The Vamps - Australia's first female rock group
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| The Vamps, Brisbane Exhibition Show, September 1966. Six members on stage, including a spruker. |
Wild Girls for Hire
In the December 1965 edition of OZ magazine, Sydney, edited by Richard Neville and Richard Walsh and featuring the art of Martin Sharp, the following brief advertisement appeared on page 4, under the classified ads section:
This rather provocative and inviting notice - put together by Richard Neville, Marsha Rowe and Paul Landa - in an equally provocative magazine, laid it out clearly for all to see - the Vamps were an exciting act and, most notably, the first female rock group in Australia, having formed in April 1965. This is a claim made a decade before that most famous of female rock groups - The Runaways from the United States - made their mark on the charts and in live performance around the world. Groups such as the Vamps were pioneers in an area of entertainment which was dominated by male musicians. Women such as Margaret Britt in Australia and Suzi Quatro in the United States proved, from the mid 1960s, that they could rock, play just as hard, and be as entertaining, as the boys.
The Vamps - Australia's first all female rock band, YouTube, 5 June 2022, duration: 20.15 minutes. Audio documentary featuring interviews with band members. Produced by Melbourne musician and broadcaster Holly Alexander.
As "Wild Girls for Hire" the Vamps exhibited the rebellious spirit of the time and the attraction of youth to popular music as a form of self-expression. By 1966 the counter cultural revolutions sweeping through western societies such as the United States, Great Britain and Australia had well and truly hit the up-until-then dour and conservative Sydney. The wild scenes associated with the Beatles Australian tour of 1964 and the Rolling Stones the following year had opened a veritable Pandora's Box amongst the youth of the country. For decades they were constrained by the conservatism and class-based snobbishness inherent in Australia's position as a subservient outpost of the British Empire, bowing and scraping for King (Queen) and Country. Rock and roll music, and its various offshoots, offered them an outlet for this youthful rebellion.
The Vamps were a reflection of the post-Menzies era as the sexual revolution and psychedelia took over metropolitan centres such as Sydney and Melbourne. The elderly and old-school conservative Robert Menzies resigned as Prime Minister on Australia Day, 26 January 1966, after being in office since 19 December 1949. Local record companies proliferated and released singles by bands such as Reverend Black and the Rocking Vickers and Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, whilst the Easybeats headed to England seeking fame and fortune. Hippies appeared on the scene, drug use increased, protest against the status quo featured in the daily papers, and OZ magazine - a flagship of the counter-culture in Australia - became even more outrageous, with the editors twice charged with issuing an obscene publication, such was the opposition to change from those in authority, including government, the police and the church. Billy Thorpe grew his hair, criticism of the war in Vietnam became more intense and spread across university campuses, and the music scene rapidly evolved from the rebellious rock and roll of the late Fifties and early Sixties into decidedly more bluesy, rocky and sophisticated forms. The Vamps were definitely not Little Pattie, though in 1965 and 1966 her sweet, saccharine "stompie wompie" pop and the like reigned supreme on television shows such as Bandstand and in the Australian charts, even if the youth of the suburbs of Sydney, Melbourne and other capital cities and metropolitan areas were listening to less mainstream music amidst a haze of alcohol and pot. The times were a changing, and something was indeed "Blowin' in the Wind", to use the words of that great messiah of the Sixties, Bob Dylan. The Vamps were out there to have a good time and entertain. "Wild Girls for Hire" was a statement of fact.
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| The Vamps, 1965. Left to right: Babs King, Judy Owen, Kaye Gazzard, Wendy Walton and Margaret Britt. Reproduced in Mondo Weirdo (1992), p.120. |
Female groups had been around for a long time, though usually in the form of vocal combinations such as the 1940s Andrews Sisters and so-called "girl groups" from the late fifties, including The Shirelles. The earliest female rock group - where the members played all their own instruments - was the American Goldie and the Gingerbreads, formed in 1962 and working through to 1967. They were quickly following by a plethora of similar groups, no doubt inspired by the success of The Beatles. Suzi Quatro and her sisters' The Pleasure Seekers from 1964 were a notable example. By the end of 1965 over forty such groups were performing around the world, according to the All-Female Bands of the 1960s website. These included The Fair Sect from New Zealand and the Australian Vamps.
