TRACEY SKEPPER

Tracey Skepper was a drummer/bass player. She played in a few bands like Crush Inc. but most notably in 80s punk band Civil Dissident.

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AMANDA BROTCHIE

Amanda Brotchie spent her formative years recording and touring with Not Drowning Waving, and recorded with many other bands including Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes, and the Wreckery, as well as having regular solo gigs at Melbourne venues such as the Metropole and Punters Club, performing the songs of such composers as Kurt Weil, Hans Eisler, Cole Porter and Vernon Duke. And as a teenager, she tried busking in Sydney, but chivalrous old gents just kept picking her upturned hat off the ground and giving it back to her. After music Brotchie became an AFI award-winning director.

FRAN KELLY

Fran Kelly is the fourth of six children, named for her father Frank Kelly, a chiropodist and physiotherapist. Kelly grew up in Adelaide, attending St Dominic's Priory College and completing an arts degree at the University of Adelaide, majoring in literature and classics. While at university she became involved in the women's movement and feminist theatre as well as singing with bands. She was the lead vocalist with new wave band Toxic Shoc, an all female group which released their single "Intoxicated" in 1981. After completing her degree Kelly worked at Flinders University as an activities director, booking bands and organising entertainment for students. In 1980 she moved to Melbourne to fill a similar role at La Trobe University. Fran Kelly is an Australian radio presenter, current affairs journalist and political correspondent who has hosted the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National program 'Breakfast' since March 2005. In 2025, Kelly will host a new program on ABC's Radio National entitled Radio National Hour.

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MARGOT O'NEILL

Margot O'Neill (born 16 May 1958) was the lead singer in The Schnorts and The Jetsonnes during her Melbourne University years. The Jetsonnes disbanded in 1980 when she decided to pursue journalism full-time. O’Neill worked as a journalist for nearly 40 years in television, radio, newspapers and online in Australia and overseas covering politics, national security and social justice issues and has worked on a variety of ABC programs including the investigative flagship program, Four Corners. O'Neill twice won Australia's Walkley Awards including for Best Investigative Reporting as well as four human rights awards. She also wrote a book called Blind Conscience (UNSW Press 2008) telling the stories of some of the key players in Australia's refugee advocacy movement. It won the 2009 Human Rights award for best non-fiction. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Politics) degree from Melbourne University. She was a Journalist Fellow at the University of Oxford.

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DI LEVI

Di Levi is the lead vocalist and guitarist with Fast Cars a Sydney power pop band who started in the original days of the Sydney Mod Scene. Between 1980 and 1984, Fast Cars played nearly 100 shows in and around Sydney. Their first 7” single ''Saturday’s Girl / No Love Today'' was a massive radio hit with 2JJ and sold-out multiple pressings. The follow 12” EP 'Annual' was equally successful, as was the 1984 EP 'Love Child', an energy charged take on the Motown classic. Di and Fabian Byrne now collaborate musically via the internet, as Di is based in Bristol, UK and Fabian is based in Sydney. Since reforming as Fast Cars in 2015, the duo has produced two EPs and have reissued a live album recorded by the original band in the 1980s. The band’s first full length studio album 'LAX' was released 5th March 2018 through Method Records and Music.

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EVELYN BURY

Evelyn Bury was born in 1946 at Surry Hills, Victoria. Having entered the industry when she was just 16 years old, Evelyn said she had played across a number of genres with a wealth of experience behind her.“I started when I was 16, mainly back then it was the local dances or the jazz clubs so you sang a variety of music like the wool shed dances it was always country,” she said. Her career skyrocketed when she signed a contract in 1987 with Selection Records. Under the independent label she released 12 solo albums, more than 20 compilations and three music videos. Included in the releases were more than 40 of Evelyn's own compositions. 

In 1988 she was awarded the Golden Guitar for Female Vocalist of the Year with ''I’m Stronger Than I Look''. In 1989 she was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the South Australian Country Music Festival Awards. In 1991 she was inducted into the Hands of Fame in Tamworth. In 1993 she won the Tamworth Songwriters’ Association new songwriter award. Evelyn's career has spanned more than 50 years, and she still enjoys touring and performing at many country music festivals around Australia. Evelyn Bury was awarded an OAM in 2022 for her service to the industry. She has been a long-time resident in Bundaberg and stated ''Bundaberg has always been such a supportive community and I wouldn’t choose to live anywhere else,'' she said.

