Biography

1970: Noggins And Bats

My first band of note had the strangest name - "Noggins And Bats".

We played around the Latrobe Valley area in Victoria and made national TV with a single we released on the "Moe" label!! - a song I wrote called "Flying" flipped with Maxwell's Silver Hammer (Beatles). We won the Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds for our area and got excited about that!

At this stage I had purchased my Hammond and Leslie and had it souped up to compete with those guitarists! Loved it.

Lloyd Poole: keyboards
Mick Cook (a legend) - vocals, bass
Keith Ingelton: drums
Doug Cook: guitar (followed by John Mazur and then Tony Calabro)

Noggins And Bats

Click here for "Flying" sound clip (212k)

Erebus

I joined with Warwick Thomas (great singer and bass player) to move to the city and try our luck as musicians in Erebus. The new band played around the hotel scene playing a lot of Chicago material. Ian Kinkead - such a good drummer!

Erebus

Click here for "Erebus - live " sound clip (212k)

Canyon

A short stint with Canyon. We sang material by Marvin, Welch and Farrar, Crosby,Stills and Nash and the Beach Boys. Great musicians!

Peter Cupples: guitar, vocals
Rod Declerck: bass, vocals
Peter Lee: drums, vocals
Lloyd Poole: keyboard, vocals

Canyon

Click here for "Father Time" -live sound clip ( 178k)

Dove

Another short stint, this time in Dove with Warwick, Steve and Sharon. What great harmonies - Carpenters stuff.

Dove

Upp

Then the 10 piece big band Upp! What a sound they made. Chicago , Frank Zappa, Blood Sweat And Tears etc. Everything was written out and rehearsed, but the pay is never so good with the big bands. We traveled to Sydney and Newcastle (while I was still teaching music in primary schools!).

Upp

Click here for "Make Me Smile " live sound clip (258k)

Statesmen

The Statesmen were the resident band at the Hotel International (Airport West). Laurie Smart was the bass player and manager. What a great operator he was! Still playing with Ian Kinkead (drums) and Lindsay Shah (guitar).

The Statesmen

Click here for "Hold Your Head Up " live sound clip (414k)

The Strangers

What a great band! The Strangers - these musicians were so experienced -and for the first time, I didn't have to arrange the harmonies. I joined to add Moog Synthesizer, Mellotron strings and piano and vocals. The Beach Boys never sounded so good! Five great singers making a fabulous sound.

Peter Robinson: bass, guitar, vocals
Garth Thompson: drummer extraordinaire, vocals
Bill Pyman: guitar, vocals
Rick Berger: bass, keyboards, vocals
Lloyd Poole: keyboards, vocals

The Strangers

Click here for "Home Ain't Home Anymore " sound clip (439k)

Fantasy

I really enjoyed my time with Fantasy. We must have played every TV show on each channel - Don Lane , Ernie Sigley, Young Talent Time, Hey Hey It's Saturday, Channel 7's Saturday night show ('Penthouse Club' - nothing to do with 'Penthouse' Men's magazine), etc..What a great experience it was.

Mal Nichols: guitar, vocals (front man and great guy!)
Lloyd Poole: keyboards, vocals
Colin Ross: drums (sadly passed away)
Dave Sholson: bass, vocals

Fantasy

Click here for "Boppin' The Blues" sound clip (337k)

Click here for "Needle in a Haystack" sound clip (158k)

Trutones

The Palais at St. Kilda was our residency for more than 10 years. The Trutones were a great reception band catering for all sorts of groups - even the Umpires on Grand Final Night! Russell Broadbent was our lead singer and top front man. Mick Cook was on bass and vocals. How great to play with Mick again from my very first band.

And then I met John Cosgrove - a legend on guitar and rock 'n roll songs. John and I have done a lot of work together since, a clever man.

Russell Broadbent: lead vocals
Len McGill: drums, vocals
Mick Cook: bass, vocals
John Cosgrove: guitar, vocals
Lloyd Poole: keyboards, vocals

Trutones

Click here for "Mack The Knife" sound clip (233k)

Click here for "Trickle Trickle " sound clip (183k)

Solo

Soon after this I went solo. Putting together backing tracks and backing vocals on my laptop, I now regularly play at different venues around Melbourne . I use JBL Pro speakers, JBL Sub, ARX MicroDrive 3 way amp and Behringer mixer, Roland JV 80 keyboard and a B4 Hammond/Leslie plugin from Native Instruments

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JBL MPro 410	JBL Sub 12"	ARX Microdrive amp

Click here for "Boppin' The Blues" sound clip (353k)

Click here for "How Deep Is Your Love " sound clip (360k)

Click here for "Piano Man " sound clip (363k)