As of the beginning of 2014 the Vamps were not included amongst the 16 bands cited in Wikipedia's list of Australian female groups. This was subsequently expanded to 22 to include the Vamps and its later incarnation Peaches. The band did receive a brief mention in Ian McFarlane's 1999 Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop, as one of over 850 entries. They had also been cited in a couple of Australian music chat groups (e.g. Midoztouch 9 March 2012; Rock n Roll Scars, 9 April 2013), all of which sought further substantive information on the band. A photograph of the 5-piece line-up from 1965 was included in James Cockington's Mondo Weirdo: Australia in the Sixties though without any detailed information (1992). The Vamps remain little known and their history is largely unrecorded because they never released a record in Australia, and no live footage has surfaced to date – though the band made numerous television appearances in Australia and overseas during the 1960s. A single gig poster was exhibited in the Real Wild Child exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, in 1994, and one promotional still surfaced on the internet, showing the Vamps as a 3-piece band, when in fact the fourth member - the drummer - had been excised from the image.
The following account aims to restore the Vamps to the annals of Australian rock and pop music history from the 1960s and 1970s. Apart from being the first all-female rock group, they were also one of the earliest Australian bands to tour extensively outside of the country, spending a substantial period in South East Asia, the Pacific Islands and America. This account is based on limited published and internet sources, and a collection of scrapbooks held by Margaret Britt, along with interviews recorded with Britt and other band members during 2014. It is supplemented by a new Wikipedia entry for the band and also a Facebook page created by Michael Derwin.
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Margaret Britt pre-Vamps 1956-65
Margaret Britt, lead guitarist and founder of the Vamps, had been performing since the age of 2, but not as a musician. Her parents bred and showed horses, and she grew up travelling the agricultural show circuit from her home base of Orange, in western New South Wales, competing in horse shows. Margaret won numerous championships in Hacking, Riding, Jumping, Camp drafting and Harness Classes throughout New South Wales and Queensland, in events such as the Sydney Royal Easter Show and Brisbane Exhibition. Horses were one of her passions. The other was music.
In 1956 Margaret heard Bill Hayley’s Rock Around The Clock and from that moment on felt she was on a mission to play and perform. Initially she and her brother John shared a guitar, but eventually Margaret secured her own and began to pick up tunes by ear. Early in 1959 she started playing in hotels around Orange with her brother John and cousin Gary Britt, despite being under age at the time of these first forays into the professional music scene. They called themselves The Rockets and were paid a total of 30/- (10/- each) for their work. Margaret's talent was prodigious and she quickly acquired the ability and desire to perform instrumentals on the guitar. Gigs in local hotels extended on to the showground circuit with Margaret Castles where Margaret and her various bands were able to hone their skills.
Margaret's repertoire in the early Sixties included songs and instrumentals such as 40 Miles of Bad Road, Detour, Theme from Peter Gunn, Perfidia, Caravan, Sleepwalk, Mott, Sentimental Journey and Guitar Boogie. Rock and roll guitarist Duane Eddy and a large variety of The Shadows music was influential. Her playing was assisted by the purchase in 1962 of a white Gibson Les Paul Custom “Fretless Wonder” solid body guitar with triple PAF pickups and side pull tremolo arm. The guitar was acquired from Dave Bridge, former lead guitarist of early Australian rock and roll band Col Joy and the Joy Boys, and later of the Dave Bridge Quartet (1961-64). The cover of the magazine Teenagers' Weekly for 29 November 1961 featured a picture of Bridge holding the guitar.
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| Dave Bridge Quartet, Teenagers' Weekly, 29 November 1961. |
This white Gibson was used by Britt during her time with the Vamps until 1969 when it was exchanged with guitarist David Lincoln of Sounds Incorporated for a Fender Jazz Master. Britt eventually returned to another white Gibson Les Paul Custom model in late 1969, though that was stolen whilst on tour in the United States. She subsequently picked up a red Gibson SG from a second-hand store for $100 and plays one to this day.
In 1961 the young Margaret Britt went on the showground circuit. Band members varied during the years 1961-4, but initially comprised Margaret, John and Gary Britt. Early in 1962 the band performed at Bathurst as The Zodiacs, and included Margaret, John, Gary and cousin Merle Ryder. Later in the year the line-up changed to include Margaret, Gary, Gus August on sax, Rodney Kreft on vocals and rhythm guitar, and drummer Johnny Landz, who later married the Bee Gees sister Lesley. Kreft eventually left the band and headed to Canada where he fronted an all-female band for a number of years before returning to Australia and making a career as comedian Rodney Rude.
The Zodiacs toured throughout northern New South Wales ("the northern run" as Margaret called it) and in Queensland at Cairns and the Brisbane Exhibition show, performing background music to performers such as strippers, fire-eaters and yogi who pretended to eat live mice and swallow broken glass. Upon being offered a tour of New Zealand, Britt took up the opportunity and quickly followed this with two additional tours. The first New Zealand tour band included Margaret, John, Danny Cox on drums and Merle on rhythm, saxophone and limbo dance. Margaret performed the twist as part of the act. By 1964 the New Zealand tour band comprised Margaret, Kaye Gazzard on vocals, Peter and Colin. It was together for about 5 weeks.
