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Biography In 'newest first' order
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February 2006 - Salvation
In February 2006, in the wake of yet another failed attempt to justify myself and solve the
riddle of my inability to fit in anywhere or find something resembling happiness in my
daily experience, I attended a grace fellowship where the preacher was preaching mid-Acts
dispensationalism, the King James Bible and that Paul is our apostle.
At the time I was quite hostile toward him. I didn't get it. I had rarely ventured out of
the red letter words of the earthly Jesus and couldn't see why
Paul was so important. He came along later and hadn't met the Lord.
The preacher said "aah.. but he met the risen and glorified Lord - surely his words are
even more important". He then went on to explain that the risen and glorified Lord
revealed to Paul a simple gospel to be preached among us Gentile
dogs!!! (Matthew 15:22-28, Galatians 1:11-12.)
I suspect that I had some divine help because rather than storm out in anger,
I thought to myself "maybe he's right". The Spirit came upon me at that moment and I
realised later that I had been saved.
I have even figured out why I got saved at that moment -
because in accepting Paul as my apostle, I was implicitly totally believing in the
resurrection of the Lord. Why?
Because that's who Paul got his gospel from (Galatians 1:11-12).
OK, I know that believing that the Lord 'died for our sins according to the scriptures
and that he was buried' is also part of Paul's gospel as declared in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4,
but believing 'that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures' is the clincher.
"And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead:" (Romans 1:4 AV)
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9 AV)
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I also strongly believe that although I had hovered around the Bible and Christian
fellowships for many years, the
Lord held off saving me until I rightly related to him - as a GENTILE. In the past
I had sat at the feet of
Jesus as though I was a member of his holy nation of priests - Israel. I had never seen
that the Lord was not sent to us Gentiles during his first coming (Matthew 15:24), but that he
had recruited a special apostle and sent him to us later on - after he had ascended to heaven
(Acts 1:9, Acts 22:21, Romans 11:13).
Being a Gentile myself, I am now getting my doctrine from the apostle Paul's epistles to
the Gentiles. These have taught me that I am living in the
dispensation of grace; that all of my efforts to justify myself are in vain; that I need
only keep the faith that I first had when I got saved - that Paul's words are the commandments
of the Lord for me (1 Corinthians 14:37) and that according to Paul's gospel I am dead, buried
and resurrected with the Lord and have an eternal destiny in heaven.
It was allowing myself to
be educated into this amazing simplification and clarification of my situation that first got me
saved. The Spirit of Christ brought a quantum leap in my faith and a new passion into my heart -
studying the scriptures and writing about my growing scriptural understanding. I indeed feel 'truly saved'.
Although life is still full of trials and tribulations I am better able to cope and to see
that they too are the will of God - to develop patience and longsuffering in me.
More on being saved......
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2004 Hurtle Music Studio
Late in 2003 I acquired my first multitrack recording software package.
I began recording my own originals (very badly) late in 2003 and started recording
the efforts of other local songwriters in 2004. Work in my home studio has escalated
over the years.
I have learned a thing or two and upgraded my hardware and software as I can afford it. I
have set up the Hurtle Music Studio page so you can
listen to samples of the music that other
songwriters have recorded here: George Paul, Darryl Bisset, Jack Gielen, Le Pan,
Lola Jamieson, Rowayne, Te Huia and Dogs of Babylon.
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1991-2007 The Blues
During my time in the Mods II, I came to especially love the style and sound of Eric Clapton
and discovered that he was more grounded in the blues than most
other rock guitarists of his generation. With the help of blues harpist Kerry Kostanich at the Victoria
Street Record Exchange and another local blues harpist called Willie Finlay, I gradually expanded my knowledge of blues
music, particularly that which resulted from the British blues boom of the late sixties.
All of my favorite guitarists of that period - Peter Green, Paul
Kossof, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Abrahams, Mike Bloomfield - also had
derived their styles from American blues guitarists like Buddy Guy,
Freddie King, Albert King, BB King, Otis Rush and others. It was good to become a musician
primarily motivated by love of the music rather than the mad
desire for riches and glory which characterised my earlier efforts in the music scene.