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FRANCES GIBSON

Fran Gibson is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist that has played for indie pop band The Cannanes since joining the band in 1984. In the band's 30-year plus history the lineup has regularly changed, with Stephen O'Neil and Frances Gibson the only constant members. The band has released ten albums to date.

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LUCY DESOTO

Lucy Desoto was raised in Sydney’s Western suburbs in the 1960s and ’70s and graduated with the Higher School Certificate in 1977 from Sydney’s Fort Street High School. After suspending studies for a Bachelor of Arts in 1979, she went on to become went on to become the editor of the Sydney University Union Recorder while writing songs and playing piano in inner city pubs in The Living Daylights, her first band. Inspired by the song, Lucy took a walk on the wild side, playing the blues and rock music in bands with various line-ups around the country throughout the 1980s and throughout her life so far. In the 80s she released two albums, 'Three Girls And A Sailor' (1985) and 'Help Me Rhonda My Boyfriends Back' (1986).

Lucy returned to Sydney University in 1997 and graduated with a first-class honours degree in Media Arts in 2000. During this time, she recorded her third album 'Take This Veil' in 1995. In 2002, she was awarded a Commonwealth stipend to undertake a Doctor of Creative Arts at the University of Technology, Sydney. Her doctoral thesis focused on the modes and influence of unofficial cultural practice in Australian history. In 2007 the production component of her doctoral work, a documentary film titled, Rock ’n’ Roll Outlaw, was invited to screen at The Melbourne International Film Festival to wide acclaim. The film was dedicated to her partner of 22 years, an Australian rock musician of renown, the late Pete Wells who died in 2006.

Lucy with her band, The Handsome Devils continued to play in inner city bars and pubs in Sydney until her decision to re-locate to Alice Springs in 2013, where she wrote the book Australia Rocks, her first commercially published work.  Lucy Desoto played every week at Lassiters Crowne Casino in Alice Springs. These days she continues to tour around the country with her band The Handsome Devils.

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JANE STEWART

Jane Stewart was the keyboard player in 80s band Non Stop Dancers. They played an interesting mix of pop, funk and soul, with a bit of jazz-fusion thrown in for good measure. The band had chart success and appeared on Countdown. These days she is a music teacher.

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AMANDA FOX

Keyboardist Amanda Fox has been playing in various bands since the 80s. She has worked a lot with The Bad Seed's Conway Savage.

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KAREN STEAINS

Karen Steains was the bass player for Non Stop Dancers in the mid 80s, They played an interesting mix of pop, funk and soul, with a bit of jazz-fusion thrown in for good measure. The band had chart success and appeared on Countdown. Since the 90s she has been a photographer, and her work is renowned amongst the arts and entertainment industry.

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OLIVE BICE

Olive Bice was born in 1939 in Eaglehawk and has lived in Bendigo all her life. She is an established and very popular recording artist and has recorded on labels such as Morning Mist, R&H, Buribi and Hadley. In her early years she was influenced by artists such as Shirley Thoms, June Holms and Patsy Cline. In 2011 she was the winner of the Tamworth Songwriters' Association Gospel Song of the Year for "Our Angel" with Debbie Lehmann. Olive starred with Anne Conway in the 'Tribute to Patsy Cline Show'. She coordinated and compered the 'Olive Byce Showcase' at the Mildura Country Music Festival. Olive has recorded many albums. With a career which has spanned over fifty years, Olive has worked with Lee Conway, Jimmy Little, Rocky Page, Barry Thornton, Slim Dusty, The Hawking Brothers, Chad Morgan, Wayne Horsburgh, Kathryn & Elaine Pitt, Denise Morrison, and the Howie Brothers. In 2018 was awarded the OAM for service to the performing arts.