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The Vamps
Early in 1965, whilst in New Zealand, Margaret decided to form the first Australian all-girl rock group. She called them the Vamps and performed under that name, or variants, through to 1977. It was only upon the advice of a local record producer that the name Vamps was then dropped and replaced by Peaches.
* 1965
The Vamps were formed by Margaret Britt in Sydney during April 1965. The initial 4-piece included Margaret Britt (lead guitar), Kaye Gazzard (drums), Judy Owen (rhythm guitar) and Wendy Walton (bass). Gazzard had been with Britt in her previous band on one of the three New Zealand tours. She transferred from vocals to drums for the Vamps. Following their formation the band rehearsed for 6 weeks prior to an inaugural concert at the AMOCO Community Centre, Orange, in June 1965. By this stage Margaret Britt had been performing in bands for more than six years.
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| The Vamps, poster, June 1965. Left to right: Kaye Gazzard, Margaret Britt, Wendy Walton, Judy Owen. |
The event was a sellout, with a crowd of 2,030 in attendance - a record for the venue. Britt noted that, whilst "musically it left a lot to the imagination", in all other respects the concert was a great success. The venue regularly held shows under the banner Stomp City, with all the major Australian rock and pop acts of the Sixties performing there. The repertoire of the Vamps on the night was primarily instrumentals. Gazzard has noted the amazement of the audience at the time that women could play rock and roll.
Following the Stomp City gig the band headed to Sydney to perform at Miller’s Hotel, Blacktown, and other venues around town. For this they got on board a young, blonde 16 year old singer Janice Glading, whose stage name was "Babs" King. During this period the band performed Twist and Shout - a song made famous by the Beatles - on the Don Lane television show. This was the first of many such television appearances by the Vamps. At this stage the band was neatly attired in a formal uniform, similar to many other rock and pop bands of the day.
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| Left to right: Babs King, Judy Owen, Kaye Gazzard, Margaret Britt and Wendy Walton. |
At one stage during 1965 Richard Neville of OZ magazine fame considered managing the band upon seeing them perform in a local Sydney hotel. He subsequently secured them a gig at a venue in Maroubra, a beach side suburb of Sydney that was home of Little Pattie and the Stomp.
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| The Vamps, Maroubra, 1965. Left to right: Kaye Gazzard (drums), Wendy Walton (bass), Margaret Britt (lead guitar), Judy Owen (rhythm guitar) and Babs King (vocals). |
A photograph from the gig shows the band amidst a bevy of valve amplifiers and speakers, with Babs King hidden behind two large PA speaker towers on the right of the stage. According to Margaret Britt:
My amp was made by Mr. Zoltan Julian Mielnik of ZJM Musical Instruments, Oxford Street, Bondi Junction. He supplied a few stores with guitars and amplifiers. I think my amp was a Vadis. He was most helpful and let us rehearse in his shop after it closed. He gave me an amp for Christmas. He was a lovely man.
Mielnik was a Polish immigrant who built amps under the Vedette / ZJM Industries name and also carried out guitar repairs.
In the December 1965 OZ magazine advertisement ‘Wild Girls for Hire’ (see above), the band contacts were given as Marsha Rowe - then working as secretary at OZ - and Paul Landa, who may have been the Sydney solicitor of that name who subsequently became a politician and minister in the New South Wales Labor government (1973-1984). A contract with Richard Neville was drawn up but never followed through. Neville left Australia for England the following February.
Britt noted the following in regard to this initial version of the Vamps and its music during 1965:
Originally, when the very first Vamps came out, that was in the days of the Shadows and the instrumentals. We did so many instrumentals. I pushed everyone else I could to the microphone. And little Babs came in and sang all the vocals – she was blonde and looked a bit like Little Pattie. She only stayed for a little while and we were on the Millers circuit. Babs had to leave the band because she was under age and someone reported us.
* 1966
The original 5-piece line-up of the Vamps played through the second half of 1965 and to the beginning of 1966, at which point a number of members left. In February 1966 Britt put together a new line-up that included Jan Little (drums), Merlene Ryder (rhythm guitar and saxophone, and a cousin of Margaret Britt who was also a member of one of her pre-Vamps bands), Lisa-Kay James (bass guitar and organ, also a cousin of Margaret Britt), Margaret Britt (lead guitar, bass guitar, organ, harmonica) and Elaine Nielsen (organ, vocals). The Vamps then undertook an extensive tour of the showground circuit in Queensland and, at the end of the year, played a number of weeks in Brisbane. This included an engagement at the Brisbane Exhibition Show in September where the band was joined briefly by Babs King as their sixth member. A photograph (reproduced above) from this time shows the six women on a small stage outside the venue, with a spruker introducing them to the crowd. Behind the stage are five huge posters exhorting the talents of the Vamps. Whilst in Brisbane the Vamps performed at Cloudland, The Cave, Storey Bridge Hotel and the Lands Office Hotel, to name a few. They also appeared on the IN television show, performing House of the Rising Sun and Hanky Panky.
