Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
What's Wilbur Wilde up to? Let's find out ..... OR which Aussie saxophonist looks great in high heels and fishnets?
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
Today we speak with Wilbur Wilde who by his own admission, falls asleep during his bio - it's that long!!
This is a podcast of two parts, in the first half hear Wilbur chat about his legendary career, come back and listen to the second half where he talks about his family life, how proud he is of each of his children, and how he's giving back in a really special way.
What's Wilbur up to at the moment? Let's find out .....
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
You're with Shirley, that radio chick. Welcome to the Still Rocking it podcast, where we'll have reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. Today we speak to Nicholas Robert Aitken, 65 year old Australian tenor saxophonist, who is still performing. Not just a saxophonist, though he is a TV personality, radio presenter, dual-mactor theatre performer. In fact, his bio is so long he himself says he falls asleep halfway through. Apart from playing with bands old 55 and JoJo's Eppin Falcons, amongst others, he has also performed with some of the biggest names in the music industry, including Skyhook's Elvis Costello, tom Jones, split Ends, roy Orbison, cold Chisel, yay Diestrarchs, the Angels another one of my favourites Dragon and James Rain.
Speaker 1:Numerous TV appearances include Flying Doctors, the Paul Hogan Show, blankety Blank, sale of the Century, getaway, prisoner, spicks and Specs. I can't even list them all. And there's a huge list of movie credits also including Mad Max Worked at who it is. Yet we're going to talk to this legend right after this old 55 hit on the prowl. Let me introduce you to one Wilbur Wild Back live. Thank you so much for joining us today. We were lucky enough to see Wilbur and his old friend Frankie J at the.
Speaker 1:Bridgeway here in Adelaide last weekend. How good was that. We loved it as the audience. I bet you loved it.
Speaker 2:Oh, the gig was great. For us. Cheryl Lee, frankie and I had not worked together since the 9th of March 2020, which, of course, was just before everything hit the fan. We'd been down to Tasmania and back on that day. We flew down the morning from Melbourne. Frank lives in Merimbula these days, so he sort of commutes. He runs a caravan park there with his wife. It's all still doable. He jumps on a plane to Melbourne. We fly to Tassie. We played the gig Same with last weekend at the Bridgeway in Paraca. We were knocked out. I'll tell you. We were knocked out by the crowd. We came over at about five o'clock and did a sound check and then we had something to eat. So we're going back to the motel just to throw our frocks on at about 6.30. People queuing up out the front. We go. What's going on here? They're queuing up. There's about 200 people waiting to get in. We're thinking we're going to have a cracker of a night, and we did. It was just mighty.
Speaker 1:I was one of the people in that line. It almost went back to Bridge Road, like the old days when I used to go to the Bridgeway. When I was up for I was actually allowed to go. You guys put on an awesome show.
Speaker 2:Looking around, everybody was having an absolute ball, frank hadn't done a gig in 13 months and nine days. But I tell you it was just fantastic. And I mean I've been doing gigs like the band that was over there, Pip Joyce, Freddy Strokes from Skyhooks and Paul Gadsby, our rhythm section. We've been playing some private parties and a couple of clubs over here, so there's green shoots appearing as far as gigs for us and other musicians go. But Frank just stepped up, fresh up from a spell. I tell you we laughed and look, we've said for a long time Cheryl Lee, it's just not enough to just do the songs, you have to entertain, and that's what we love doing. And we had so many laughs and everybody was in on them.
Speaker 1:It was actually really obvious to us that you guys have been friends for clearly a long time, great mates, and still love what you do. The last time I saw you guys together was on Rock the Boat 2015 with Bonsie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. You know, those cruises, of course, have been put on hold for a while, but those Rock the Boat cruises were great fun because I was the hardest working guy on the boat. I played with Frankie and, of course, bonsie. As soon as he said hey you bring your saxophone. No, it was really good fun. Hopefully they'll resume soon too.
Speaker 1:That was six years ago. Have you discovered the fountain of youth? Because when I saw you on the weekend, you guys haven't aged in six years.
