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Do you remember the Easybeats?
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GinaKate
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 9:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I remember going to 'The Bowl' to see Normie Rowe and Marty Rhone once, it was quite a claustrophobic experience and so I never went back.

Now Phil Higgins, that is a memory jogger, I worked in the PMG Department in Martin Place, if I remember correctly, Phil worked there too, I think he used to bring the internal mail around to all our sections.
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Hollander
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 1:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi GinaKate,

Yes, I think that's the Phil Higgins I knew. Phil left school early and joined the PMG when he was about 16. We sort of lost track of him not long after that because he met the girl that he eventually married. I think her name was Anita. Could he still be with the Post Office I wonder?

Yes, places like The Bowl were pretty claustrophobic, packed to the rafters and everybody smoked. Beatlevillage and Rhubarbs were a lot worse. At least the Bowl had the semblance of a night club. Beatlevillage was a bare basement in Oxford St at Taylor Sq. Many of the regulars at these clubs were migrant kids as were many of the pop stars of the day (Marty Rhone was Dutch as well).

I see from some of your other posts that you arrived in Australia about a month after me (end of '64) and I gather that we're roughly the same age. We arrived at East Hills within weeks of one another! And you would have been at Dundas at the same time as my shipmates Mick and Keith Harrington (also our age). Did you cross paths with them at all?

Cheers
Ed Jonker
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GinaKate
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 11:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Seem to be having problems posting
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GinaKate
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK that worked, I'll try again

Yes Ed we were on Dundas Hostel with the Harringtons, Keith in particular, Mick and his girlfriend mostly wanted to be by themselves. Must have been Barbara Brown, although I thought her name was Elizabeth for some reason, Scottish girl if I remember rightly.
The Harringtons left the hostel after a few months, I think they went out Toongabbie way. Barbara went with them after a bit of drama, apparently they wanted to get married but her mother was opposed because she was only seventeen, anyway, she left with them and they did get married.
Keith and his girlfriend Sally Anne came back to the hostel for parties etc. from time to time but eventually faded away.
I daresay if we sit on this site long enough one of them will show up and tell us their story.
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GinaKate
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Phil Higgins left 'records department' I don't know whether he resigned or transferred out, back in those days the boys were expected to start off in the internal mail sorting and gradually work their way up the clerical ladder. There was a tragedy with his sister, died in an accident or suicide, it was an awful time I remember that much, anyway he disappeared a couple of months after that.
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GinaKate
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rhubarbs was another place I went once only. after that we stayed with Parramatta, we used to go to the Rivoli, The Allusions played there, a bit more roomy, and at nine o clock they had a barn dance, it didn't quite fit in with the whole 'pop explosion' but it was a good way of meeting everyone and I loved it.
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Hollander
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 1:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, his sister Pam, who was married to Harry of the Easybeats, died just as the band was preparing to go to England. Her death was reported as a suicide, but I believe it was a tragic accident. This was '66 or '67. The last time I saw Phil was in 1970, when he dropped round my place in Liverpool, to show me his new motorbike. I'm pretty sure he was still working at the PMG and living at the naval estate then.

Rhubarbs was pretty notorious. Someone was killed outside by a sharpie (remember them?) who had jumped on his head!!!! It was probably wise to stay with Parramatta. I remember the Allusions very well ('Gypsy Woman', 'The Dancer'). Myself, I stayed with the City scene. After 'Rhubarbs', 'Beethovens' became the next 'in' place. This was upstairs behind 'Checkers', on the corner of Castlereagh and Goulburn streets. As I might have mentioned before, a large proportion of the crowd that went to these places were migrants. In fact, by '68/'69, there was one exclusively for Brits. That was 'The Union Jack', off Oxford St behind the Burdekin Hotel (near the park). By then I was so much a de facto Pom Very Happy , that I was always allowed in.

Fantastic that you knew the Harringtons!!! I virtually learned to speak English from that family. I spent more time with them than with my own. I played many a card game in one of the ship's lounges with Mick and Keith and their parents. And whenever we dropped anchor, Mick, Keith and I together with one or two others, would roam the port. I have a photo of our little group taken in Port Said. I'll find out how to put it up on the forum.

I don't think Barbara would have been the girl with Mick. I ran in to Barbara once in the aforementioned 'Union Jack' in about 1968. We were both wondering what had happened to them. She herself was engaged to a Scottish guy. I'm not too far from Toongabbie these days so I'll see what I can find out.

Cheers
Ed
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Hollander
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Here is the photo I promised. It was taken in Port Said in October 1964. Apart from the friendly local at the back, we were all passengers on the Aurelia.



Mick Harrington is second from the left. His brother Keith is the one lying back, second from the right. I'm the ugly one on the far right.

The fellow with the sailors cap is an Australian called Danny and he lived in Panania (Sydney). The boy lying back in the dark shirt and pants in the middle of the picture is Ron from Collaroy Plateau (Sydney) and the intelligent looking chap, up on his knees behind Ron, was one of a group that disembarked in Fremantle, to trek overland to Brisbane. Hope they made it.

I know this is getting off The Easybeats topic a bit, but I don't know where else to put without breaking the thread.

Ed
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GinaKate
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, that's the Keith I remember, always layed back. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of my own, I have to gather my memories by looking at all the photos everyone else has generously shared on this site.

And I think we all remember the 'Sharpies' they were a vicious mob. They would hang around Town Hall Station looking for mods or hippies to accost, even though they were greatly outnumbered by the mods and hippies that didn't seem to deter them one bit.
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stormfour stormfour has been starred
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

yeah and they all seemed to be little,maybe that is why they were always so vicious,they had the ankle biters syndrome Mr. Green
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Carol Myers Altona Hostel Dec 1962 - June 1964
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Hollander
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, they were vicious and little. I remember going to the Trocadero in 1967, for the final of that year's Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds. The Twilights won it. It was a fun afternoon, spoilt only by the scuffles that were started by these little ratbags and their umbrellas.

Town Hall station on Friday/Saturday nights were a real experience. As GinaKate said, that's where they used to hang out, especially around midnight when the last trains to the suburbs were leaving. Heaven forbid if you missed your last train. Happened to me once and in desperation I caught the Parramatta train which left later than the last train to Liverpool (my train). Ended up at Granville station at 1.00 am and it was full of other desperados, drunks and yobbos who'd also missed their transport home. I ended up walking from Granville to Liverpool! I was out on my feet when I arrived home and my father was just leaving for work. Mad
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stormfour stormfour has been starred
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 9:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My husband was in The Battle Of The Sounds with the" Chelsea Set",I think they were battling it out to be support artists for the Rolling Stones,gees Mick was pissed off when they didnt win but he always thought at the time that it was rigged as one of the members of the Twilights was sleeping with the right person..( Rolling Eyes ) but I think that was just sour grapes.
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Hollander
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 12:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I hadn't heard of "The Chelsea Set". Were they a Melbourne band?

(btw Molly Meldrum wasn't one of the judges was he? wink )
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aussietrekker aussietrekker has been starred
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So the Casting Couch was alive and well even then...

Poor old Molly, I saw him at the footy one day and he looked so pathetic.
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stormfour stormfour has been starred
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:27 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes he was one of the judges actually ,he is always at the Melbourne Storm games,pissed as a fart,he is just an old soak,but I believe these days he is on the wagon..thats unless he dies of aids in the meantime.I cant stand the old queen.He sits in the corporate seats at the games,drinking all the free booze and then waves at the crowd,who he thinks are waving back,but he doesnt even realise that they are all taking the piss,what a w*#*er.
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