Nielsen left in September and was replaced on vocals by Denise Cooper.
1967: At the end of 1966 the Vamps returned to Sydney and played there through to January of 1967 when they travelled south to Victoria and undertook a residency at the Sound Lounge in St. Kilda. A number of members decided to leave at this stage, so Britt got together a new line-up. She had also been offered a 2-year tour of military bases in Vietnam, entertaining the troops. According to the Amoeblog website listing of All-Female Bands of the 1960s, members at the time included: Margaret Britt (lead guitar), Linda Cable (vocals, bass guitar), Terri Scott (rhythm guitar and vocals) and Marilyn Ockwell (drums).
Cable was formerly with the band Grown Up Wrong and later formed The Pussycats with Scott and Ockwell.
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| The Vamps, Melbourne, 1967. Left to right: Terri Scott, Linda Cable, Margaret Britt. The drummer Marilyn Ockwell is to the left of the shot, but not shown. |
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| The Vamps, Sydney, 1967. Left to right: Terri Scott, Linda Cable,Margaret Britt. Marilyn Ockwell not shown. Britt is playing bass. |
Marilyn Ockwell is not included in the photograph on the Amoeblog website, and all the guitars shown were owned by Margaret Britt. This version of the Vamps did a number of gigs and television shows in Melbourne before heading off to Sydney where they once again performed on the Millers circuit, under Showgroup management. In July 1967 Britt decided to change the band line-up and placed an advertisement in the Sydney Herald newspaper for new band members. She quickly secured three replacements, who fortunately gelled musically from the time of the first rehearsal. The new Vamps started at Millers Parramatta the Monday night after Cable and the others left. Band members included in this July 1967 incarnation of the Vamps included Margaret Britt (lead guitar, harmonica, bass, vocals), Julie Hibberd (keyboards and vocals), Valerie Fallon (rhythm guitar, bass and vocals), Carol Middlemiss (drums, vocals) and Denise Cooper (vocals). Millers at Parramatta was a rough pub. During an early Vamps gig a fight broke out amongst the audience and one of those involved bit the ear off another man. As he spat it out, the bloodied ear landed on Julie Hibberd's keyboard. Needless to say she was horrified and nearly fainted. On such occasions Britt would tell the band members to "keep on playing, but faster". This episode brings to mind that famous Rawhide scene out of the Blues Brothers movie, where Jake and Elwood face an initially hostile crowd, before eventually winning them over.
In regards to the type of music the Vamps played at the time, the gig poster included in the Real Wild Child Australian Rock and Roll Exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, in 1994, according to one report, "made them look like a rebellious beat / garage combo." However, the inclusion of Hibberd on keyboards expanded the band's repertoire from the rock and roll emphasis of the early years into areas of soul and rhythm and blues, whilst maintaining the pop element.
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Vietnam 1967-8
In September 1967 the Vamps left Sydney for Vietnam, stopping off on the way at Noumea, New Caledonia, for a residency. They arrived in the war zone the following month and stayed through to March 1968, performing at American, Australian, Korean and South Vietnamese bases. Initially they were allocated a tour manager, who was paid $200 a week by the promoter to drive the band around in a kombi van. When he kept getting lost, Britt sacked him and took over driving duties and general management of the tour. The Vamps travelled throughout South Vietnam without military escort, and were not generally accosted by the Viet Cong, who were everywhere and aware that they were young entertainers. It was nevertheless a dangerous place to be. At one point the kombi van came under machine gun fire, but Margaret gunned it and escaped, with only a few bullet holes in the back of the van evidence of the encounter. Apart from the normal dangers and trauma of war, the stifling heat of the tropical Vietnamese climate also took its toll, as did exposure to chemical defoliants such as Agent Orange.
In November 1967, whilst on stage entertaining United States troops at the front line Landing Zone Ross base north of Da Nang, the Vamps came under a mortar attack from the Viet Cong, located just 200 yards away.
The Vamps, Landing Zone Ross, November 1967. It was during this performance that the band was forced to leave the stage due to a Viet Cong mortar attack. Left to right: Julie Hibberd, Margaret Britt, Denise Cooper, Carol Middlemiss and Valerie Fallon.
