GreazeFest 2005 | Review by Lori Lee | Photos by Pix by Pete

Intro: The GreazeFest tests out an all-Australian format and the crowd responds by making it the biggest GreazeFest ever! Special interstate guests include Zombie Ghost Train and Satellite V.

Friday Nite
Friday nite attracted a diverse crowd with all the regular rockabillies, dancers and greazers mixing it up with local punks, glammers and rock-chicks.  Miss Teresa and Her Western Rhythmaires kicked off the weekend with a fine set of vintage she-billy and cowgirl bop, but the crowd was hanging back a little.  Next up were el Borracho, who punched through a fast set of cowpunk and asked the audience “who came along to dance tonite?”, as the crowd was still holding back.  Most of the audience was hanging out on the deck or at the bar, catching up with old pals and new ones in the usual GreazeFest tradition.  By the time The Ten Fours came on, with a strong set of ROCKabilly and voodoo blues, the audience was primed and ready to dance. 

After the Ten Fours finished, the dance floor quickly turned into a starting grid with punters vying for pole position for Zombie Ghost Train.  The Zombies put in a killer set of trashy, horror movie inspired psychobilly, drawn from their first EP and the recent ‘Glad Rags and Body Bags’ full player.  Songs included Graveyard Queen, Deadcat Rumble and Devil Child, plus a cover of Crazy Cavan’s ‘Teddy Boy Boogie’ and Devo’s ‘Girl U Want’, and yes that was me doing ‘the robot’ up the back of the room.  Even a broken guitar string didn’t slow down the Zombies, with the Ten Four’s Gretsch quickly being borrowed to keep the show rolling. 

Let me say it now, as I said this a few times over the GreazeFest weekend, I reckon that Zombie Ghost Train are contenders for the best psychobilly band in the world today. They are a very talented trio who don’t take themselves too seriously, they have a great rapport with their audience, and they put on a professional show, filled with humour, connecting with the audience on their level, resulting in everyone having a great time.  ZGT are off on their first tour of the USA and let’s hope they find every success with American audiences. 

Saturday Nite
Saturday evening saw a huge crowd roll in, filling the room almost to capacity very early in the evening.  It’s been a long time between drinks for The Chrome Daddies and the GreazeFest, but as they opened proceedings for the night, they made up for lost time with a solid set of country-rockabilly that was warmly received by the audience.  Up next was the debut gig from Rumble Kings, who filled the room with a sonic, nitro-fueled, rockabilly and surf sound.  Rumble Kings stem from The Shedmen and West Texas Crude and bring with them a kit of killer tunes that had the dance floor filled with jivers and boppers.  During the bands, Mike da Moocha did a sensational job at the dj desk, matching the music to the moment and keeping the dancers happy.  Thank you Mike, love your work. 

Keeping the BIG sound rolling was The Bone Daddies, aka Zombie Ghost Train Unmasked, who floored everyone with a mixed bag of trad rockabilly covers from Buddy Holly (Blue Days…) to the Stray Cats (Rumble In Brighton).  I always dig it when bands cover original tunes note-for-note and the Bone Daddies did this on two tunes tonite – The Collins Kids ‘Hot Rod’, brought in at the original 2 minutes 15 seconds, plus Crazy Cavan’s ‘My Little Sisters Got a Motorbike’. 

A total change of pace followed when Satellite V hit the stage with a raw and primitive set of hillbilly boogie.  The original crazed hillbilly, Tim Knuckey, led the band through a modest set of hillbilly favourites including Washing Machine Boogie, Beatles Will Miss You Johnny, Speed Limit Daddy, Luther Plays the Boogie.  I tried to sneak off before closing, knowing there was an early start on Sunday, but it was so hard to leave the GreazeFest when all your pals are still partying and there are folks you are still determined to catch up with.  I finally got out of the venue, in time for three short hours sleep, before rising again, like a zombie from the grave, all stiff and lifeless, but determined to complete my mission, to organise the final day of the weekend.

Hot Rod Show
The weather for Sunday was spectacular with blue skies and warm sunshine lighting up these tired eyes.  I met up with the GreazeFest Team at the tender hour of 7am, to set up the Vintage Markets, the Low Brow Art Show and of course, the Hot Rod Show.  The Markets saw a record number of traders turn up for the day with choices from hot rod clothing, car accessories, hillbilly duds, records and cds, custom grill works, second hand frocks, number plates, decals and bric-a-brac.  The Low Brow Art show was filled to capacity with a quality display of works from local kustom kulture artists showing stuff such as illustrations, paintings, collages, pinstripings, tiki carvings and photography.  Special thanks to Peter Walker for pulling together the Low Brow Art Show.  Pete also took most of the photos on the GreazeFest web site, so be sure to check ‘em out.

