Many years ago, I was between bands, not a happy place for me. At the time I was working for the Australian Government, and a proud union member. One day there was a major industrial issue, resulting in a mass meeting at Melbourne Town Hall. The details of the meeting are lost to me, but as I was shuffling out a young fresh-faced bloke pushed through to join me. Glenn O’Neill, lead singer of local indiepop darlings Captain Cocoa.
Glenn had heard that I played trumpet – no idea how, as my horn playing had never strayed outside my Hawthorn loungeroom – and told me that their very capable trumpeter, Leon deBruin, had run away with the circus. Like, literally; he was now touring with an international circus. That left Captain Cocoa in an awkward spot, as they were about to release their debut album, “Kite” on Cleopatra Records.
I had grave doubts about my ability to fill Leon’s shoes, as I simply wasn’t that good! But I agreed to go along and try out – vaguely aware that there was no one else vying for the role.
The next few weeks were a whirlwind of learning the songs and practicing my horn. Not only that; I found myself playing keys, guitar and also singing backing vocal parts. It was a lot.
As I recall, my first gig was the album launch at a venue in Grenville St Prahran. Very anxious about my performance but I made it through, notwithstanding one excruciating solo. People were so kind though!
After that I settled into my Captain Cocoa role and had a great time with a bunch of excellent but often slightly weird blokes. We recorded some brilliant (to my thinking) singles, of which I’ll say more another day.
The point of this post however is being in the right place at the right time. That fateful union meeting led me to Captain Cocoa, which saw me do my first real solo gig as a support act, and in turn brought me to The Sugargliders. Soon I had solo tracks on compilations like Mind The Gap and Red Roses For Me. When The Sugargliders wrapped up, I was a founding member of The Steinbecks … and so on it went.
One thing always led to another, and my only real regret is that on some occasions I was tentative rather than stepping forward. Feet of clay, I guess. But overall I count myself tremendously lucky to have fallen in with good people quite by accident, just by being in the right place at the right time.