Quickly hurried into the safety of bunkers, Margaret Britt protested and dashed back on stage to retrieve a precious piece of stage equipment - her Dynacord Ecolette guitar echo unit - much to the horror of her American protectors. The band members were eventually evacuated from L.Z Ross by chopper.
[Vamps in Vietnam PODCAST]
In January 1968, whilst in Saigon, the Vamps were awarded a plaque by the US forces citing their bravery and performance, and noting that they were the first band to perform on the front line after a period of major conflict between the Vietcong and opposing forces. During that period Britt was also caught in the middle of a sniper attack one evening whilst on the roof of the hotel where the band was staying. In an episode reminiscent of something straight out of Francis Ford Coppola's epic film Apocalypse Now, at the time of the Tet Offensive in late January 1968 the band members were feared missing while on tour. Their whereabouts caused some anxiety back home in Australia until it was announced in the newspapers that they had been located, safe and well. The Canberra Times of 6 February 1968 reported the incident as follows, referring to both the Vamps and Linda Cable's Pussycats:
Australian girls safe
SYDNEY, Monday. — The parents of two groups of Australian girl entertainers who have been touring Vietnam have been told that their daughters are safe. The British Embassy in Saigon has announced that the five members of the Vamps touring team have been located after it was reported that they were missing following Vietcong actions in the city.
Father flies to Vietnam
The father of one of the girls flew to Vietnam yesterday to seek his daughter. He is Captain Stewart Middlemiss, father of the Vamps' drummer, Carol, 19. In Melbourne, it was reported that the four girl members of the Pussycats group are safe and well in Saigon. The girls, Terri Scott, 22, of South Caulfield, Marilyn Ockwell, 19, of Frankston, Linda Cable, 19, of Glen Waverley, and Suzanne Lutge, 19, of Cremorne, Sydney, were supposed to arrive in Sydney last Thursday. They have been in Vietnam for the past three months entertaining American troops. In Canberra, a Department of External Affairs spokesman said that although little was known of Australian civilians stranded by the fighting in Vietnam, no fears were held for their safety. The spokesman said 205 Australian civilians, mostly aid workers and business men, had been registered with the Australian Embassy in Saigon at the end of 1967. But Australian civilians were not obliged to register.
A great many Australian and United States bands toured Vietnam during this period, including Suzi Quatro and her sisters in the Pleasure Seekers, and the Jules Blattner Group, both of which would be encountered by the Vamps during their subsequent tour of the United States. Both the Vamps and the Pleasure Seekers shared the same management at the time of the Vietnam gigs. Between 1967 and 1971 some 50 Australian troupes took part in such tours. In 2003 film maker Mara Wallis released Entertaining Vietnam which was a 53 minute long documentary account of Australian performers in the country during the war (Wallis 2003). Three member of the Vamps were interviewed - Carol Middlemiss, Denise Cooper and Julie Hibberd.
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Southeast Asia and the Pacific
Whilst en route to Vietnam, in September 1967 the Vamps performed in Noumea, French New Caledonia. After leaving Vietnam in March 1968 they worked in Singapore and Mt Isa, Queensland, before returning to Sydney and Melbourne. At the latter gig they appeared under the name The Original Vamps, as Linda Cable's band had appeared there late in 1967 when the real Vamps were on their way to Vietnam.
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| The Vamps, promotional shot, 1968. Left to right (rear): Joy Carrol, Carol Middlemiss, Julie Hibberd, Denise Cooper and Margaret Britt. Front: Margaret Britt. Photograph: Parisian Studios, Bondi Junction. |
Around this time Valerie Fallon left to return to England where she worked as a journalist. She was replaced by Joy Carrol. Prior to leaving Australia Fallon penned an article on the band for the Australia women's magazine New Idea.
In September the Vamps headed off on an extensive, 6 month tour of South East Asia and the Pacific Islands tour. This took then to Tahiti, Taiwan, Subic Bay in the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore. The band returned to Australia in February 1969.
Britt noted in regards to the musical arrangements at the time that "anyone who came into the band to play bass I taught them to play rhythm guitar, and vice versa, because I wanted to switch off. When Julie Hibberd played – a dynamite keyboard player – we used to do lots of soul and instrumentals – James Brown, Wilson Picket, Otis Redding. That’s what we played on the TV shows." The American soul and rhythm and blues numbers were especially popular during the Vietnam tour. Songs such as Green Onions and We Gotta Get Out of This Place by the Animals were a staple.