Speaker 2:You know I can't speak for Frank. Well, I can a little bit. You know, frankie's a water baby Like. He lives in Marimbula and he goes surfing. I asked him about it the other day because he stayed over in Melbourne when we returned to visit his daughter and his grandchildren on city. You know what do you mean? Do you know been surfing? He said, yeah, the water's been really warm and he goes for a paddle and looks after himself. Me, on the other hand, I don't sleep well. My couple of carry-ons overweight, I've got high blood pressure and I drink far too much red wine. But you know it's kind of working for me Well when you're doing something right.
Speaker 1:Also, I usually try and pinch a set list after a gig, particularly if I'm doing a review. And I asked Jack and I said Jack, and grab me the set list. You guys don't have a set list even.
Speaker 2:Jack and did ask me for a set list. I went no, we don't have one, you just wing it. Well, look, the first three songs are generally Rock and Roll is King. Then we do Diana, and then we might do Come Back Again, or usually Don't Be Cruel, because Frank is just such a great Elvis tribute artist really, when he wants to be, I mean, and he's a great mimic of many, many things. But his Elvis has been written up in the Hollywood Reporter, actually from a movie he did called High Tide, something like that with Judy Davis, and he played an Elvis tribute artist in that and it got a big ride up in the Hollywood Reporter. So he trots that out every now and then. Yeah, he has got the moves. Well, you know, he's a good mover and, as I say, a terrific mimic, and we've been working together for 46 years now, so we've made each other laugh a real lot.
Speaker 1:You're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick. These guys played this song at the Bridgeway Don't Be Cruel by Elvis, back with more from Wilbur Wild after this Don't be cruel, do what is true. You can just imagine Frankie J Holden and his Elvis moves when you listen to that song, can't you? We are chatting to Wilbur Wild. You're more famous than the Queen. You've done everything, man. Tv, radio, movies, commercials, live shows. Of course you name it. You've done it.
Speaker 2:I get halfway through my bio and I go that's boring, you know, but look, it's been a very interesting tour through the performing arts for me because hey, hey it's Saturday ran for 17 years and kind of as a result of that you get commercials. I'd already done probably half a dozen feature films by the time I started hey, hey it's Saturday as an actor and also played with Old 55, with Frankie, and four and a half years with judges up in the Falcons, sort of like. You know, seven years of my life before hey, hey it's Saturday was occupied by those two great Australian bands and I'm still really good mates with those guys. And I visited Joe the other day. He lives in a country town outside Melbourne now and he's got a beautiful garden and we sat on the deck and had a couple of beers and just sort of checked up on each other that we're okay and we are, and Frankie was just great to see me. I was. You know we speak on the phone but we hadn't seen each other like in the flesh, so to speak, for over 13 months. Same with the other guys in the band too. You know they hadn't seen Frank and you know it was just like a really lovely get-together. And look, they're dear musical friends, the people with whom we work, freddie from Skyhooks on drums. I mean, we go back. There's another 45 years there when old 55 probably the second successful band after the Skyhooks that mushroom records had Michael Godinski signed us in 1975 and you know we became mates.
Speaker 2:We toured with Skyhooks. They went to the States for about eight months in 1976 and then when they came back in the September we all jumped on a bus out the front of mushroom records in Wellington Street, windsor. It was those days, and was a single-decker bus and we toured the east coast and you know, right up to Brisbane and then came down through the middle and went to Broken Hill and then into Ad Labor on the road for about six weeks. Day one, I'll tell you, there were rows of seats in the bus, all of which face for, except for two rows in the middle which faced each other.
Speaker 2:Come in, all the hooks were there and you know some road crew and tour managers and the like and I jumped into a seat which faced the front but it also faced a couple of rear-facing seats and red Simons has plonked himself down opposite me and said why are you sitting there? I said well, that struck me as the most social part of the bus, so I'm sitting here. And he said good and away. We went. So red Simons and I've been mates since that day what brought you to the sex?