I regularly played at the Hamilton Blues Society's monthly jams and tried to form a blues/rock
band a few times during the 90s. Around 2001 I was recruited
by Bryon Steenson's RiverRockers and played many pub gigs and jazz and blues festivals with
them until February 2007.
Me and Nate Taiapa playing some blues on White Ribbon Day, Nov 2006
My second marriage to Christine in 1992 only lasted until late 1993 but we have remained friends and 'buddy supporters' to this day.
Christine and I surrounded by family members, February 1992.
Beau (aka Bonus) was a runaway German Shepherd/Staffy cross puppy that ran into my flat and
attacked my toes in 1989. So began a long partnership. Rosie (aka
Ted Bear, Hurtle) the Jack Russel cross joined the troupe while Christine and I were together,
late in 1992. After Christine and I split, Rosie, Bonus and I
remained a "gang of three" until Beau's death in 2004. Rosie died in 2007.
Beau, Rosie and me in back of the last house in Rawhiti Street, Frankton.
We were briefly a "gang of four" around 1996 when I took on a homeless big female bitser
that was only ever known as Pup. She was tragically killed by a car
when I was walking the dogs late one night in Frankton.
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1988-1991 The Mods II
In 1988 another ex-Mod and I put together the Mods II and played the pubs around Hamilton,
Tauranga, Rotorua and South Auckland. I returned to my first
instrumental love, guitar, and bought the Gibson L6-S that I still use today. With the help
of a Wolf Marshall tuitional video, I learned some basic lead
guitar. I was pretty slow and limited but what I lacked in technique I made up for in
enthusiasm. We played covers of the 1960s bands - Beatles, Rolling
Stones etc. I went a bit stale on the material and left in 1991.
Mods II around 1989. (John Bisset, Rob Port, Kevin McNeil, Graham Dukeson and Dean Adamson)
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1983-1988 The big, dry, grim
My programming experience landed me a job with Ecolab in Te Rapa, only a couple of weeks after
my discharge from the psycho ward in Randwick. I was paranoid, depressed and resentful - the whole
screwed-up alcoholic package. I continued drinking, but a bitter and twisted, lonely, drunken misfit
was violently rejected by the bar population of Hamilton and I retreated to drinking in my room,
much to the concern of my flatmates. I tried to end it all around September 1984 but only succeeded
in causing extra work for the local ambulance and emergency services and being forced to move to a
lonely room in a hostel.
Extreme loneliness, hopelessness and paranoia brought me to an extreme decision - I quit
drinking and started attending 12-step recovery groups for alcoholics. I don't think I really believed
I was an alcoholic at first but suddenly I had a bunch of friends and meetings I could attend
nearly every night of the week. I worked as a programmer by day and went to meetings by night.
I was not happy (nor was anyone around me) but I stuck it out and gradually life got more tolerable.
Around 1987-88 I spent about six months working and living in Auckland. I was able to attend
a recovery group (or two) every day and found a group which was always kind to me in spite of my
miserable state. I bumped into a former member of the Action in a music store and learned that
he had become a Christian pastor many years prior. He visited me in my little Mount Wellington
flat and offered to pray for me before he left. I had complained that my brain felt like
it was in a vice. There was a dreadful pressure in my head which kept me miserable and totally
negative. He asked God (in the name of Jesus) to "remove the pressure from John's head". I was
cynical and unbelieving but polite toward him regarding his well-intended (but to my negative
mind, naïve) Christian prayer.
About a month later I was home in bed, drifting off to sleep
after attending my favourite recovery group. I started dreaming and heard beautiful, classical music -
like Beethoven but better. The music built to a massive crescendo, like one I had heard in
Gustav Holst's "The Planets", and then the orchestra thundered with an almighty chord. Something
like electricity flowed mightily through my brain and spinal chord. It had a cleansing power -
gobbling up all the negativity like Pac-Man. My whole body was convulsing though it was a
totally pleasurable experience. I awoke on the floor and turned on the light. The negative
pressure was gone and I felt light-headed and not full of fear and loathing. I rang my Action
Christian friend some weeks later and told him about my experience. He seemed unsurprised
and said "Oh, thats God". I wish I could say that was the end of my negativity and depression
but it kept coming back, though never with the vice-like intensity prior to my experience. And
whenever the negativity builds up to a certain point I have a repeat experience of the nocturnal
healing energy - though never as spectacular as the first one. I have heard Derek Prince speak
of his experiences with "heavenly electricity" and I heard a lady in a 12-step group speak of
"God's laser" so I don't feel so unique or weird.
