Help: Oz: Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band

Subject: RE: Help: Oz: Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 09:17 PM

Ah ... G'day Helen and everyone,

I'm afraid this is the first I have seen of this thread ... I have been working hard capturing old cassette recorded folk stuff and burning CDs - and the home machine gets very touchy about Mudcat when I have been using lots of memory (everything else works ... maybe it doesn't have a good capacity for folk music).

Anyway, you got the full story from John in Brisbane - more detail than I could have given you!

BTW: I think I have a concert or two of theirs, on cassette (from ABC broadcasts).

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: Lyr Add: MULGA BILL'S BICYCLE ("Banjo" Paterson)
From: Dale Rose
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 08:14 PM

I know it doesn't answer any of Helen's questions, but I recognized immediately where the group got its name, from one of my favorite poems. I was first introduced to the works of A. B. Paterson (other than The Man From Snowy River and Waltzing Matilda) by a TV special on PBS years ago. I figure I may never get a chance to drop it into a conversation again ~~ so, by the way . . .

MULGA BILL'S BICYCLE
by A.B. "Banjo" Paterson, 1864-1941
First published in The Sydney Mail, 25 July 1896

'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze;
He turned away the good old horse that served him many days;
He dressed himself in cycling clothes, resplendent to be seen;
He hurried off to town and bought a shining new machine;
And as he wheeled it through the door, with air of lordly pride,
The grinning shop assistant said, "Excuse me, can you ride?"

"See here, young man," said Mulga Bill, "from Walgett to the sea,
From Conroy's Gap to Castlereagh, there's none can ride like me.
I'm good all round at everything as everybody knows,
Although I'm not the one to talk - I hate a man that blows.

But riding is my special gift, my chiefest, sole delight;
Just ask a wild duck can it swim, a wildcat can it fight.
There's nothing clothed in hair or hide, or built of flesh or steel,
There's nothing walks or jumps, or runs, on axle, hoof, or wheel,
But what I'll sit, while hide will hold and girths and straps are tight:
I'll ride this here two-wheeled concern right straight away at sight."

'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that sought his own abode,
That perched above Dead Man's Creek, beside the mountain road.
He turned the cycle down the hill and mounted for the fray,
But 'ere he'd gone a dozen yards it bolted clean away.
It left the track, and through the trees, just like a silver streak,
It whistled down the awful slope towards the Dead Man's Creek.

It shaved a stump by half an inch, it dodged a big white-box:
The very wallaroos in fright went scrambling up the rocks,
The wombats hiding in their caves dug deeper underground,
As Mulga Bill, as white as chalk, sat tight to every bound.
It struck a stone and gave a spring that cleared a fallen tree,
It raced beside a precipice as close as close could be;
And then as Mulga Bill let out one last despairing shriek
It made a leap of twenty feet into the Dead Man's Creek.

'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that slowly swam ashore:
He said, "I've had some narrer shaves and lively rides before;
I've rode a wild bull round a yard to win a five-pound bet,
But this was the most awful ride that I've encountered yet.
I'll give that two-wheeled outlaw best; it's shaken all my nerve
To feel it whistle through the air and plunge and buck and swerve.
It's safe at rest in Dead Man's Creek, we'll leave it lying still;
A horse's back is good enough henceforth for Mulga Bill."

Subject: RE: Help: Oz: Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 06:54 PM

Hi Helen, you're in luck, I knew Mulga Bill's extremely well and were a great stage act. They were mostly members of the Melbourne Uni Folk Club and formed Mulga Bill's circa 1972. They played to packed houses at the Polaris Inn in Melbourne, before embarking on two national tours sponsored by the Australian Arts Councils where they visited scores of rural towns. While on their first tour ABC TV filmed an episode of the ground breaking Big Country series, probably in B&W (1973?).

The other bands that were prominent at Polaris at the time were The Bushwackers, Mic Conway's Captain Matchbox and later on The Cobbers.

Mulga Bill's had a great influence on me as well. I performed one of my first paid gigs at one of their concerts, played with them as a fill-in on a few occasions and then went on to form a new band with Peter McDonald and Marsh Robinson plus Dave Kidd from The Bushwackers and the late Chris Wendte from the fabulous but defunct Colonials and did about 400 gigs together until 1976.