Speaker 2:when I was ten years old, pretty bad bronchitis, dr Jolly in Luck Street, elfam right, this is 55 years ago said righty-o, I want you to do some swimming. I said yeah, yeah, I like swimming, probably holding mum's hand at the time right in the surgery. And then he said don't take your medicine. See, I always take my medicine, dr Jolly. And then he said maybe play a wind instrument now, just strength them along. So my grandparents bought me a clarinet so I started learning that in 1967 at Ivanhoe Grammar, I started learning from a guy named Alec Doherty, at whose 99th birthday the year before last I was a surprise guest and turns 101 in June. Yeah, that's right, he's sliding now, but at these 90s, 90s played saxophone and everything. It was a classic. He's this nuggety little Scotsman with Coke bottle lens, glasses and you can hold him in the palm of your hand. So he started me off. I've let him know how much I appreciated that. And then I just joined the school orchestra and marched in the cadet band and sang in the choir. And in year 11 I was studying all the sciences and I was gonna be a scientist or a doctor or not. Not gonna do that. I had a high school band with whom I enjoyed performing and we did a couple of parties and I thought it's sort of fun. So I changed back to music and studied that and had quite a formal education in theory and practical and did well at it and went to university for about six months, then dropped out and ran away and joined the circus and the rest is history.
Speaker 2:I mean you mentioned this bio only this morning on ABC Radio Melbourne. Somebody had texted in they were talking about Mad Max and somebody had texted in that I was in Mad Max. So they called me I mean it was on 720 they called me to talk about being in Mad Max. You know I've got a text from the producer. I go, yeah, in the opening scenes of the movie.
Speaker 2:So it came about just because we knew this guy, john Lee, who in Mad Max the original was the character who got the saucepan through his throat when they run through the caravan. So you know, steve Bisley and Hugh Key's burn the guy named Steven Miller champ. In the opening scenes the actor is looking through the rifle scope at a young couple naked going forward in a field and it's in the first 59 seconds of the movie and of course that was me and my then-girlfriend Michelle Johnson. That came about because we were just mates of John Lee who came over and said, hey look, you know, this guy, george Miller, is looking for a couple of extras just to do, and you know, I seen him mad Max with Suno, well you know, 50 bucks a day, yeah sure you know why not?
Speaker 2:yeah, why not? And it's the same with everything that I've done. When I joined old 55, they weren't famous, no, they had a record deal with mushroom. But they were just starting out and I went and saw them perform after hearing an ad on what was then to double Joe was up in Sydney. I was. By then. I was doing the jazz course at the Sydney Conservatorium only last another six months at that and then ran away and joined the Robin.
Speaker 2:Robin. But you know I went out to see them and they just looked like fun. Holden was hilarious. I thought this is a good band, you know. The harmonies were okay and the guitar plays pretty good, you know. And I thought, yeah, just let's do a few gigs. And of course it just went nuts. And you know we ended up with Take a Greasy in the Platinum album and On the Prowl and Rockin Christmas and all those hits and we went on Countdown.
Speaker 2:And when Frank left the band in early May of 1977 I quit the same day because it just wasn't going to be as much fun without him. And a week later Joe Camillie and his manager called me and said Joe wants you to join the Falcons. Be it Gary Young's at his house for rehearsal tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock. I'd heard the Falcons. They were a terrific band, you know. They played a 5,000 people a week and we'd sell 5,000 albums. The reason I joined them was the music was fantastic and Joey was fun. We had a lot of fun, and the same with hey hey. I stayed with the Falcons till the end of 81 and then have my own band for a couple of years you're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick chatting to Wilbur Wild.
Speaker 1:I think we'll have one of those JoJo zip in the Falcon songs. Now how about? All I want to do back with Wilbur after this. All I want to do.
Speaker 2:All I want to do Is get us up with you.