I drifted away from 12-step recovery groups during the 1990s. I cannot fully tell
my story at a 12-step group without breaking their tradition that they "are not allied
with any sect, denominination, politics, organisation or institution". I was saved in 2006
after the daily use (for three years) of a prayer I learned from one of the recovery stories
where the member described the simple way he practised step 11. Every morning he asked "God,
please show me your will for me today". My present Christian understanding has little
or no similarity to the teachings of 12-step groups except the central theme of faith in God
(though in 12-step groups you are not restricted to the God of the Bible).
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1981-1983 Diamond Cutter
My love of London women, pubs and beer slowed me down somewhat, but I eventually returned to
Sydney, Australia in 1981. I managed to score a programming gig with LaPorte Chemicals in
Banksmeadow and a flatshare over the road from the Robin Hood pub in Waverley with two
lovely young Aussie women. Uncle from Fraternity came visiting and wrought havoc in my life
by taking me on a tour of his regular hangouts, meeting some very extraordinary people and
experiencing new heights of alienation and paranoia by sampling the substances they offered.
Uncle seemed to be unfamiliar with paranoia and delighted in watching me squirm as he u-turned
across a traffic island in downtown Sydney without warning.
My erratic drunken personality swings became too much for my young flatmates and I moved
to a flat near Bondi Beach. I drank at the Bondi and the Astra and at a late night watering
hole called the Fondu Here. Through another ex-Fraternity member (John Freeman) I met Billy
McMahon who had played bass with John Swann's band Swanee. We eventually recruited a guitarist
(Brett Hamlyn), vocalist (Terry Barker) and drummer (John Affleck) and rehearsed in a
Darlinghurst studio for a few months late in 1982. We called the band Diamond Cutter and
started playing around Sydney and the Gold Coast in 1983. In mid 1983 we attracted the offer
of a recording contract from CBS records on the strength of demo tapes we made of our
original material.
My day gig later was with Ajax Chemicals in Auburn as a freelancer with a Kiwi boss called
John Rolley. With the help of a young girlfriend I stayed off the booze for about 6 months
during Diamond Cutter's rise. She encouraged me to attend several sessions with a
psychologist called Bill Spence who first suggested
to me that I may be an alcoholic. I actually attended one meeting for alcoholics in West Sydney but I
wasn't totally ego-deflated enough to get on board at that time.
A strange sequence of seemingly supernatural events got me back onto the booze in a big way
and I managed to destroy my credibility and ultimately Diamond Cutter as well. I went off
on a strange spiritual tangent, brought on by my mad self-willed determination to bulldoze
my way to enlightenment. After some terrifying delusional adventures I ended up on a psychotic high
in a psychiatric unit attached to a hospital in Randwick. I spent two weeks there before
being flown back to my family in Hamilton, New Zealand.
No photos of Diamond Cutter. This photo was taken around that time at a girlfriend's house in Waterloo (apt suburb for what came next).
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1973 - 1981 London and Saudi Arabia
On the strength of the reputation of Kiwi farm workers, I scored a gig as a cowman at Headley Farm
in Surrey, near Leatherhead. It soon became apparent that I knew very little about dairy farming but
the farmer and his staff were good people and they kept me on anyway. It was always my intention
to return to the rock scene but this turned out to be the beginning of a long stint away from it.
Had I been alone I probably could have survived in the UK as a muso but the additional
responsibility to provide food and shelter for my little family, forced me on to a different path.
I didn't last long as a farm worker and got a gig polishing cigarette lighter cases on the
production line of Ronson Products. I was attracted to the new computer scene and got a computer
operator job on the strength of an IQ and programming aptitude test I did at Ronsons.
