Being part of "The Tides', was a fabulous opportunity to spend time with some great musicians and all round 'nice blokes'.  'The Tides' played together for about seven years and during that time experienced several line-up changes.  We enjoyed being a five piece unit, but as players came and went we mainly played as a four piece.

We played most of our gigs in and around Karratha, but also travelled throughout the Pilbara playing to enthusiastic audiences.  Some of my fondest memories came from our electric nights in Roebourne, in the beer garden of the Victoria Hotel.  Steamy nights, sweating bodies, loud music and people out to have a good time all combined to make for many very successful, high-energy gigs.  We had a great following in Roebourne and when we arrived to set up, there were always plenty of willing helpers to carry the gear for us.  I just loved the atmosphere of those times.  Anything and everything could happen in the beer garden and we all had our eyes opened to things we didn't think were possible.

As each of the band members had a full time job, we often found ourselves being torn between the band and our families, but life on the road brought some long-lasting memories and some 'wild times'.  

In the early days, we travelled in separate cars and towed trailers full of equipment.  John had a panel van and it was usually Greg and I in the back (with the esky and a guitar) and one of the other guys in the front alongside John.  It was usually left up to John to do all the driving and he also got the unenviable task of cleaning out the empty beer cans from the back on our return.  John was usually hungry when we travelled and it wasn't uncommon for him to buy the only available pie from a Roadhouse (a frozen one) and sit it on the dashboard to warm up.  Every now and then he'd stick his finger in the pie to check to see if it was warm enough to eat.

Over time, we accumulated more equipment than could be carried in panel vans and trailers and needed something bigger.  A Northwest company sponsored us by donating an old bus to the band.  A few of the guys put in some cash and we replaced the motor.  From there on we 'motored' together', much to John's disappointment.  More driving for him and more drinking for the other guys.

On one trip, Allan recalls John driving the bus all night to get to Parraburdoo with all of the guys drinking and carrying on in the back.  Poor old John was knackered from the trip, not just because of the long drive and not-so-polite passengers he was ferrying to the gig, but because of the frequent stops he needed to make.  (Obviously, if you're drinking, you need to have a pit stop every once in awhile and we had more than our fair share.)  We even hit a kangaroo!  It was pretty difficult to miss them on that road at night as there were hundreds of them.  They were pretty much holding hands on either side of the road.
To add to John's woes, he had an upset stomach that night and, he too, needed to make a few 'private' stops of his own.  It got worse as the trip wore on.... he ran out of paper!  He was fortunate to find an old dishcloth he'd used to clean the dashboard with and dutifully tore it into strips to ration its use for the remainder of the trip.  John has sung the praises of Chux Super Wipes ever since that night!  Needless to say, we all had a bit to say to poor old John and some of it wasn't too nice, but as usual, he 'got over it' the next day and we went on the have another great show.  Good one, John!

Another of Allan's recollections of funny things that happened, was the night our sound engineer Gazbo fell asleep at the desk in the middle of a set of softer songs.  The crowd was enjoying the chance to hold their partners and move slowly around the dance floor, but things started to come unstuck for us as things weren't sounding quite right.  A rough recording taken on the nightI captures the moment that I announced to the crowd that  'someone should go and wake him up for us'.  No more drinks for Gazbo that night!!!

Another sound engineer, Brian, was always on the receiving end of some suggestions for 'getting things to sound a lot better' for the guys on stage.  Allan was always having problems with foldback and one night, in the Country Club, he became really agitated with Brian.  There were looks of impending death from the stage and lots of gesturing, but still Allan wasn't getting his point across clearly enough to Brian.  Finally, Allan put down the bass midway through a song, strode through the crowd and told Brian in no uncertain terms to, "turn the fu*king thing up"!  Brian didn't work with us much more after that show.

The success of a night also depended on getting the right mix of attitudes for the guys on stage.  It was quite often the case that the night's became more interesting if the guys could encourage me to drink a couple of Emu Export beers before the show.  They always had to monitor this closely, as more than two before the show would have an adverse effect on the night.

The gigs we played often included free drinks for the band and we managed this quite well.  Everytime someone went to the bar, they would get a drink for everyone, even if they didn't want one.  As there were often six or more drinks to carry, they couldn't be opened as they would be spilled on the way back to the stage.  Fortunately, we always took plastic tubs with us to carry spare leads and the like, so it was only natural that we would accumulate our extra beers in the bottom of the tubs.  We also scored a bit of ice every now and then, so this kept the beer nice and cold for us.  This was perfect for after gig drinks and a bit of a chat.  One New Year's Eve show at Coral Bay featured a great deal of beer being consumed on stage and after the show.  So much so, that there are good memories of the guys having to drag me out of my caravan bed the NIGHT after the gig.  Apparently I had consumed more than two Emu Exports that night!

On rare occasions John would get a bit bored just playing the drums and would become the "extra" voice in the vocals. The band members worked hard to keep John alert, so that he didn't get bored often!

Gazbo had many old memories brought back to him after seeing a couple of our photos.  Reading the stories we've written here of those days made him feel like he was on the bus again, drinking beer with Grant Tree (yet another member of the band) and Angon (Allan), giving loads of grief to the poor bus driver and some of the other crap that a bunch of bored musos can come out with.  He remembers some very deep discussion about a concept to dig vertical graves in the Pilbara to accommodate the hard, rocky conditions.   He reckons there should be some more songs written along these lines..........


Great times and great memories.

There are many wonderful memories of times with 'The Tides' that will be written and shared as this webpage develops.