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LISA MOORE

Born in Canberra in 1960, Lisa Moore is an internationally renowned pianist with a diverse and eclectic mix of musical influences. Her early life included overseas travel, and by the age of 13, she had visited more than a dozen countries and lived in Sydney and London. However, Moore's development of an artist can be traced to her formative years in Canberra during the 1970s. A succession of “strange and interesting people” through her childhood included the Australian painter, Charles Blackman. Sydney musical teacher Albert Landa urged Moore to take her considerable talent seriously, which in part led to her decision to transfer from Telopea Park High School, a government run school, to Chiron College, then a newly opened alternative school located in Birchgrove in Sydney.

Later at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Moore, found support for her fledging musical career. In 1979, at the age of 20. Moore moved to the United States for two years and pursued further studies in Paris thereafter. She settled permanently in New York City in 1985. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois, Eastman School of Music and SUNY Stonybrook. Lisa Moore now teaches at the Yale-Norfolk New Music Workshop Summer Festival and at Wesleyan University.

She has been crowned "New York's queen of avant-garde piano" and a "visionary" by The New Yorker magazine; the New York Times claims "her energy is illuminating" and The American Record Guide writes "her concerts are legendary". Moore often incorporates theatrical elements in works such as ipiano:my brilliant career, Janacek from the street, Musically Speaking, Totally Wired Piano, and Wilde's World. She was the founding pianist for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, a New York-based electro-acoustic sextet, touring with them for 16 years. In May 2008 Moore curated Australia's Canberra International Music Festival Sounds Alive series.

Moore's solo discs have been published on Cantaloupe Music, Philip Glass's Orange Mountain Music, Irreverence Group Music, Bandcamp, Tall Poppies Records) with music ranging from Leoš Janáček to Philip Glass. Her 2016 disc 'The Stone People' (Cantaloupe) – featuring the music of John Luther Adams, Martin Bresnick, Missy Mazzoli, Kate Moore, Frederic Rzewski, and Julia Wolfe – made both The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2016 and the 2017 Naxos Critics' Choice listings. Moore has recorded over thirty collaborative discs (Sony Classical Records, Nonesuch Records, Deutsche Grammophon, BMG, New World Records, ABC Classics, Albany Records, New Albion, Starkland, Harmonia Mundi). Her Steve Reich Music for Eighteen Musicians (Harmonia Mundi) with Ensemble Signal was listed on The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2015. Moore is a Steinway artist.

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MONICA TRAPAGA

Monica Maria Trápaga was born in 1965 and grew up in Wahroonga, New South Wales as the youngest child of a Basque-Chinese father, Nestor Juan Trápaga, and a Catalan-American mother, Margot (born 1935, née Esteban). Her older siblings were all born in Manila, Philippines: Juan Ignacio (later known as Ignatius Jones), Luis Miguel and Rocio Maria Trápaga – the family had relocated to Sydney by March 1963. In November 1991 she described her "fairly crazy Latin family. I grew up surrounded by music – everything from jazz and Latin to opera and classical. My father had a interest in jazz, particularly Afro-Cuban jazz."

In 1985, Trápaga, on lead vocals, was a member of a swing jazz-cabaret band, Pardon Me Boys, with William O'Riordan (aka Joylene Hairmouth) and her older brother, Jones: both had been members of shock rockers Jimmy and the Boys. In February 1988 they issued a self-titled album, which Lisa Wallace of The Canberra Times felt that "the harmonies on this disc would rival any Andrews Sisters' recording... Hot, tasty and jazzy." Trápaga left Pardon Me Boys as "I wanted to present myself as more of a musician than a cabaret performer" and they were a group she "outgrew because it wasn't my band."

In July 1988 she founded Monica and the Moochers in Sydney; another The Canberra Times reviewer described them as "a band that emulates the music of the late 1940s and 1950s" ahead of a gig in Canberra, which was to be followed by a tour itinerary including Perth. By November 1989 the line-up was Trápaga on lead vocals, Andrew Dickenson on drums, Julian Gough on tenor saxophone, Bernie McGann on alto saxophone, Adrian Mears on trombone, Alister Spence on piano and Jonathon Zwartz on bass guitar.

Monica and the Moochers' first studio album, 'Too Darn Hot', was released by August 1990 on rooArt Jazz/PolyGram. Michael Foster of The Canberra Times declared her voice "always amazes me... through the years, with the volume and range of sound generated from such a small, fine frame" while she "has a very strong and very accomplished and versatile backing group." For the album, the Moochers were Dickenson, Gough, McGann, Mears, Spence, now including Mike Bukovsky on trumpet and Dave Ellis on bass guitar.