English friends offered us a nice rental cottage in Hounslow, Middlesex so I moved jobs to
Williams in Hounslow where I got into computer programming in 1974. Later in 1974 my mum died in
NZ and my marriage broke down. I went out on my own in London and started having a better time
of it in 1975, when I moved into a house full of partying university graduates. They taught me
the ropes about 'real ale' which was served in all the best London pubs. Two of my flatmates were
Oxford graduates and they insisted I join them playing rugby at the Grasshoppers Rugby Club. I was
as big a disappointment as a rugby player as I had been as a farm worker and the locals had to
revise the impression they had that all Kiwis were good at both.
I got a job with a software house (KPG) in 1976 where I met my London girlfriend who was amazingly tolerant of my lifestyle and provided me with shelter
and companionship for the remainder of my time in London. I had carried my drinking habits formed in the Australian rock scene of the late 1960s, into the
world of London business. Fortunately computer programmers of the time were often just as crazy as rock musicians and I fitted in fairly well.
My daily diet of real ale and vindaloo curry began taking its toll on my health. A 1978 contract in Saudi Arabia with an American company, Pepper
Construction, seemed to offer an escape from alcohol to a dry country. I had not taken the thriving black market into account and was soon drinking just as
much over there. While browsing music cassettes in a Riyadh soukh, I saw a picture of Bon on the cover of an early AC/DC album. I think this reignited my
desire to 'make it' in the rock scene.
Taken in 1977 in front of the villa I shared with other Pepper employees in Riyadh. Dodge Royal Monaco I briefly
owned remains my flashest car ever. It is a similar model to the bluesmobile of the Blues Brothers.
Once back in London I got a contract programming gig with Shell Oil in the Strand and bought myself an Oberheim keyboard, Roland amp and recording gear. I
wrote some songs, recorded some demos and plotted my return to Australia and the rock scene. I made contact with Bon briefly whilst at Shell. He left five
tickets for me and my mates at the ticket office of the Hammersmith Odeon, where we saw an early AC/DC concert. They hadn't quite made megastar status at
the time. I went backstage after and chatted briefly with Bon and Angus before they were whisked off in a limo. That was the last time I saw Bon. My wife
rang me at Shell when she read news of his death in London.
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1973 Mungo Jerry
I stayed on in the UK and was briefly hired by Mungo Jerry. It was a lousy match that was the end product
of my attitude during my early years in the music industry (1964-73). Rather than figure out WHO I was as
an artist (God bless the American Idol judges) and make my career choices in that knowledge, I was a
people-pleasing, opportunist who squandered my own artistic integrity pandering to the needs of whatever
band would have me. The legendary Doug Jerebine (Jesse Harper) had told me back in 1967 that I was a
very good rhythm guitarist, but I was so desperate to please my bandmates in the Action that
I switched to keyboards. I later became highly rated in Australia as a Hammond/Leslie specialist but was
relegated to piano by the time Fraternity went to England. I had poor piano technique and was totally
unsuited to Mungo Jerry. My people-pleasing and lack of artistic integrity had taken me way off course
and my early musical career came to an end when Ray Dorset fired me in 1973. Something I heard
in an Australian TV drama comes to mind; "If you keep going wherever the wind blows, one day its gonna
blow right up your own ass".
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1968 - 1973 Levi Smith's Clefs and Fraternity
I scored a gig with the resident band at the Whiskey A Go-Go nightclub in Kings Cross – Levi Smith's Clefs. I started using a Hammond organ with a
Leslie speaker for the first time at this gig. Loved the sound and still do. The Clefs eventually went on the road and we later parted company with our lead
singer to form Fraternity. We recruited Bon Scott on vocals and became quite well-known, especially in our home base city of Adelaide. We won the Australian
Battle of the Sounds in 1971 and travelled to London in 1972. We played a bit in England and Germany but weren’t right for the era. We started out as a
hard-rock ‘Deep Purple’ type of band but mellowed to more of a country-rock band (heavy influence from The Band).
I parted company with Fraternity early in 1973 before they became 'Fang'. Most of the guys returned to Australia later in 1973 where Bon later joined AC/DC
and some of the others formed Fraternity II with Jimmy Barnes on vocals and John Swann on drums.