Whilst the Vamps were out of the country in 1967-8 the Australian music scene - in a somewhat delayed reflection of what was happening in the United States and England - was seeing a dramatic transformation. This was brought about in no small part by the introduction of psychotropic drugs such as marijuana and LSD after 1966, and an associated rebelliousness. Following the example of the Beatles and their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which was release in May 1967, local bands began to write original material and the LP slowly gained prominence over the 7 inch single. Musicianship came to the fore, with guitarists such as Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix having a profound effect on the rock music industry, whilst soul and rhythm and blues were flourished in the United States. Australian bands were starting to issue records following on an explosion in beat bands mid decade. By 1969 bands such as Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, the Masters Apprentices, the Loved Ones, Zoot, Tully, the La De Das and Spectrum were gaining popularity and providing soundtracks for the ever popular surf movies screening in picture theatres along the east and west coasts of Australia. The American Woodstock festival of July 1969 was replicated on a much smaller scale in places such as Sunbury (Victoria). As a touring, all-female band, the Vamps were not part of this male-dominated local scene as such. They were not recorded, and did not feature in local music magazines such as Go-Set, being only mentioned in passing. Playing the game in the pop music world was obviously something that did not attract the band, who was more interested in pursuing their musical goals. When the offer of an American tour came up in 1969, Britt and the band therefore grabbed it.
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United States 1969-75
The Vamps left Australia on Mothers Day, May 1969 for a 8-week tour of the United States and stayed for 6 years. The 4-piece initially comprised Margaret Britt, Carol Middlemiss, Julie Hibberd and Joy Carroll. Middlemiss departed in September and was replaced by American Mary Kay Kuenzli. At the end of 1970 both Carroll and Kuenzli left and were replaced by the Petrak sister, Cheryl and Micky. They were part of the line-up when the Vamps performed at Tehachapi Prison, California, in February 1971. Whilst in the US the Vamps were playing the pop music of the time, covers - no originals, soul and rhythm and blues, much like most other bands on the circuit. In some instances they were working for the Mafia, who treated the Vamps well and "no questions were asked" by the expatriates. At one gig there was a fight in the audience and a man with shot with an M16 rifle as Joy Hibberd was out front singing House of the Rising Sun. Eventually members of the band got homesick and/or fell in love and left. One of the bands they came into contact with was the Jules Blattner Group, a soul group which had also toured Vietnam at the time of the Tet Offensive and similarly been caught up in helicopter gunship evacuations and sniper bullets. Margaret married the bass play from the group, Jon Kirk.
Shortly after the prison gig, the Petraks left and the band became Jon and the Australian Vamps, comprising Margaret Britt, Jon Kirk, Julie Hibberd and American Diane Smith. This 4-piece worked through to the latter part of 1971. Smith left for a period and the group was joined by drummer Nancy Kuminkovski. In September 1971 Jon and the Australian Vamps recorded two 7" singles at Reflection Sound Studios, Charlotte, North Carolina for Jollie Ollie Productions, Kansas. The first single was "Bobby McGee" featuring Margaret Britt and "Are You Ready" by Pacific Gas & Electric, featuring Jon Kirk. The second single comprised "It's Too Late" featuring a vocal by Julie Spander and "Feeling Alright" featuring Jon Kirk.
Jon & the Australian Vamps, Feelin' Alright, September 1971, duration: 4.05 minutes. NB: Taken off a disc, with some jumps.
Jon & the Australian Vamps, It's Too Late, September 1971, duration: 2.54 minutes.
Both were released in stereo by the Snyder Album Company and were intended for use by the US military forces. At the end of 1971 Smith subsequently rejoined the band and following a brief visit to Australia in April 1972 both her and Hibberd left upon their return to the States.
In the United States the Vamps were a road group, constantly touring alongside bands such as jazz musician Buddy Rich and Suzi Quatro's Cradle. It was usual for them to do 2-3 week residencies. The Vamps and Quatro shared the same management again around 1970. At one point both bands were in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and they all stayed at the same hotel and jammed, with Suzi playing the bass of Britt's husband John Kirk. Suzi's sister was noted by Britt as a great lead player. The members of the Vamps were able to see a lot of music during this time as it was common for bands who had early shows to go and check out other bands in towns. This resulted in Britt seeing legends such as Fats Domino and jamming in hotel rooms with the likes of Quatro and members of her band.
After the departure of Smith and Hibberd, Britt and Kirk subsequently put together an 8-piece band, with three women and five men, and Britt the only Australian. Everyone in the band played at least five instruments, with Britt on congas, timpani, banjo, bass, keyboards and lead guitar. Her husband Jon fronted the band, dancing, rapping and singing. They performed around the country and at events such as the Kentucky Derby and the Indianapolis 500. Based out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, they had gigs in Las Vegas, Birmingham, Nashville, St. Petersburg, Lake Tahoe and Hawaii, to name a few. All told some 38 States were visited by the band between 1969-75. During their six years there they also received a Billboard award as "Best Female Vocal and Instrumental Group". According to Britt, perhaps the best band she was ever in was this final version of Jon and the Australian Vamps.
