series of tables designed and shaped by musician/artist/sculptor Paul Stapleton,

There was more work done on the GANGgajang album, and I developed the www.GANGgajang.com website.

2002 : I created the CD booklet and cover artwork for the Oceans and Deserts album which was released toward the end of the year.

The art work and promotional paraphernalia was created using images from the paintings for the upcoming exhibition of the same name.

The band toured extensively.

2003 : Three more tables (a total of nine) were added to the Oceans and Deserts collection, along with three more large paintings .

I spent three months creating the fully animated "Anodyne Dream" film clip for GANGgajang.

Sporadic touring with GANGgajang including the national television broadcast of a live performance in front Parliment house in Canberra.

2004 : When Paul Stapleton, Mark "Cal" Callaghan and Iwere talking on the way back from Leigh Creek in South Australia where we'd shot footage for the "Nomadsland" clip, we discussed an idea for another clip. It was to create a time-lapse film of a painting being painted that animated to the lyric.

To that end, a large portion of the year was spent creating the film clip for GANGgajang's song "TRUST", after filming the band individually against blue screen.

Performed with GANGgajang and completed more paintings for the "Oceans and Deserts" exhibition.

2005: Apart from performing shows with GANGgajang, which surreally included playing to 18,000 chinese visitors at the Olympic Dome, Sydney, most of the year was spent creating a film clip for (what's now become) GANGgajang's iconic anthem "Sounds Of Then" (This Is Australia)".

The latter part of the year was spent editing and assembling "Brazil '95", a fifty minute documentary on the band's first tour of Brazil for the up-coming GANGgajang DVD, which will incude all the clips, anecdotes, TV specials, documentaries and so on from the last 22 years. I've agreed to produce it (gulp!)

2006: After 13 months of sorting, assembling, filming, editing, animating, acting, designing and authoring, I finally finshed putting the last twenty two years of GANGgajang on to a Double DVD - "The Complete GANGgajang".

Arriving (a bit self-consciously) at the Star City Casino on Sydney Harbour in a limousine, GANGgajang performed live to 1.54 million people on channel 7's television spectacular, "50 Years Of Television".

GANGgajang recorded "Surfin' Round The World" at Freshwater Beach (first surfing beach in Australia) for David Minear, Mick Wordley and Kerryn Tolhurst's Australian surf album/dvd "Delightful Rain" which screened on the A.B.C.

Completed another 12 paintings for the "Oceans and Deserts" exhibition and wrote a number of songs including "Give The People What They Want" which was recorded by Robert James, JJ Harris with Frank “K-Meister” Kerestedjian and Al Mitchel as JJ's WAY.

2007: With Buzz and fellow GANGgajangers, began performing with National Living Treasure, Mr. Jimmy Little, doing very worth while shows for people like The Fred Hollows Foundation and Diabetes Australia.

It was a year of contrasts. We went from giving workshops to indigenous children in the remote western desert community of Kintore to playing in the great hall of Parliament House in Canberra.

Me, AKA "Casper The Friedly Ghost" painting with the inspiring western desert kids.

With Danny Johnson, wrote, an "in-house" song for the Australian Labor Party called "The Light On The Hill". Beautifully sung by Kat Kraus, Julia Gillard's comments on hearing it were, " Ms Kraus has done an amaing job of vocalising your work".

The plan was that it would inspire them to victory in 2007...and it worked!

Continued to work hard on the "Oceans and Deserts" exhibition.

For me it was also the year of YouTube and broadband. The first animated clip I posted was a cartoon I made called "The Drum Lesson". By the year's end, I had sixteen videos I'd made, on my channel.