In November 1991 their second studio album, 'Cotton on the Breeze', included tracks co-written by Trápaga, with her then-husband, Gough. The Canberra Times' Brad Turner caught a performance which provided "some powerful and tightly-played jazz, swing and Latin standards, and of course a selection from 'Cotton on the Breeze', most of which Monica wrote." At the ARIA Music Awards of 1992 the group were nominated for Best Adult Contemporary Album. The group performed at Sydney's inaugural International Jazz Festival in January 1992. In 2016, Monica was named as the head juror on the Australian jury for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.

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AMANDA STEWART

Amanda Stewart (born 1959) is a contemporary Australian poet and sound/performance artist. Amanda Stewart began writing and performing poetry in the 1970s and has since produced a wide array of sound, video and multimedia work. In the 1980s she worked for ABC radio as a producer. In 1989 she co-founded the performance ensemble Machine for Making Sense with Chris Mann, Rik Rue, Jim Denley and Stevie Wishart, and in 1995 started the trio Allos. She co-wrote and directed the 1990 film Eclipse of the Man-Made Sun about nuclear weapons in popular culture. Her opera The Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior, written with the composer Colin Bright, was performed as part of the Sydney Festival on Sydney Harbour in 1997. It has since been produced for radio by the ABC. 

Her collected works book and CD entitled 'I/T' won the 1999 Anne Elder Award for poetry. Stewart proves the human voice is capable of much more than just talking and singing: all those gasps, "ums" and sighs can be made into music, too. "The voice is an incredible instrument," says Stewart, who refined her interest during the decade she worked as an ABC radio producer. "When you are cutting up voices all day, you hear different things. You notice how people can be saying one thing, but their voice is revealing something else." Stewart, who has performed extensively in Europe, incorporates fragments of French, German and English into her show. She says she hopes listeners won't be too scared by the unfamiliar results.

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THE RUM-BABA'S

The Rum Babas were an all-female rock band from Sydney. The Rum Babas hailed from Sydney’s southern suburbs, and they were formed in 1987. Band members were Sandi Novak (vocals, percussion) Janelle Novak (bass) Michelle Kerr (drums) and Kathryn Cann (guitar). The Rum Babas were a great live band who wrote great pop rock songs. Their sound was a blend of pulsating guitar rock with a flashy percussion beat. They gigged at many of Sydney’s live venues and would also support The Divinyls and also Concrete Blonde. Sandi Novak had a unique voice which was a key element to their sound, as was the pounding percussion which she would perform – usually standing up front whilst singing! Great songs like ''Feel The Beat Of the Drum'', ''Heartbeat'' and ''Windscreen Hazy'' were killer live cuts and it’s a shame they remain largely unknown.

The band appeared on Triple J’s New Noise program on 27 April 1989. In search of success, The Rum Babas changed their name briefly to Jezebelle, before reverting back to their original moniker. They appeared on the Timberyard Records compilation album 'Rockin Bethlehem – The Second Coming' in 1990, recording the song ''Hearts On The Table''. In 1991 they released a 10″ vinyl EP titled ‘3 Good Reasons’ which was produced by Kevin ‘Caveman’ Shirley (who would later find international fame with Slayer, Iron Maiden, Aerosmith etc) and was nominated for an ARIA award for best independent release. Released on Sydney’s Timberyad Records it, if nothing else – preserved their distinct sound for all time, but their live sound wasn’t at all captured. 

Reference: https://rockbrat.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/rockbrat-introduces-you-to-the-rum-babas/

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CATHY WEARNE

Cathy Wearne was the lead vocalist of 80s country rock band, The Happening Thang. They played lots of shows, got plenty of media and generated some interest and ended up signing with Trafalgar/WEA. In the late 80s they released their debut album 'The Happening Thang' and disbanded soon after. These days she sings with The Western Distributors who have released a couple of albums.