Speaker 2:Cheryl Lee, that radio chick we are chatting to Nicholas Robert Aitken, also known as Australian saxophonist, wilbur Wild 1984 Darrell called me and I've been doing like half a dozen hey Hey's a year by then, just sitting on panels and stuff, and Darrell called me and said look, we're going night time. You know, do you want to get a band together? I thought, oh, you know, that sounds like fun. You know, hey, hey, it's Saturday. You know, when we went night time it was a huge gamble for those guys. We were 9 30 till midnight for 1984 and then slotted into that regular 630 to 830 slot the year after and then, of course, after a couple of years it went berserk, became the flagship of the Nine Network.
Speaker 2:You know the juggernaut that was Hay Hay, it's Saturday rating 45s on a Saturday night and it's been in the news lately. You know I didn't interview with a Herald Sunrup. You could say that about any show, you know. And I mean you look back and you think, okay, it has an eight page. Well, you know, fast forward, full frontal, the Don Lane show, you know even Graham Kennedy who was incredible. Don Lane was great. Paul Hogan's show was really good, fun, benny Hill, you know, you look back at any of that stuff. So it's different times and that's fine too.
Speaker 2:And you know, kamal's got a point and Daryl's got a point, you know. And Harry Connick had a point. And I remember on the night thinking Daryl handled that really well and Harry expressed his opinion. Daryl, who's not the minister for foreign affairs, right? He's not Alexander Downer? No, not exactly. He's a comfy television host who can sing and dance and play drums, right. There was like two grown men Harry Connick, who I love, I reckon he's a fantastic musician, and he had a point. Daryl allowed him to express his opinion, sort of said oh well, you know, we didn't mean to cause any of, you know, and it was just like two grown adults having a grown up conversation. But Daryl chose to do that on live television. He could have said, oh, piss off Harry or whatever, not that he would, but he stopped the show for that and then continued on. So anyway, that's all I'll say on the matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, fair enough. Hey, hey, it's Saturday. Was on Australian television for a massive 28 years. It won 19 loggies. But let's have a song now from Skyhooks Wilbur's mate Red Simons from the band Skyhooks Horror movie. Now, if the legends of old 55 had a set list, this would be second on it. Diana, we is, save our me, Diana. You guys have got three kids, including a set of twins.
Speaker 2:Have you? No, I've got five from three. Five, oh my gosh, I've got five. I've got five, two of whom I chose wisely not to marry, but we're still mate. I've got a 40 year old son with two grandchildren, 33 year old daughter who's got a great partner. Her partner, jed, is a beauty, zibi and Jed From the woman I did marry and lasted about 20 years with. We've got Howard, who turns 21 in September, and we also have Toby and Elliot, the twins that you mentioned the boys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're 18 in June. My half an hour ago, for heaven's sake. Half an hour ago, I was pushing them around in a and changing neckies. Well, I lift that up to the women's fight moment. No, I did. I did a bit of that. Of course I'm a good dad, but Toby and Elliot, they're non-identical twins. Although Toby's my favourite, I keep Elliot for part.
Speaker 1:Well, I tried that, but I've got a boy and a girl, so I haven't got all the spare parts.
Speaker 2:Are you having? A? No, the parts don't match. Actually, toby, I'm six foot five. Toby, six foot eight. Elliot's about six four. Wow, howard, no, I know I went to hug Toby the other day. He's sitting on the couch right. I went oh, this is one of those. I said, stand up and give dad a hug with you. And I stood up and I've sort of got my arms ready to hug like a six foot two guy, but he's six foot eight. I went oh, where are you? Oh, tv, you are when did that happen?
Speaker 2:Half an hour ago it was it was like five foot six.
Speaker 1:I've got five. Two including twins and mine are all still at home. It was a roll out from about?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no, the 17 year olds doing year 12 there at home with their mum in the old house. Howard is the 20 year old. He's doing a third year film and television at Swinburne. So he's moved in with one of his course colleagues. He moved out about five days before full lockdown. You guys didn't have this right. So we went into full lockdown and I tell you the way that he cope with that is just incredible. Like he's we're thinking, oh, we're so sad that how it's moved out and he's, you know, he's down. He's in lockdown with Gideon who's you know, gideon, his course colleague. But they just, you know, they just got on with it. He moved closer to Swinburne so he could do, you know, easier to get close, but they will win online anyway. He's done incredibly well. He's a really bright and creative filmmaker and a gun editor and also a beautiful classical guitar player.
