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Geoffrey
Stapleton
...the
LIFe
and TiMES...
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1954
: I was born in Adelaide, South Australia.
Seen
here with my sister Jean, circa 1955.
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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.
.
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.
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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.
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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!
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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".
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
In
make up on the Countdown set with James Reyne from Australian Crawl.
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.
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1981
: By
this time, I was the only original ALIENS member.
Pierre
Baroni, who went on to become an award winning designer, photographer
and graphic artist, 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".
Suspecting
my career in music may be over, I distracted myself by drawing cartoons.
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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 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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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 Maurice
Jarre, playing didgeridoo on the movie Beyond Thunderdome.
I also did
the cover art work for the
GANGgajang single Initiation.
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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 Joe Wissert, our producer.
Joe Wissert was a very successful American producer, who had to
his credit albums like Boz Scagg's Silk Degrees, and Summer in The
City.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 I had
recently completed which Kevin
Govett had dubbed "Square
Moon Over Manhattan."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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 .
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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".
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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 "Delightful Rain".
Completed
another 12 paintings for the "Oceans and Deserts" exhibition
and wrote a number of songs including "The Light On The Hill"
and "Give The People What They Want"
2007:
GANGgajang
gave a series of music/songwriting/art workshops in the remote indigenous
community of Kintore in the Western Desert. This is the place where
dot pictures were first transferred from the desert sand to canvas.
Casper
the friendly ghost (me) with the brilliant kids from Kintore.
In
stark contrast a few weeks later, we performed at The Great Hall
in Parliament House, Canberra. We also backed national living treasure
Mr. Jimmy Little to a standing ovation from the Fred Hollows Foundation
Benefit in Brisbane.
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