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CINDY GRIMWOOD

Cindy Grimwood was the lead vocalist of Redeemer, a thrash metal band that was active around the latter half of the 1980s. While they didn't stick around for too long to have made an impact on the expanding heavy metal with just one album under their belt, what they did manage to succeed in was craft a brilliant album with a high deal of originality just about segregating it from a lot of other bands. The vocals of Cindy Grimwood were definitely the trademark in this band that seamlessly blend with the rhythm section that hammer out melodies and riffs incorporating various influences from the American metal scene such as Metal Church, Vicious Rumors and Helstar as heard on the only release of theirs called 'The Light Is Struck And The Darkness Splits!' in 1990.
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THE JAM TARTS

The Jam Tarts was an all-girl band formed out of Perth in the early 80s with Anna Gare, her sister, Sophie, and two friends, Jodie Bell and Lucy Lemann. The band was managed by their mother, Kate Gare. For ten years the Jam Tarts were a successful touring and recording band within Australia and acclaimed at international music festivals. (1987 Edinburgh Fringe Festival). They also toured with Rik Mayall and Jonathon Richman. They recorded two albums, 'Go Go Go' (1986) and 'Never Staying Still' (1989). The Jam Tarts also played as part of a larger band in combination with the Nansing Quartet (a six-piece band whose members included Lucky Oceans, Adam Gare, Sam Lemann, Peter "Biff" Vincent, Peter Bell and Neale Austin). In 1991 after a decade of rock and roll they called it a day.

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MARIE HOY

Marie Hoy began as a musician in the Melbourne punk band, Thrush and the Cunts, in 1978. One of their tracks, "Diseases", appeared in soundtrack of the film, Dogs in Space (1986), which depicts the local little band scene from the late 1970s. She was also a member of Too Fat to Fit Through the Door, alongside Marcus Bergner, Michael Buckley, Tom Hoy, Dave Light and Stuart Grant. They issued a track, "Flintstones Meet the Flintsones", on a four-track split extended play, 'Little Band '(1979), with one track each by Morpion, the Take, and Ronnie and the Rhythm Boys. Denise Rosenberg contacted me with the following" Hi there, just a correction or 2. Marie played the drummer in Thrush etc for the movie in 1986 but the actual drummer was called Marion Brown (and the date was 1980 for Thrush etc but 1979 for the Little bands on the EP). Marie was in Too Fat etc, BUT only played the drummer in the Dogs in Space movie due to us not being able to find Marion. Little Bands didn't start until 1979. Please see my website primitivecalculators.com for all the correct info about LBs. Cheers, DeniseR''

As an actress Hoy appeared in the short film, Incubus (1983), working with Bergner and Buckley. In the same year she appeared in another short, Etrusco Me, directed by Bergner. It was screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival in July–August 2009, and was originally conceived as a prop for a performance by the singer and musician Marie Hoy (who appears in it). The film juxtaposes and intermixes sculptural and linguistic usurpers or shifters of meaning and sense, and as such, parallels and can be seen in relation to the off the limb theatrical atmospherics and ballistics later characteristically employed in the plays by the Austrian writer/artist Werner Schwab.

Hoy also appeared in Dogs in Space, as front woman of Marie Hoy and Friends, to perform the Boys Next Door's track, "Shivers".Tim Groves of Senses of Cinema observed "Nick Cave fans will appreciate a snippet of the Boys Next Door's version of their classic 'Shivers' (but pine for the rest of the clip, especially when Hoy performs the song at a gig)."

In 1984 Hoy joined post-punk band, Orchestra of Skin and Bone, on lead vocals and keyboards with Arnie Hanna on guitar, David Hoy on cello, Tom Hoy on saxophone, Lochie Kirkwood on vocals and saxophone, Ollie Olsen on lead vocals and guitar, Dugald McKenzie on vocals and autoharp, John Murphy on drums, James Rogers on trumpet and Peter Scully on guitar. They issued a self-titled album in 1985 before disbanding in the following year. Hoy on keyboards, vocals and samples with Olsen formed another post-punk band, NO, in 1987 including Kevin McMahon on bass guitar and Michael Sheridan on lead guitar. They released two albums, 'Glory for the Shit for Brains' (1987) and 'Once We Were Scum, Now We Are God' (1989), before disbanding in 1989.

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