Speaker 1:So you're with Shirley, that radio chick, chatting to Wilbur Wilde from Ol 55, might have a song now that they open with one of the first three or four songs that they usually play. Daddy calls hit, come back again, come back again. I'm just crazy about you, baby, talking about kids of all things. Sounds like you've done a pretty good job with your kids. Did any of them follow you into music? So he plays guitar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Howard plays guitar beautifully. He studied that for year 12. Toby, he's learning piano from a dear friend of ours, Mark Fitzgibbon, from the Fitzgibbon family. His dad, Smacker, and his sister, Nisha, are just stalwarts of the Melbourne jazz scene. Smacker's gone now but Mark's just a wonderful jazz pianist and so Toby's learning piano from him and playing great and singing blues as well.
Speaker 2:You know he's got a band with a couple of his mates from school, Elliot. On the other hand, Toby's non identical twin brother, Elliot, was with an organisation called Young Australian Broadway Company, YABC. He's no longer with them because they went into lockdown and stuff, you know. So they no longer did concerts but they do a concert series every six months. They rehearse for six months, then do a dozen concerts at the National Theatre here. So Elliot was the triple threat. So he sings, dances and acts, you know, Very talented. They found a passion for it.
Speaker 2:Well, look, they are, and I've said to all of them that they have attained a degree of technical proficiency at which at their age, I was just nowhere near. I mean, these guys are so far advanced, I'm OK and I'm there as the consultant for them. You know, that's all. I'm not an authority figure, I can't know, but Toby, I remember about three years ago Toby asked me what chord should go into a particular song he's playing. He's sitting at the piano and I said, oh look, try an A7. And he put that in and it sort of worked. He said well, thanks, Dad, you're free to go.
Speaker 1:It sounds about right.
Speaker 2:You know, can I help? No, no, take a step. No, off, you go, off, you go. You've got other stuff to do? Well, I haven't really. No, you have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, bless them. Oh, good luck to all of them. It's great when you see your kids being happy and succeeding, but most of all, they're being happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they like all that stuff and you know I'm proud of them, I'm proud of all of my kids, and the older two are not musical but they love their music. Zibi, when I moved out of the, out of the big house, I'm living in an apartment now so you know you sort of chuckle this stuff away or give to your kids and she's got about 300 vinyl albums. You know they've just been towing around and they've gone to a good home and you know she and Jed love their music and, look, it's music therapy for all of us, right, that's right. I like listening to some stuff and I like playing some stuff. It's musical therapy.
Speaker 1:Hey, let's have a little bit of that musical therapy right now. The Ul55 hit Looking For An Echo and speak more to Wilbur Wilde on the other side. Oh, beautiful song, looking For An Echo. Everybody was on the dance floor waving their arms slowly back and forward at the legends of Ul55, frankie J Holden and, of course, wilbur Wilde at our Bridgeway Hotel out at Perakka recently.
Speaker 2:What do you?
Speaker 1:listen to when you're in your car. What do you like to listen to?
Speaker 2:It's funny. Look, you know, my girlfriend and I the other night sat down and she has seen a thing on YouTube it was like about mushroom records and Michael Gdinskj and she said that I'd popped up in it. It was like a doggone on Michael right, and I saw, look, I'd forgotten all about it, but I did an interview it was, you know, 30 years ago just gave my impressions of why mushroom records, such a great independent Australian label and promoting Australian music, and, you know, bunged on for a little bit and then off the back of that, as with YouTube, it sort of linked us to a couple of different things and Cherry loves her gigs too. We met at a Seekers concert of all things. My girlfriend, obviously she's a palliative care nurse and one of her clients, dementia patient loves to see because he's still with us there's a couple of years ago now, right, but he's still around and still loves his music and loves the Seekers.