In 1975 Britt and Kirk returned to Australia and performed throughout eastern Australia as the Vamps, including a gig in outback Birdsville.
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Peaches
During 1977 Britt put together a new all-female line-up which toured and later, upon the recommendation of Gene Pierson of Laser Records, the name Vamps was dropped and replaced with Peaches. They had a hit during 1978 with the Willie Harry Wilson pop song Substitute, originally released in the United States by the Righteous Brothers during 1975. The single reached number 1 in Sydney, number 4 in Tasmania and number 1 in New Zealand. A clip of the band miming the song on Australian pop music show Countdown is available on YouTube. Footage of the band was also taken for a New Zealand television program around that time.
Substitute, Peaches, Countdown, 1978, YouTube, duration: 3.00 minutes.
This was the final line-up of the band, apart from the keyboard player. The Peaches 7" 45rpm single Substitute / Keep on Dancing was released by Laser Records in Australia as a Disc Jockey Production. Sue Kirby, one of the members, made the following brief comment on the YouTube site in regards to her time with Peaches: "The song made No 1 in Tasmania April 1979. After touring there for 8 weeks, we headed off to New Zealand for 4 months. Yes, I agree, this band should have hit the big time. Always issues with management." Noel McGrath's rather strange entry for the band in his 1978 Australian Encyclopedia of Rock & Pop - which makes no reference to the Vamps or the Pussycats - reads as follows:
PEACHES
Line-up: Hitler (also known as Margaret Kirk, lead vocals, guitar); Huck (drums); Trop (bass); The Nun (keyboards). The all-girl Sydney band was formed in 1976 and was based around the experience and talent of Margaret Kirk. The drummer, Huck, had previously played with Suzi Quatro. In September 1978 Peaches had a hit in Sydney with their version of Substitute. The song charted well enough in Sydney to crack national top twenty. The other version of the song by the South African band Clout sold well elsewhere in Australia and reached number twelve. Peaches Substitute was backed by Keep on Dancing.
The Hitler reference arises out of the fact that Britt was seen as a very hard taskmaster by those associated with the band. Britt had to disband Peaches in Perth during 1980 due to ill health, resulting in part from the ill-effects of Agent Orange arising out of her tour of Vietnam in 1968, and also a road accident she was involved in shortly after returning from the United States.
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Margaret Britt - the 80s and 90s
Britt toured the South Pacific island of Noumea on a number of occasions, with the Vamps, Peaches and solo. She was so popular there that she wrote a couple of songs for her fans in the native language.
During the early 1980s Britt appeared in The Fifties show band and received a MO Award for her work there.
The Fifties with Margaret Britt and Alita, Seven Hills RSL, 1984. Duration: 7 minutes.
She also performed at the Fifties reunion show, singing and playing harmonica and guitar.
Britt played a residency at the New Orleans hotel in Kings Cross. This involved working 7 nights a week for three years, though she remembers this time fondly, with "magic playing" on many occasions. Musicians such as the singer Delilah would join the band on stage to jam. Others to join in included the bass player from the visiting US band Bananarama, the drummer from the Beach Boys, and friends Doug Clark and Peter Northcote.
Britt also freelanced during this time, and at one stage was a member of two working bands - a popish trio comprising Neil Pepper on bass and Keith Longham from Ol'55 and Jeff St John and the Id from 7 until 10, and then another - at the Texas Tavern, Kings Cross, into the wee small hours. This latter band would play more rhythm and blues music, such as J.J. Cale and rocky numbers such as Born to be Wild.
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Skyz the Limit 2000+
During the 2000s Britt teamed up with New Zealand musician (bass player) Michael Derwin to form Skyz The Limit - a covers band which performed in the New South Wales club circuit, with a wide range of covers from the Fifties onwards. The 2-piece was supplemented on occasion by Jon Kirk on vocals, keyboards and harmonica. Britt had also worked for many years with bass player Terry McDonough. She continues to plays a Gibson SG and appears to have preferred this guitar since the 1960s. Brett continues to play lead guitar, bass, harmonica and vocal. She has overcome health problems during her career in order to keep performing, booking her own gigs and "hustling" to remain on the circuit. Her belief in the saying "If you don't use it you loose it" has continued to drive her performance. She is an aggressive guitar player, preferring rhythm and blues, though able to play any modern genre. She has been a lead and rhythm guitar player for 50 years and continues to enjoy playing bass and harp (harmonica). Instrumentals are a forte.