I don't know what has happened to the other members of Mulga Bill. Peter and I later formed the Jeff Kennet Blues Band. Marsh Robinson is a truly superb jazz double bass player and apart from credits on recordings I'd be very surprised if he wasn't still playing. The others - I don't know.

Regards, John

Subject: RE: Help: Oz: Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band
From: Helen
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 04:58 PM

Thanks heaps, Bugsy.

I don't recognise any of the names. Do you know how long the band was in existence, or is it still going? I never really heard any more about them after a year or so after the Nimbin Festival. I don't even know where they started either. In fact I know very little about them.

The reason they suddenly sprang to mind was katlaughing's thread about Peter Duggan and Jacko Kevans, who have been around the folk scene for decades. When Bob Bolton mentioned that Jacko lived on the north coast I suddenly remembered Nimbin and the Mulga Bill's band.

Helen

Subject: RE: Help: Oz: Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band
From: Bugsy
Date: 06 Jan 01 - 07:25 PM

Hi Helen, Mulga Bil's Bicycle Band were;

Tony Britz- Banjo, Acoustic Guitar and vocals Barry Golding - Lagerphone, Acoustic Guitar and Vocals,
Chris Bettle - Acoustic and Electric Fiddle
Marsh Robinson - Double and Teachest Bass
Jo BEams - Vocals and Tambourine
PEter McDonald - Electric and Acoustic Guitars, Mouth Organd and Vocals.

Hope this is of help.

CHeers

''

Bugsy

Subject: RE: Help: Oz: Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band
From: Helen
Date: 06 Jan 01 - 05:46 PM

Thanks a lot, Sorcha. I tried a search on Google and got nothing.

I thought Bob Bolton would jump right in within minutes with the answer. Maybe he is on holidays.

The description of the video says that the band has been playing for three years. Either there is a new band with that name or it is a misprint. The one I heard was in 1973.

Helen

Subject: RE: Help: Oz: Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Jan 01 - 03:11 AM

Helen, it seems there is a video available HERE , but it is expensive.....it's about the 22nd item in the list, and at the very bottom is a Home clickie. Don't know if this will help or not.

Subject: Oz: Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band
From: Helen
Date: 05 Jan 01 - 06:15 PM

Hi all you other Aussies, & interested others,

Way back in 1973 when I went to the Nimbin Festival, a bush band called Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band played one evening out on a sports oval or something. When it got too dark to see where we were dancing we still yelled for more music because it was so good.

I was just wondering who the band members were. I used to have one of their posters but I think it is long gone after innumerable shared house moves. I probably wore it out from taking it down and tacking it up again on the walls, or someone else may have taken a fancy to it and snaffled it. It didn't have the band members names on it, as far as I remember, though.

I often try to think back about how I became interested in folk music.

The list so far is:

1. Hearing the Irish Rovers (I think it was them) singing Black Velvet Band on the radio. I don't know what year that was.
2. School of the Air, ABC Radio school's broadcasting programme - Chris Kempster who is a singer/songwriter and also the editor of the Henry Lawson songbook was a key player in getting folk music into schools via this programme. In primary schoool, from 1963-1966
3. Borrowing John Meredith's book called Folk Songs of Australia from the local public library and trying to play the songs on a plastic whistle called a Musette. Also learning some folk tunes on the Musette at school. 1966(?) onwards.
4. Going to a folk concert at Maitland, put on by the Newcastle Folk Club, with performers such as Bobby Campbell, Brad Tate (I think he was there) and Bill Morgan. 1971
5. Going to the Newcastle Folk Club a couple of times when I was in high school. 1971-2
6. Going to the Nimbin Festival, hearing people making their own music, seeing & dancing to Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band. 1973
7. After moving to Newcastle in 1974, going regularly to the Newcastle Folk Club and every year to Newcastle Folk Festival, and some other festivals elsewhere.

By then I was well & truly hooked.

So, Bob Bolton & others, can you help me here with the names of the band members?

Helen