Tarquin to relive a golden musical era, 50 years on

Dust off your flares, platform shoes, halter tops and jump suits, all you Wollongong baby boomers.

This region’s biggest band of the 1970s and 80s is getting back together for a special 50th anniversary gig, and they promise their legion of old (yes, old) fans a night to remember.

No one with an interest in live music in the Gong back in the day hadn’t been to a Tarquin show. The band was everywhere, and fans couldn’t get enough of it.

Frontman Jim McCallum recalls the outfit, named after a Shakespearean character, was the coming together of members from two local groups, Hot Sally and Fool’s Theatre.

The band played its first show in 1976 and within a few weeks – long before the influence of social media – Tarquin was the name on everyone’s lips. They played the music everyone wanted to hear, and they played it mighty well.

Change of the guard

Jim said Tarquin’s arrival was effectively the changing of the guard for the local live music scene. “Show bands like Ron Garbutt and The Premiers, The Executives and The Tornadoes playing Tom Jones and Neil Diamond made way for Tarquin, introducing to audiences the Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs and Supertramp.”

Guitarist Billy Mawer says the band was in such demand they were often playing seven nights a week: “Playing and partying.” All of that, on top of their day jobs.

“It was a very active time with the local clubs,” Billy said. “For example, we could play Mount Pleasant on Monday, Collegians on Tuesday, the University used to run gigs on Wednesday, and we’d do the Fraternity Club, the Dandaloo Hotel and Port Kembla Leagues.”

Bass guitarist Mark Cotterill remembers Friday nights at Wollongong Leagues Club “going off”.

“The club‘s auditorium had a fire rating for 300 and we’d pack 800 kids in there up on the third floor. It was just amazing. Absolutely packed. And it wasn’t just one week or two, it was consistent, for a long time.”

“It was bigger than Donald Trump’s ego back then,” Jim said. “Word got out and the kids came from everywhere, and we were playing the right material. It was yacht rock before anyone called it yacht rock.”

Jim promises it’s exactly the same music they’ll be playing at Tarquin’s 50th anniversary gig at Centro in the city on Saturday, 22 August. The Eagles, Steely Dan, Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, a bit of funk, the Doobies, a bit of disco even. "Early top 40 stuff essentially,” Jim said.

They’d always throw in an original song in each set. “That’s the way you did it back then, to try to mix in some original music. Because if you went out there as a band playing original music you wouldn’t get a gig.”

And there was chart success. The band’s debut single (back in the days of vinyl), a double A-side featuring original songs Summer Ladies/Joker went straight into the top 20 Australia-wide.

'Music everywhere'

Looking back, the Tarquin band members count themselves lucky to have been a part of the region’s music scene when it was probably at its peak.

Legendary music historian Glenn A. Baker, who sadly passed away last week, once claimed the world’s best music scene throughout the 70s and 80s was the South Coast of NSW, Australia.

“There was music happening everywhere. It was extraordinary,” Jim said. ”Major artists like John English, Sherbet, Doug Parkinson and Marcia Hines would come down and play all the bigger venues.”

Tarquin was regularly asked to play support for many of Australia’s biggest acts: Skyhooks, Cold Chisel, Australian Crawl, Sherbet, Mi-Sex, and the livewire Supercharge from England.

It was a very different club/pub vibe in Wollongong and the Illawarra back in the 70s.

“When I first started playing down here the steelworks had 44,000 employees, and after work they just wanted to have a party and spend their money on entertainment,” Mark Cotterill said.

That fitted the Tarquin model perfectly. Fun times, a party atmosphere, and songs every audience member could connect with.

“That’s exactly what we’re planning for our 50th anniversary show at Centro,” Jim said. “It will be music of that era, and of our age group. Baby boomers seem to follow the music they grew up with, which is a big plus for us. No intergenerational angst."

Four of the original band members, Jim McCallum, Bill Mawer, Mark Cotterill and Mark Clifford on keys will be joined by Nick Adams (sax) and John Nichols (drums).

Tickets for the show are now on sale on the Centro website.