The Story So Far.....

"Basically, I was sick to death of playing 'Quando Quando, Quando' every night and waking up with someone's Auntie the next morning, so when the chance came to head south to Australia, I was out of there, man".

Around the same time, in Australia, trouble was brewing in the little known, Perth band, Mass. Guitarist Bob Kennedy recalls,

"well mate, the problem was we were a MASS-ive pile of crap and nobody inside or outside of the band seemed to care, so I split".

Disillusioned, he decides to travel and goes country,

"man I'll tell you, those were some pretty crazy times mate, yeah. One time I had this job where I would sell guitar solos to this farmer. He had speakers rigged around his fields, 3000 Hectares in all. He would play 'em really loud to scare the crows of his crop. True story mate…."

After Bobs nine or so months of travelling, he decides to check things out in Sydney.

"Yeah, Sydney, great rock town, mate. If I couldn't get meself a good band there, then there's always emu farming."

Around the same time, summer 99, Keith, now relocated to Sydney was, working hard as a barman, working harder on getting a band together and most importantly shacked up with someone who wasn't someone's auntie, answers an add in a local music rag, "guitarist wants to form band to out-Sabbath Sabbath, if you've got the balls call Bob on (02) 9252 XXXX……."
Enter TUSA a band formed with two brothers, Cormac (Drums) and Owen (Vocals) Ahearn. Keith recalls

"yeah, we called ourselves several things at first but settled on TUSA, the word means "you" in the Irish language, and played around Sydney for a month or two, doing a mix of originals and Black Sabbath numbers".

Things were going OK but something was missing, that was until one night, while out with some friends, Bob spotted someone who, he knew, was that missing link.

"Well, I was seventeen then, too young to be in a club by law, but it was me mate, Andy's brothers, stag, and we were on one hell of a session"

Paul (drummer) remembers.

"There was this Chinese 'men at work' tribute band, called 'men at wok', playing. Now by this time the boys had had a little bit too much to drink and were giving them some serious stick, which their fans (who were half the laundry services of Sydney ) didn't appreciate. Next thing you know, chairs, tables and glasses, you name it, went everywhere mate, ya know, a total free for all. The band had obviously headed for higher ground so I went up and started bashing out a beat on the drums, sort of rhythms to be mutilated by. Eventually when it all calmed down, Bob comes over and I was in"

So Paul was in, but in firing their old drummer, Cormac, they lost his brother Owen on vocals. This problem would soon to be solved when soon after, Bob spotted ads put up by local promoter John Anderson.

"He was really into his tribute bands, especially the heavy ones, and he had this idea of holding a competition to see who was the definitive Australian Black Sabbath Tribute band. The idea being that bands from the major cities like Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne, etc. would slug it out on their own turf and the winners would then take part in a battle of the bands in Melbourne."

(Bob knew winning this would mean more money, travel and possibly a way to get their originals heard).
Paul takes up the story,

"The three of us, me, Bob and Keith were pretty tight by then, we had lots of Sabbath songs down , but we still need an Ozzy figure, you know, someone to really get them going, mate. Anyway, one night, I'm coming home from me Sheila's. and I see, no! no!…. I heard this guy and he's standing on top of a garage serenading a girl through her bedroom window. Now she not too impressed at hearing war pigs bellowed at her, at two in the morning and even less impressed with the growing number of lights being switched on in neighbouring apartments. Soon angry neighbours are shouting oceans of abuse, and threatening to come down and this guy's trying to get them to clap their hands and sing along, I mean it was f**king hilarious. Next thing I hear sirens in the distance, so knowing I'd found our man, I bagged him and had him kip at my place".

Trev recalls,

"I followed me girl to Australia, some three or four months after she left Dublin, Ireland, only to find out when I got there, that she's shacked up with some other c**t already. So this particular night, I was really drunk and decided to serenade her, win her back with a bit a class. But unfortunately I only knew Sabbath songs. That's when me old mate Billy Bong probably saved me from a night in the slammer. Soon after he introduced me to the guys and we kinda clicked, I mean I had no other reason to be in Australia now, so why not give it a blast."

Soon after, a month or so of rehearsals, they were ready and when the night came they wiped the floor with the Sydney opposition. Going under the name of Phoney Tony Iommi and The Iron Men they claimed first prize and the trip to Melbourne was on.

"Well to be honest," Keith remembers "the Sydney trials were fairly straight forward, but we knew Melbourne would be a different story".

It was in Melbourne that they learned who the real competition would be, from Brisbane a group of Pakistan descent, called Black Kababath.

"Those guy's were pretty hot (no pun intended) but I felt we could take them". Bob recalls, "their singer was too ethnic sounding really, he kind of sounded like he was calling you to a mosque, not that that was a bad thing, just not Sabbath."

The boys knew the real problem would be, the near legendary, Aboriginal Black Sabbath.

"Those guys were awesome mate, they were playing two thousand seaters and had a really big cult following" Paul recalls, "but when the time came, I had an insurance plan. Half an hour before they were due to go on, I spiked their drummer's, Skippy Ambogalu, drink",

with what he later described as "a cocktail of me grandpa's pills" (his grandpa was suffering from delusions, thinking he was Napoleon Bonaparte amongst others).

"See, Aborigine's can't tolerate much grog, mate and, well, the pills, they were to be the real insurance."

What then happened went down in local folklore. During their third song Black Sabbath, Skippy leaped up from his drum kit, set his hair on fire and ran out of the building ranting and raving as his band mates stood in shock. At first, people thought that it was part of the act until it became clear that he wasn't coming back. Later, when the local fire brigade removed him from the steeple cross of nearby St. Annes parish church, he said he had seen the devil in the audience and needed to purge himself.
It was then the boy's went on and played out of their skins and won the coveted prize. It was that very night that Rob Phoney Tony (Guitar), Trev (Vocals), Keith (Bass) and Billy Bong Ward (Drums) really came into being. The Australian Black Sabbath was born. A band on a mission to purge your souls for rock'n'roll. (but not with Billy Bongs grandpa's pills)
God bless you all,

Kelly Vance, (The Buzz) 01-09-00