There are interviews I have done regarding my time with Bon and Fraternity at the following links;
2003 AC/DC Collectibles Interview (formerly Bonfire)
If the AC/DC Collector website link doesn't work you can read the interview on this site at this link;
2003 AC/DC Collectibles Interview
2006 AC/DC Back in Black Interview
If the AC/DC Back in Black website link doesn't work you can read the interview on this site at this link;
2006 AC/DC Back in Black Interview
Levi Smith's Clefs L - R; Barry McAskill, Bruce Howe, John Bisset, Mick Jurd, Tony Beutel.
Fraternity around 1970 L - R; Bruce Howe, Mick Jurd, John Freeman, John Bisset, Bon Scott
Fraternity lineup that went to the UK. L-R; Mick Jurd, John Freeman, 'Uncle' John Eyers, Bruce Howe, Bon Scott, Sam See, John Bisset
Me with son Brent, wife Cheryl and dog Clutch taken during Fraternity's heyday in Adelaide around 1971
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1966 - 1968 The Action
I joined Auckland band The Action in about 1966, initially on rhythm guitar, later switching
to keyboards. Rhythm guitarists were going out of fashion and a key member of the band was about
to leave to work in a band with keyboards. I wanted to keep the Action's lineup intact but I
needn't have bothered as we went through three lead guitarists, two bassists and three drummers
before disbanding. There was always a piano in the house when I was a kid but I had never
learned how to play it. I played the first few gigs as a keyboardist with pictures of the
various triads in front of me. We later recruited Evan Silva on vocals and specialised in
Tamla Motown and Soul material.
Early on we were regulars at Auckland's Top Twenty nightclub, often sharing the night with
Larry's Rebels. We later became one of the resident bands at the Galaxy, alternating with
the Underdogs, the La De Das and the Pleazers. We went to Sydney in 1967 and scored a
residency at the Hawaiian Eye nightclub. The guitarist and bassist left and were replaced
by recruits from among Evan's musician friends in Auckland. When Brett the drummer left we
did a gig or two with Andy Anderson on drums but things were going on behind
the scenes that I was not privy to. I arrived for work one night and was told by the
club manager that the Action no longer existed. The Action was pretty much Evan by this stage
and he had decided to try something new.
Early Action lineup L-R Back: – Bryan Harris, Dan Stradwick, Jack Stradwick; Front: John Bisset
Later Action lineup L-R: – John Kristian, Bryan Harris, John Bisset, Jack Stradwick, Evan Silva
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1964 - 1966 The Mods
I left school at the end of 1963 and joined Hamilton band The Mods as rhythm guitarist and vocalist in 1964. We were popular around Hamilton at venues like
the Starlight Ballroom and the Three Musicians. We played covers of the popular British bands of the era such as the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Hollies
and the Yardbirds. Later in the piece we recruited Clive Coulson on vocals and included more R'n'B covers by bands like the Pretty Things.
Early Mods lineup; Kevin McNeil, John Bisset, Neil Reynolds, Wayne Reynolds
Later Mods lineup; Neil Reynolds, Wayne Reynolds, Kevin McNeil, Clive Coulson, John Bisset
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1947 - 1963 My Musical Childhood
I was born in Te Awamutu, New Zealand on the 19th of November, 1947. I spent most of my childhood in Cambridge. My father sang and played the piano
accordian and violin; my mother sang in a local choir; my three sisters are all good singers: two of them went into singing training. My sisters and I would
sing three-part harmonies to songs like 'Down By The Riverside' while doing the dishes. I became an altar boy and member of the Cambridge Anglican Church
choir, mainly to keep my mother happy. (Anyone who knew me well then will know that I was far from the angel my mother was trying to forge.) I was deeply
impressed by the social standing that one of my sister's boyfriends got by being a good guitar player and was soon playing 'Bye Bye Love' by the Everly
Brothers, and other songs of the era, on the ukelele. I got my first guitar at about age 12 from an older brother who still loves and plays country music. I
got my first electric guitar and amp from another older brother, as payment for milking cows during my school holidays.
I formed a band called 'The Shadracks' while still at Cambridge High School. My mother was very tolerant and encouraging and let us rehearse at our place
in Princes Street. We played mainly Shadows and Ventures covers and placed in a couple of local talent quests. We also played at a few parties and a local
rugby club. Our drummer was Maori and I was able to attend gatherings in his neck of the woods where I learned many new chords and rhythms from the
accomplished guitar players that were always in attendance.
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