Speaker 2:And I just happened to go to the Seekers concert because the mate of mine was he who wrote the actual show, was the Seekers story, and also plays and sings with the Seekers, michael Cristiano. And I said, oh, that's my seat next to you. And she said, oh, isn't this your lucky day? Is it the recital hall? A Seekers matinee? You can imagine what the audience was like. It's the blue, red plus swarms of Zima frames. And here I score a girlfriend out of it.
Speaker 2:It was your lucky day. It was my lucky day. We got talking and, you know, halfway through I said do you know these songs? And she said no, but the 89 year old guy next to me does. I said, oh, is that your dad? She said no, I'm a palliative care nurse and he's one of my clients. So I said, well, you must be a really kind person. And she is, and we sort of hit it off.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, cherry and I sitting there after the Gdinsky thing and we started watching footage from the classic countdown tour we did in 2006 was great, you know, we listened to Sherbet and we listened to Hush and I remember, you know I mean we did about 14 of them sold out in every city. It was lovely memories for me too. You know, in the second half of that show like Hush closed the first half and just blew the lid off the dump and, opening the second half of the show, just wearing his jumper and playing acoustic guitar, james Rain comes out by himself. You know you can hear a pin drop. There's like we're in Rod Laver Arena and there's 12,000 people there and he sings reckless. So it was sort of like we just had this gig for ourselves at home and it's just mighty.
Speaker 2:So when you ask me what I listen to, look, I listen to some jazz and stuff and if I'm learning tunes or whatever for a gig, you know I just love that. That live performance I love. I thrive on live performance myself, but also as a punter, if you will. It's just great. I don't think we got around to watching Frankie J Holden and Wilbur Wilde. We watched Renee Gaia, joey Camilleri I played with Joe. You know that concert thing and you know, and it was bloody good to it.
Speaker 1:I've got a four CD set of Countdown. It's one of my favourite things to play, yeah yeah. I think to write down memory lane back to the days when music was just everything.
Speaker 2:then it's a huge part of our lives. I'll mention this dementia patient of Cherry's right. He came over for lunch the other day and this was something that Cherry wanted for her birthday, which was back in March her birthday. But we finally got it together where I put a GoPro in the passenger side of her car and Dez sat in his usual seat in the passenger side. I haven't edited it up yet, but I sat in the back with a handy cam, but I've seen some of the footage and it just comes out great.
Speaker 2:And what we did. I live in a leafy suburb of Ivanhoe and we just drove slowly around the streets of Ivanhoe and I printed up the lyrics to I'll never find another you by the Seekers and Cherry. You know she got it on a Spotify in the car and Dez and Cherry sang along. You know the relationship they've developed over the last three years with her next level, care. You know you get to the bit I'll never find another you. And he'd look at her. He just loves her. He loves him too, you know, and he sort of understands that she's got a boyfriend. But it makes him sad, you know, and that's what we did A musical memory. I bang on about this all the time is so, so deeply embedded. It evokes memories of love and of happiness and of sadness, and of great times and exhilaration and triumph and adversity, and it's just the soundtrack to our emotional lives.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I found that at the bridgeway the other night. I don't know how long it's been since we've heard some of those fabulous songs that you sang, but everybody knew every word and we were singing along with you every chorus, every verse.
Speaker 2:Where does that come from. Well, that's right. Dez needed the lyrics printed up because he gets a little bit nervous. He doesn't think he sings well, but he does. He sings along and a lot of people do that.
