ROD 'BEACHHEAD' JEFFERY
Bob 'n Head Beach and the Convention Band at the 1988 Jazz Convention
Rod Jeffery: When the 43rd Annual Australian Jazz Convention was held in Sydney in Dec. '88 the late jazz vocalist Bobby Scott and I decided to have a bit of fun and put a band together in which we would do something we'd not until then done - sing duets. This we did and jokingly called the band BOB'n'HEAD BEACH after a regular picnic haunt in Sydney, Bobbin Head. We enlisted the aid of most of the ALL HAT JAZZ band and a few other friends and had a ball on the days we played together.
Rod Jeffery: When the 43rd Annual Australian Jazz Convention was held in Sydney in Dec. '88 the late jazz vocalist Bobby Scott and I decided to have a bit of fun and put a band together in which we would do something we'd not until then done - sing duets. This we did and jokingly called the band BOB'n'HEAD BEACH after a regular picnic haunt in Sydney, Bobbin Head. We enlisted the aid of most of the ALL HAT JAZZ band and a few other friends and had a ball on the days we played together.
I had been co-opted less than a fortnight out from the convention to organise the drum kits, P.A. systems and piano tuning and was also roped into doing much of the stage managing, along with bassist, Peter Gallen on the same day as Bobn'Head Beach did its first spot I was back on stage again with a thrown together crew of friends that called ourselves The CONVENTION CLEANHEAD Band when a band just didn't show. The boys that I tracked down in the upstairs bar agreed on the proviso that I sang with them.
Fortunately, both sessions were recorded and I managed to get a hold of the tapes before they were spirited away.
As an addenda to the tale of BOB'n'HEAD BEACH - I was speaking with Bobby's wife, Val and we were laughing about that
particular time he'd had an argument with a Bougainvillea bush and bloody near didn't make the gig when his hand blew up like a balloon. That and the fact that at a house-warming party at our new home in Katoomba a couple of years later he had been out back tearing branches from a 'plum tree' and I had abused him for wrecking my tree. They were truly funny times! That conversation had taken place
on Friday - October 16 this year. Just on a week later I received this email message and my world was shattered:
"Dear friends of Valerie's,
Funeral Details: Next Thursday 29th October at 2.15pm.
Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park at the South Chapel (see map attached).
Wake to be held at Newtown (Jets) Rugby League Football Club from 3.30pm.
Holbeach Ave. Tempe."
.. the following day (Sat.Oct 17, '09) she died in her lounge-room after suffering an abdominal aortic aneurism. I am told that she hadn't been able to speak much about Bobby since his death in June 2008. I had just emailed her the photos from the convention
..
Listen to Rod at his best on
MYSPACE
Fortunately, both sessions were recorded and I managed to get a hold of the tapes before they were spirited away.
As an addenda to the tale of BOB'n'HEAD BEACH - I was speaking with Bobby's wife, Val and we were laughing about that
particular time he'd had an argument with a Bougainvillea bush and bloody near didn't make the gig when his hand blew up like a balloon. That and the fact that at a house-warming party at our new home in Katoomba a couple of years later he had been out back tearing branches from a 'plum tree' and I had abused him for wrecking my tree. They were truly funny times! That conversation had taken place
on Friday - October 16 this year. Just on a week later I received this email message and my world was shattered:
"Dear friends of Valerie's,
Funeral Details: Next Thursday 29th October at 2.15pm.
Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park at the South Chapel (see map attached).
Wake to be held at Newtown (Jets) Rugby League Football Club from 3.30pm.
Holbeach Ave. Tempe."
.. the following day (Sat.Oct 17, '09) she died in her lounge-room after suffering an abdominal aortic aneurism. I am told that she hadn't been able to speak much about Bobby since his death in June 2008. I had just emailed her the photos from the convention
..
Listen to Rod at his best on
MYSPACE