Skyz the Limit, Steamy Windows, Mittagong RSL, 9 August 2014. Duration: 4.22 minutes.
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Appendix 1 - Margaret Britt's guitars
As noted above, in 1962 Margaret purchased for £200 a white Gibson Les Paul Custom “Fretless Wonder” solid body guitar with triple PAF pickups and side-pull tremolo arm. The guitar was acquired from Dave Bridge, former lead guitarist of early Australian rock and roll band Col Joy and the Joy Boys, and later of the Dave Bridge Quartet (1961-64). The cover of the magazine Teenagers' Weekly for 29 November 1961 featured a picture of Bridge holding the guitar. Margaret used this guitar in Australia from early1962 through to just prior to leaving for the United States in April 1969. At that time she swapped it for a [2] Fender Jazzmaster, which she took with her to the US. However, after 2 weeks there she tired of it and traded it in for an [3] early 1960s red Gibson SG with a tremolo arm that she purchased for $150 from a pawn shop in Nashville. This guitar was subsequently stolen, in Memphis, and she then purchased another [4] red SG which she used from 1969 through to 1987 and her return to Australia. In 1987, whilst working in Kings Cross, this guitar was stolen. A friend Doug Clarke then lent her [5] another guitar until 1993 when she purchased a [6] 1970s Gibson SG from the SG Drouyn shop. She has used this guitar up until the present day (2022). The owner of the original 1962 guitar sent Margaret a picture of it in 2020, wherein it was revealed to have been subject to major changes, including the removal of the tremolo arm and changing the paint scheme from white to red. Margaret stated that it was basically unrecognizable from the guitar she used throughout the sixties.
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Acknowledgements
This blog has been compiled with assistance from Margaret Britt and Gaye McFarlane, for which I am extremely grateful.
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Appendix 2: Whose on first?
According to a Facebook posting on 28 August 2023 by male singer Nicola Gazzana, formerly known as Tony Satann: The first female band a bit before the Vamps were the Kontacts. A five piece out of Melbourne that also backed me [during August 1966] on one hell of an interstate tour together with another very unique band the Mystrys. An unforgettable experience. We did a gig at Andamooka, an opal mining town in South Australia, [and] some paid in opal for admission. The Sammy-lou blog posting from November 2015, describes in some detail the Mystrys / Kontacts country tour which took place in July - August 1966. The Kontacts were at the time cited as Australia's only All-Girl band in a Port Lincoln Times advertisement for a 11 August 1966 South Australian gig. The two bands were still performing together in Melbourne during October. The Fabulous All-Girls Band The Kontacts were previously known as the Mojettes. It is unclear whether their formation predated the Vamps in April 1965. No other alll-girl Australian band is known from this period of the 1960s, nor is there any further information known on the Kontacts after 1966.
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| The Mojettes, undated publicity shot. |
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References
Alexamder, Holly, The Vamps - Australia's first all female rock band, YouTube, 5 June 2022, duration: 20.15 minutes.
Britt, Margaret, Skyz the Limit [website], http://www.skyzthelimit.com.au/. Accessed 10 April 2014.
Cockington, James, Mondo Weirdo: Australia during the Sixties, Mandarin Press, Port Melbourne, 1992, 355p.
Linda Cable: Singer Songwriter [website], http://http://lindacable.net/. Accessed 10 April 2014.
Marks, Ian D. and MacIntyre, Iain, Wild About You: The Sixties Beat Explosion in Australia and New Zealand, Verse Chorus Press, 2011, 352p.
McFarlane, Ian, Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Roll, 1999.
Music Finder, The Vamps (band) Australia, Music Finder [webpage], accessed 2 March 2022.
'Musician and Entertainer Absolutely Recommends Shin Yen', The Epoch Times, Sydney, 11 February 2011. [Interview with Margaret Britt].
McGrath, Noel, Noel McGrath's Australian Encyclopedia of Rock & Pop, Rigby, 1978, 410p.
Messner, Kerri-Anne, Sue recalls sweet days in Peaches, The Bulletin, 22 September 2012.
Organ, Michael, The Vamps [blog], blogger.com, 11 April 2014.
-----, The Vamps (Australian Band), Wikipedia, 2014.
Payne, Mack, 114VNN - Vietnam War Entertainers - The Vamps [podcast], Vietnam Veteran News, episode #114, 25 August 2014. Duration: 10.19 minutes. Includes a large number of comments.
Wallis, Mara, Entertaining Vietnam [documentary], 2003, duration: 53 minutes.
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Last updated: 29 August 2023
Michael Organ, Australia
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