Speaker 2:We all sing in Kinder and in Prep and then when we get in older age, you know, oh, I can't sing on tune Div. You know it's such a big part right from the get-go, when we're being carried around in our mum's tummies we're still listening to stuff. Then melody and harmony, and it took me a while to discover that. It took me a while for things to click. And then, when they do, you just think, oh, I still play jazz tunes that I've played 10,000 times and I'll just work through the changes, whether it's by-by Blackbird or Autumn Leaves, and I think, oh, so it goes there, it can go there, and it's just constant exploration. And, of course, in life performance, the same Frank Holdman, we just go different places. I mean we've got some great tunes to go there with. It was great on Saturday night at the Bridgeway when they're all singing along with Freddie and all my friends are getting married. Of course everyone's got to sing along.
Speaker 1:And we're all waving our arms, well waving yeah, countdown style Hands on the air.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, that was fabulous.
Speaker 1:Cheri sounds like an amazing lady. I take my head off to people like Cheri who do such a difficult job, and it sounds like she does it with all her heart.
Speaker 2:Well she does. She says to me there's some confronting things that happen. I mean she's looking after a couple of motor and neuron disease sufferers and that can be really confronting. She says, no, I'll just put my big girl panties on and deal with it.
Speaker 1:Sounds like I would love her. Let's play a little song now for Des and Cheri, the Seekers, and this is their beautiful version of the Beatles song Yesterday. Yesterday, all my trouble seems so far away. That was a special version of the Beatles song Yesterday sung by the Seekers especially for Wilbur's girlfriend Cheri and her beautiful patient Des. When I was doing my research, I found something that I didn't know. You toured with the Rocky Horror Show for quite a long time. I had 750 performances Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we opened in 1992 in July at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne. The cast was fantastic. We were blessed to have a great cast who all got along. Frank Inferta was Craig McLaughlin, Janet was Gina Riley, Brad was Glenn Butcher, who's still acting in. I'll tell you, I saw Glenn Butcher acting recently in Kitty Flanagan's Fist on ABC. Peter Rose Thorn was Riff Raff, Lyndon Nagel was Magenta and Brad was the narrator. I was Eddie and Dr Scott the traditional dual role.
Speaker 2:But we did about 16 weeks in Melbourne, eight weeks in Adelaide, went to Sydney, opened on New Year's Eve 1992, and played there for about 13 weeks. Then we eventually went up to Singapore to do a couple of weeks up there, which is kind of interesting too, you know. Then in the intervening years we did Perth, went back to Brisbane and then in 1998, we started rehearsal in Sydney at Star City for about a month of rehearsal and then ran through to just before Christmas. That was the last shows that that cast did. Yeah, MacLachlan was there, but he went over to London to do Grease and Marcus Grome took over from him, did Adelaide. Marcus was fantastic.
Speaker 2:Tim Ferguson came into the show in Sydney in 1998 as Frank Inferta and in Perth we had a recently returned from the UK, Jason Donovan, which was just hilarious because up until then I was the worst Worst to hate, I was the worst to hate, I was the worst to hate, but Jason was fantastic. He's just such a good actor and such a spirited and improvisational Like. It was just fantastic. It was my pleasure to serve alongside all of those people, Allie Fowler from the Chantuzis joining us in Sydney In fact, Kamal was filling in for Red in Sydney as well. We'd go down for the TV show and then Red would stay home with his family. I'd come back for the Sunday show and do the show with Kamal as the narrator. So yeah, it was fun.
Speaker 1:Let's have a little bit of Rocky Horror Show. Here's the time warp. I love that show. Got a really old theatre here and every Friday, the 13th, they play the Rocky Horror Picture Show and it starts at midnight. We all dress up in our fishnet stockings and throw toast and rice and water pistols. You know the whole thing.
Speaker 2:Look, I actually was the envy of the cast because in fishnets and a pair of size 15 stilettos I've got a pretty sharp pair of gams.
Speaker 1:Oh, thanks again. Have a great day and say hi to Sherry. Okay, shall I do? Hello, You're with Sherry Lee, that radio chick, and I can't help myself. Let's go out with one more old 55 song. Come on, let's do it. This is actually from the glory days of Ozzy Pub Rock, Volume 2. You're with Sherry Lee, that radio chick. Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rocking it podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can support Ozzy Music and I'll see you down the front.