The big deal of the day was of course the hot rod show and, wow, we sure received a huge turn up of vehicles.  I guess that after six years now, everyone knows what GreazeFest is all about and they know how it works – just rumble in on Sunday, whether you drive a dinged up daily driver or a street rod – just turn up, park, chill out, enjoy the bands and the company and just be part of the day.  There were so many cars that I haven’t seen before, plus there were many that have shed their skin or changed their spots since last year.  The lowrider bicycle turnout was the biggest we’ve even seen and the show had a strong peppering of bobbers and motorbikes. 

GreazeFest Trophies
Regular GreazeFest patrons would know that the GreazeFest ‘King’ trophies are awarded as a fitting representation of the spirit of the GreazeFest, rather than about tech specs or who is better than the rest.  The only rule at GreazeFest is that there are no rules.  Having said that, here are the ‘winners’:

King Rat – Rob Cleave’s Ford pick up ‘Moonshine Runner’
King Rod – John Singleton’s 32 Ford green metal flake pick up. There is no eye-candy sweeter than a full-body metal-flake paintjob twinkling in the August sunshine.
King Kustom – Little Mick’s ‘Moonrunner’.  This is the first time Mick has brought his California sixties inspired bubble car and it just had to take the kustom award, ‘nuff said.
King Kroozer (longest distance) George Lazaridis, red Falcon XP coupe with flames, driven all the way from Melbourne to Brisbane .  Thanks for coming, George.
King Cycle – Stan Thompson’s ‘Bones Lowrider’ – chosen for its basic, black anti-bling attitude.
Trophy Queen – Mandy Pukis – 55 Ford Pickup – Mandy just got this project on the road this year and is very deserving of the first ever Trophy Queen award. 

Cindy from Sh-boomm kindly donated custom number plates for the above awards.

Sunday Bands
Meanwhile, back in the clubhouse, the bands had been rockin’ since 10am in the morning, but not many people realised.  In a frustrating twist of events, the council forbid us to place any amplified music on the oval, so I had to restrict all music to inside the clubhouse. 

DJ Leapin’ Lawrie kept the vintage tunes spinning with a mighty fine selection of hillbilly tracks.  Next up was Corn Liquor, re-established from the now defunct Tractor Jacks, who put in a very fine set of mid-fifties country-billy.  The new band on everyone’s lips, Big Kitty and The Scaredy Cats, produced a strong set of bluesy rockabilly, led by the vocally blessed Big Kitty (aka Anna), who I’m sure we’ll hear from again in the future.  The final band of the day was The Lone Star Valley Boys, who once again played a very entertaining set of honky tonk and hillbilly boogie.  The Lone Stars kicked off the rockabilly jam that included a brief reunion of The Slingshots with Pony, Dan & Tyrone up front (we couldn’t find you Geoff…?).  Also on stage were new southern settlers from Melbourne, Brandi and The Badcats.  I missed a fair bit of the jam, so I can’t give you many more details.  Thanks to everyone who took part.

GreazeFest Post Party
Sounds like a big weekend so far, eh?  Well, if that wasn’t enough, we all headed into Satchmos Café in West End on Sunday nite to witness what will go down as a legendary gig in GreazeFest history.  The medium sized café in West End had no idea what was about to happen, as sixty or so greazers and psychos descended into the room to have one final drink and one final dance.  West Texas Crude was in the corner belting out a killer set of thick’n’chunky rockabilly.  Tables were swiftly moved out of the way as the whole joint started to rock.  People were dancing everywhere – on tables, out the front, out the back, on the stage, even the café owners were swinging out in front of the band. 

Local diners looked on bewildered as psychobillies, rockabillies, cats and kittens roared their approval of the Crude’s songs, toasted each other and the good times just had and danced right up until the final note, not wanting the weekend to come to a close.  C’mon everybody, just one more encore, eh?  So sad to see it end.  I don’t think West End has ever seen anything like what happened in that café that nite, it was a truly wonderful rockabilly moment.

See you next year!

Lori Lee o-[*_*]-o
GreazeFest Director